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Get Real Finance's Kelly Cameron-Tull believes she has used more aggregators than any other broker in Australia and she has plenty of advice for brokers who might be considering switching. She is now with Connective, and says their systems, support and people are likely to make her stay.
You’ve switched aggregators several times. What made you realise some of the switches weren’t going to work?
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One of my previous aggregators was inflexible on commission payments and changes to their IT [systems]. We had continuous arguments all the time. Then I gave birth and had six weeks off, so I probably didn’t notice some of the things I was dissatisfied with straight away.
Not long after switching to [another] group, the BDM that we had a relationship with left and we fell into ‘no man’s land’. We basically went into a black hole.
Everything that had been promised wasn’t being delivered. I tried to persevere but there were ongoing issues. They realised I was never going to be happy there, so they released me from my contract.
I had negotiated a ‘no handcuffs’ clause because I’ve switched a number of times so I know how important it is.
What is the hardest thing about switching?
The amount of data you lose when you change aggregators. We retained our information, but it needed a lot of manipulation to get back into the system each time we changed.
The hardest thing is the differences between the systems and learning the new procedures of the new aggregator.
There is a lot of data entry. Your information gets extracted and then put back into a new system, but it’s a fraction of the info that you would have had in the old system. That is a major obstacle in changing.
What advice would you give regarding switching?
You need to negotiate all of your commission terms upfront – including ‘no-handcuffs’ clauses. Get all the data that you can out of the system before you leave. Make sure you have written records. Do data dumps of all of your action items. Switch when you’re not manic and you’ve actually got time.
Your research must involve talking to other brokers.
Why have you settled with Connective?
I can’t ignore the commission fees. Changing has given us a $35,000 pay rise in a year and for every year as we keep moving forward.
The IT staff prioritise things and get them done. You get to speak directly with the people who are actually fixing things.
We were able to meet with other brokers in the group before we switched so we could see how they were using the software.
