Getting personal

“It was always very good watching people leave the hospital healthy, but sometimes it goes the other way and people die,” Mr Pusey tells The Adviser. “Nursing was a sad environment from time to time.”

As a broker, Mr Pusey has helped more than 1,300 borrowers, and currently has clients stretching from Mitcham, Victoria to Germany.

Last year, he came ninth in The Adviser’s Elite Business Writers ranking and wrote nearly $60 million in personal loans. His biggest deal to date is worth $1.7 million, which he wrote in April 2011.

It was Mr Pusey’s earlier experiences as a nurse, combined with an untimely death in the family that led him to believe there’s no such thing as being “under insured”.

This year, therefore, he will diversify into insurance.

“I think that it’s really important,” Mr Pusey says. “Everybody should have it.

“Now it’s just a matter of getting it out into the market and making people aware that I’m doing insurances.”

Mr Pusey is currently getting a feel for dealing in insurance products, getting quotes and getting into the market.

“It’s what I really want to push this year,” he says.

GETTING PERSONAL

Much of Switch Now Home Loans – and indeed, of Mr Pusey’s – success lies in writing personal loans.

Whereas other brokers may shy away from this type of loan, Mr Pusey insists it’s not complicated.

“Money is money,” he says. “It’s needed to purchase most things. It’s a simple thing. It’s pretty easy to understand.”

For those considering moving into the sector, Mr Pusey warns against investing too much in people who are not serious about what they want.

“Don’t spend too much time with the wrong people – the time wasters. Be prepared to say no and move on.”

KEEPING TRACK
Mr Pusey may have become adept at saying no, but he still keeps a database of everyone with whom he speaks. He maintains contact with those who are “Umm-ing and ah-ing” – just in case.

His favourite, and perhaps his most effective marketing technique is sending out calendar fridge magnets annually.

“A client rang me up yesterday and said, “‘where’s my bloody calendar fridge magnet?’”

The man had been receiving the calendar for the past five years, and with the end of January fast approaching, he was clearly missing his yearly gift.

“That was good. I was very happy to hear that,” Mr Pusey tells The Adviser. He then sent out an additional 400 magnets following his interview with the publication.

The fridge calendar branding technique aids Mr Pusey’s overall customer strategy of keeping the customers’ interests at heart and keeping in touch without being too intense or too menacing.

In addition to the magnets, Switch Now Home Loans sends out an e-newsletter to maintain contact throughout the year. It goes out once every eight weeks, and every time the Board of the Reserve Bank meets.

The newsletters include anything from information for first home buyers to product information and renovation tips.

“The newsletter is about what’s happening with money in general,” he says.

Mr Pusey also gets a temp worker in about once every 12 months to help with database management and marketing. Aside from that, he has no support staff.

“It’s good when I get a temp in,” he explains. “Sometimes clients can tell other people things that they wouldn’t tell you directly.

“You can get a little bit of humourous feedback out of them. You can also get some not-so-good feedback from time to time. I think people open up a bit more to a third party.”

REPEAT REFERRALS
More than 80 per cent of Switch Now Home Loans’ business is generated through referrals.

“I’ve got a very, very tight database, so what comes through is very clean, very pure – and then they send a lot of new business through as well.”

Mr Pusey has six referral partners and believes that accountants are the most solid.

“They’ve got all the financials,” he says. “If you’ve got any questions you can ring them and they can explain it. They know people’s money habits.”

In fact, his referral relationships are so solid that he has been able to write loans for most of his referral partners as well.

CHALLENGES IN 2012
According to Mr Pusey, most brokers have become accustomed to NCCP regulations and the regulatory processes have become simply another part of their day.

He does concede, however, that the hours are the most challenging aspect of the broking profession.

On a larger scale, Mr Pusey believes the state of the nation’s economy – along with economic and policy predicaments around the world – are the biggest threats to brokers’ businesses.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty ahead with this second GFC,” Mr Pusey says, adding that the situation could cause people to drop out of the industry, leaving it bigger and busier for those who stay.

“This year, I also want to do a bit of fine tuning of Switch Now Home Loans – a little bit of revamping. I think it’ll be a good year all in all, even though there’s uncertainty.”

Mr Pusey predicts that people who took cash out of their properties last year will benefit from the market and be “cashed up” to buy this year.

“I think there’ll be a lot of new business to go around for everybody,” he says.

“This year’s going to be an interesting one – but it’s not the end of the world, that’s for sure.”