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Jessica Darnbrough
Aggregators that wish to grow their broker numbers need to be willing to pay young recruits a salary, one aggregation head has claimed.
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Speaking at the Bernie Lewis advice conference in Noosa last week, executive chairman Mark Lewis said aggregators are falling over themselves to steal brokers from other groups, when they should be focusing their efforts on recruiting and retaining new-to-industry recruits.
However, Mr Lewis said the time had come for aggregation and brokerage groups to pay salaries in order to attract quality brokers for the long haul.
“During the ’90s, Australia’s banks were getting rid of good people, but there is not that pool of talent coming out of the banks anymore,” he said.
“As such, businesses need to invest in training new people. And, to get these people into the industry, they really need to pay salaries. No university graduate is going to want to enter a career with no guaranteed wage.”
Mr Lewis said aggregators were missing out on opportunities because they spend too much time focusing on stealing brokers away from their competitors.
“At the moment, I am seeing a lot of cannibalism in the industry and it seems to be a race to the bottom,” he said.
“What is the draw card for brokers to switch aggregators? Generally, it comes down to commission. We are now seeing 100/100 split commission models where the brokers are being charged a fee. That fee will be reduced as competition intensifies – which will leave us nowhere.
“We need to invest in bringing new blood into the industry.”
