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Want to diversify into specialist lending but don’t know where to begin? Liberty Network Services’ managing director Brendan O’Donnell, together with The Adviser, shares some of the ways this branded aggregator can assist.
Training
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Whether established or new to the industry, all brokers are required to attend a three-day induction program in Melbourne to join Liberty Network Services.
“We often find that the established brokers, who have been around for a while, find it really refreshing because it reminds them of things that they kind of know, but don’t really do and it re-energises them back into ‘I need to look at running my business differently’,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“There’s a big advantage in reinventing yourself and going back to do a refresher in some of the baseline stuff.
“Whether it be on the lending side, technology, or marketing and sales, we find that it’s very useful for them as much as it is for new-to-industry brokers.”
As well as the three-day induction program, Liberty advisers have access to ‘My Library’, which Mr O’Donnell said offers rich content on everything from product guides to matrices and compliance, as well as sales and marketing strategies.
“What makes us different is we track who’s reading the different documents, then our network sales managers use that information to try and reinforce the areas we know advisers should be looking at to enhance their skillsets,” he said.
Technology
Liberty has its eyes firmly on the future, deciding to pave its own way when it comes to technological innovation.
The group boasts its own technology platform, Spark, which enables advisers to gather all the relevant information they require to meet customers’ finance needs, right in the palms of their hands.
According to Mr O’Donnell, Spark holds a wealth of panel lender information and support tools, and provides a seamless submission process to the 19 lenders on the Liberty Network Services panel.
“Spark makes things easy and intuitive across the spectrum of borrowers where lead and customer management, loan assessment, submission, settlement and after-sales follow-up [are] paramount.
“Advisers use Spark to process and submit not only residential loans, but also motor and SMSF loans. Spark also has insurance seamlessly built into the process to enable advisers to discuss insurance needs with customers,” he said.
But that’s not all. Within Spark is another feature called ‘Vote Box’.
“That provides a platform for advisers to share thoughts and ideas that they believe we should consider either developing and/or looking at as something new,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“What happens then is advisers can ‘vote up’ that idea, so that in itself encourages different thinking – they get an idea, post it, and the higher the votes, the higher the probability it is that we’ll entertain developing that idea.”
Marketing support
Liberty has a team of 17 marketers with speciality skills, working daily on its network.
“With Liberty Network Services, the adviser has control of what they focus on from a marketing perspective, but they outsource it to our marketing team to create,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“All the marketing that we do is through the adviser – it reflects them, and the call-to-action is always their telephone number. It’s different to some branded businesses where they do it nationally and it comes back to a 1300-number.
“We’re very proud of the nature of what we’re doing. Everything from CRM, digital, social media, national advertising, sponsorships and local advertising sets us apart in terms of what we do.
“And all of this is available on the Liberty Store, which is easy to access and provides a rich and wide range of marketing collateral,” he said.
Mr O’Donnell said Liberty works to make sure its advisers, and consequently their customers, are receiving the best marketing support possible.
“An important component is customer relationship management and really having the ability to be able to use all the customer information you’ve got in your hand to engage with them in various ways from a marketing perspective,” he said.
“Advisers can initiate what we call our Customer Appreciation Program (CAP), where a letter goes out to the customer that says, ‘Thanks very much for your business. Enclosed is a lovely gift. Complete this survey and let me know how I’ve done. Can I use your testimonial on my website?’.
“So the whole end-to-end process is equally important so that advisers can build loyalty amongst those customers.”
Liberty also has digital marketing specialists on site, and recently launched a refer-a-friend program, which Mr O’Donnell said received positive feedback.
“We guide and support advisers on how to boost themselves on Facebook and LinkedIn, and what things they can do to really get the right responses,” he said.
“Some advisers are early adopters and they’re onto digital marketing very quickly, but for the majority, it does take time to get familiar with digital and how to use digital to benefit your business.
“We recognise that, so we’re on a journey and we’re very proud that our advisers are embracing that and doing a lot with us to become a more digital-savvy.”
