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Yesterday I had the pleasure of hosting five of the top six Elite Business Writers, as ranked by The Adviser, for lunch and a lively discussion on a range of hot topics from price discounting to understanding productivity and other factors in a Brokers’ business.
Regardless of the market conditions the top brokers have continued to grow and this past year has not been without its challenges; we have had the slowest credit growth in more than 30 years and there have been extra demands from the introduction of new regulations.
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Justin Doobov from Intelligent Finance, and No 1 in the ranking, said the new regulations have made him revamp his processes to be more streamlined. He commented it has added a lot more time to complete and process an application with no real extra benefit. He added regulators need to streamline the paperwork requirements of the NCCP to make it less onerous and make it more effective.
From our discussion it was obvious that all these top performers are passionate about customer service and relationship building to grow their businesses.
1st Street Home Loans has two brokers in the top six, Jeremy Fisher at No 2 and first time entrant Mardee Thomas at No 6. Jeremy confided that his business continues to grow through maintaining relationships with existing clients, particularly by cross selling non home loan products prior to and post settlement. Mardee agreed that her growth had come from good relationships, especially with her referral sources and word of mouth from existing customers.
I was delighted to hear that Jeremy regards CBA as a partner to his business and he considers that this relationship is invaluable to his growth.
Another first time entrant, at No 5 in the ranking, is Loan Market’s Steve Matsoukas. Steve said it is CBA’s service during the application assessment and at settlement which attracts his business. Steve has also recently participated in a CBA ‘Kaizan’ for his business with dramatic results.
My good friend Moshe Moses from Niche Lending, a perennial top performer and No 4 in the ranking, agreed that CBA’s service proposition was best in market, in particular, the ability to discuss deals with Credit which meant that when the deals are lodged they have a greater straight through process which provides his clients with greater assurance and turnaround.
Moshe expressed his opinion that software in the industry was now more integral to the performance of brokers in the areas of compliance and customer relationship management. He suggested that Lenders could help with this process even though it is an area of responsibility for the Aggregators.
I agree that this is an area for Aggregators to support their members.
Talking to the top performers is an essential element in discovering how my team can work closer together to build our respective businesses and to enable top mortgage brokers to continue to excel.
Congratulations to all those brokers who made the top 50 Elite Business Writers in 2011.
Kathy Cummings is Executive General Manager Third Party and Mobile Banking, Commonwealth Bank
