You are here: Home - Better Business - Profiles -

Know Your BDM: Paul Phillips, BM Solutions

by:
  • 30/01/2018
  • 0
Know Your BDM: Paul Phillips, BM Solutions
This week Specialist Lending Solutions is talking to Paul Phillips, business development manager at BM Solutions.

 

How many brokers and broker firms do you cover in your role?

I cover the London and South East region providing support for a number of field-based BDMs, who look after hundreds of brokers.

How do you successfully organise and deal with business on a daily basis?

It’s important that I prioritise my workload on a daily basis from the office in Cardiff. I work through my to-do list, adding and removing tasks as the day progresses. Working through priorities ensures that the brokers I support are getting the best possible service from me. I also try to ensure my mailbox is always empty by the end of the day.

What issues come up time and time again?

My most common question is “my client is not an owner-occupier, is this ok with BM Solutions?” The answer is – as long as the client is a UK property owner then they do not have to be owner-occupiers and BM Solutions will be happy to consider the application.

What do you wish brokers understood about your job?

I’m not always able to give them individual case updates. If this is what they need, they are much better calling our processing team, who will be able to let them know how their case is progressing.

What do you think is the most important attribute in a good BDM?

Being well organised and when you say you’re going to do something, you do it and don’t let brokers down.

When you’re unavailable to contact via telephone, what’s the second-best way for brokers to get in touch?

Email is always the next best way to get in touch. Alternatively try the field-based BDM, as we work together to support brokers in our area.

If you were head of the FCA for the day, what would you change about regulation in the mortgage industry?

Rather than change anything, it would be great for the industry to have a period of stability to enable brokers, lenders and landlords to get used to the changes that have been introduced over the past few years, such as those for portfolio landlords.

It’s important that all of the recent changes are bedded in to ensure we continue to have a strong and healthy BTL market supporting the private rental sector for those who either can’t or choose not get onto the housing ladder.

What was your motivation for choosing business development as a career?

I’ve previously been a mortgage broker and branch adviser, but wanted a change of direction while staying in financial services, specifically in mortgages and continuing to work with people. The BDM role seemed the perfect fit for me.

How do you establish and maintain a good relationship with brokers?

It’s important to build a good rapport with brokers and get to know them on a personal basis. Ultimately brokers need to know that you are there to support them with whatever they need as quickly as possible. If you say you’re going to do something, they need to know that they can count on you to do it.

This is important because it helps maintain our relationship, as well as enabling the broker to maintain a good relationship with their clients.

And how do you establish and maintain good relationships internally?

Again it’s important to build a good understanding with colleagues as we all work as one team. I always treat people as I would want to be treated; and we have a solid team of both office based and field-based BDM’s backed up with excellent support from our processing team.

What’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?

This isn’t so much a strange question, but I did receive a strange voicemail recently; someone offered to sell me a crocodile for £27.99 including postage and packaging.

And finally, what did you want to be growing up?

When I was really young I wanted to be a train driver, when I was older I wanted to be a vet. However, I then realised that I didn’t fancy spending all that time at university so gained my qualifications on the job.

There are 0 Comment(s)

Comments are closed.

You may also be interested in