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Know Your BDM: John Steel, West One Loans

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  • 01/03/2018
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Know Your BDM: John Steel, West One Loans
This week Specialist Lending Solutions is talking to John Steel, business development manager for Northern Britain at West One Loans

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

I’m currently working with around 80 brokerages, representing in the region of 200 advisers. But that’s just the start – I cover all of northern Britain, so I’m growing that all the time.

 

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

We’re a people business, and bridging in particular is a time-sensitive business. So the most important thing for me is to be as accessible to brokers as possible. For example, as soon as I’m out of a meeting, I’m checking in with messages and emails, and getting back to people straightaway. My brokers shouldn’t have to wait half a day for me to get back to them.

 

What issues come up time and time again?

On second charge lending it’s normally because the client’s circumstances are just a little different – be it because they are self-employed, a foreign national, or even if they have just a minor piece of credit impairment. For bridging, it’s often a result of the property not meeting the required standards. Un-mortgageable properties are a particularly common theme.

Within bridging, one practical issue that comes up often – more than we as the lender, the broker and the client would like – is the solicitor. They often don’t work to the tight timeframe we require.

Regularly, the client will engage a conveyancing solicitor who isn’t experienced in bridging and simply doesn’t operate at the pace that’s needed when you might have a matter of days to complete.

That’s one of the biggest barriers and we suggest that clients look for a solicitor who has done plenty of bridging, especially if time is of the essence for them.

 

What do you wish brokers understood about your job?

The versatility of specialist lending. This is most true of the bridging and second charge mortgage lending. For instance, if you believe that bridging is just for broken property chains, you’d miss 85% of the market.

In the last 10 years, it’s property professionals who have driven market growth, as they have increasingly used it to finance property projects where either conventional buy-to-let or standard development finance do not fit.

 

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

Being accessible and responsive. As I mentioned earlier, being available can be critical for some of the deals I work on, and it’s important for building trusted relationships.

 

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

Email. I always check my voicemails then emails as soon as I’ve finished a meeting or appointment, so I’d get back to anyone who’d contacted me as soon as possible.

 

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

Regulation has been a good thing in general. In second charge mortgages, having the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD) place us on the same footing as main mortgage lending has certainly been a positive move in the improvement of the image of secured lending.

I suppose, if anything, it would be to ensure that the regulations are enforced, to guarantee that brokers are considering second charges when a client wants to raise capital. That, in turn, would ensure optimum client outcomes.

 

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

I’ve been an adviser in a high street bank and there I encountered a lot of struggles getting cases agreed and through. Being on this side of the fence and especially in a business development role put me in a position where I can influence that more deeply. I like solving other people’s problems and I’m a people person, which is definitely at the heart of business development.

 

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

Walk a mile in their shoes – or at least keep mentally putting myself in their position. This means understanding the pressures and demands that they’re facing, so I can know where the pain-points are that I can get at.

Anyone can take their brokers out for a beer or whatever, but really getting to understand them is what makes the best relationships because it builds mutual trust.

 

And how do you establish and maintain good relationships internally?

Positivity is the main thing that my colleagues have told me. I do see the upsides in things and I like to think that I bring energy to my work and to the rest of the West One team.

A positive mental attitude is obviously really important to succeed in a business development environment, but I also feel it’s really helped me with internal relationships.

 

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

Why don’t Head and Shoulders make a body wash called Knees and Toes?

 

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

A mounted police officer.

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