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Know Your BDM: Hamer Garland, Leeds Building Society

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  • 31/01/2020
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Know Your BDM: Hamer Garland, Leeds Building Society
This week Mortgage Solutions is speaking to Hamer Garland from Leeds Building Society.

 

What locations and how many advisers and broker firms do you cover in your role?

As an office-based business development manager (BDM) I have a wide and varied geographical remit and help thousands of brokers and companies.

My day can include helping brokers from as far afield as Inverness, Newport or Dorchester to name but a few.

 

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

For me it’s all about understanding what people want and need from me as a BDM, and adapting accordingly.

Everyone is different and if you can quickly fathom what makes people tick and what they want to achieve from an interaction then you’re halfway there.

Good relationships don’t just happen. It’s about building trust and respect by demonstrating a great service and delivering results for brokers and their customers.

 

What personal talent/skill is most valuable in doing your job?

Listening. It’s vital to listen to the needs of brokers. As a lender operating in areas less well served by the wider mortgage market, some of the queries we receive can be more complex so listening carefully and understanding the details is crucial.

 

What personal talent/skill would you most like to improve on?

I used to play the piano a lot but my enthusiasm has waned over the years. It would be good to rekindle my enjoyment and spend some time improving my skills again.

 

What’s the best bit of career-related advice you’ve ever been given?

It’s not the most ground breaking but it holds true: simply think about what makes you happy and do more of it.

 

What is the most interesting/memorable property deal you’ve been involved in?

Probably my own. When I bought my first house 10 years ago, it was a repossession – which obviously pulled at my heart strings a little bit.

However, once I’d been in the property a while, interesting things kept coming to light, including how the owners had raised capital for the purchase and how they’d disappeared abroad without telling their friends or family.

 

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

Anything to make life simpler for brokers and customers.

 

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

I’ve done a variety of roles in my career, teaching, sales and business and marketing analytics. What these roles had in common was working with people to solve problems and in some ways, the BDM role is a hybrid of all of those things.

I like the hustle and bustle of the mortgage industry and ultimately I’m playing my part in helping people have the home they want.

 

If you could do any other job in the property sector, what would it be and why?

A property developer. My own house was a massive project and it’s always nice to be able to see the fruits of your labour. Plus, I’d be creating homes for people to enjoy.

 

What did you want to be growing up?

I wanted to write music for film and television. It’s still my dream job.

 

If you could have one super power, what would it be?

Mind control would be a good one. You’d be able to do all the noble stuff like delivering world peace, but also give yourself an easy and highly amusing life at the same time.

 

And finally, what’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?

I was once asked if I could come and talk to primary school children about the importance of dental flossing. That was a strange question, but thankfully, it turned out they had the wrong number!

Also, I had a new business inquiry about an aerospace engineer who had a second job as a pizza delivery driver. Possibly the strangest job combination ever.

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