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Know Your BDM: Emma Betteridge, Metro Bank

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  • 29/05/2020
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This week Mortgage Solutions is talking to Emma Betteridge, business development manager at Metro Bank.

 

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

I look after Kent, Essex and Ipswich, focusing on the top 150 intermediary firms.  

 

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

When I meet a broker for the first time, I always ask what they need from their business development manager (BDM) and try to adapt and accommodate.  

The majority of brokers I speak to want a BDM that is available and responds in a timely manner. I find effective communication is key to maintaining good relationships and above all else always return a call, even if you know it is going to be a difficult conversation. 

 

What personal skill is most valuable in doing your job? 

I try to be positive, friendly and approachable in all my interactions whether face-to-face or over the telephone. I listen and try to understand the broker’s needs to help build a rapport and therefore a strong and trusting working relationship. 

 

What personal skill would you most like to improve on? 

I need a better sense of direction. I’m always getting lost, and that definitely doesn’t help when you’re a field-based BDM. 

 

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

My parents always said: find a job you love so it never feels like work, and that’s what I’ve always tried to do throughout my career. 

 

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

One of my first cases as a broker was for a lovely young family who had found their first home but were struggling to get the mortgage for it.  

I will always remember the tears and the emotion from my clients when their mortgage offer finally came through. It was such a wonderful feeling knowing that I’d truly helped someone achieve something that they didn’t think was possible. 

 

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

I’d review the balance between regulation and the customer journey and try to make the process a little less daunting, particularly for firsttime buyers.  

 

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

I really enjoy meeting new people and building relationships, so business development is the perfect combination for me. I was a broker before I became a BDM so fully understand the importance of supporting the broker community.  

 

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

I wouldn’t mind presenting ‘Love it or List it’ to help clients explore the options available to them  move over Kirsty and Phil.  

 

What did you want to be growing up? 

Growing up, I was always passionate about performing arts and loved to dance. Before I worked in mortgages, I was lucky enough to work as a professional dancer and got to perform on stage and television.  

My dancing shoes are well and truly hung up now, but I’m still just as passionate about the arts as I was back then. 

 

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? 

I would love to fly. Before I had children, I loved to travel as often as I could, to as many new places as possible. There’s still so much I want to see, and if I could fly, I could whizz around and tick off all the places on my bucket list. 

 

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

I don’t think I’ve been asked any – there’s no such thing as a strange question. 

 

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