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Know Your BDM: Stella Brookman, Fleet Mortgages

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  • 12/08/2022
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This week, Mortgage Solutions is speaking with Stella Brookman, business development manager (BDM) for the South East at Fleet Mortgages.

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

I’m the BDM covering the South East region for Fleet, which includes the postcodes BR, CB, CM, CO, CT, DA, IG, IP, ME, NR, RM, SS and TN. I look after all the advisers and firms in these areas.

How have you changed the way you establish and maintain a good relationship with brokers in the pandemic?

It’s been a significant change to the way I’ve been used to working. Prior to the pandemic, it was pretty normal for me to be on the road four out of five days a week meeting brokers face-to-face.

But during the pandemic, when life changed for all of us, I conducted all my meetings online via Zoom or Teams. Much as I couldn’t meet with people face-to-face, having that regular contact helped me to maintain my relationships. Now we are gradually getting back to normal, I am generally out three days a week at face-to-face meetings, doing presentations or attending events and I combine this with Zoom/Teams meetings.

I am very much guided by the needs of the brokers within my region and their preferences because I appreciate that not all of them are comfortable with meeting up face-to-face yet.

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

I would say that my personal skill is that I treat advisers the way I would want to be treated if I were in their shoes. So I make sure I respond as quickly as possible to them and their queries, and that I provide them with up-to-date and accurate information.

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

I love presenting to brokers and educating them on our buy-to-let proposition here at Fleet, but I would love to reinvent my presentations so they’re a little lighter and a bit more engaging. It’s something I’m working on.

Where would you rather be stuck, in bumper-to-bumper traffic or back-to-back Zoom calls?

I’d have to say back-to-back Zoom calls for this one. Much as I enjoy meeting with advisers face-to-face, especially after the past couple of years, sitting in a traffic jam is such a waste of time. Zoom calls give me the freedom to squeeze more into my day, allow me to be in control of my schedule and enable me to work more proactively.

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

Balance your work and personal life. I think we can all get caught up with what we do within our jobs day-to-day but with the role that I do, it’s not life or death. I very much take the mantra that I have to accept the things I cannot change and have the courage to change the things I can. It’s a simple mantra but it works for me.

What was the greatest lesson you learned during lockdown?

Lockdown feels like such a long time ago already. But during those times, I realised how adaptable we could all be together with the values of personal life and finding real balance. I believe that once you have found this balance, you are able to be much more in control of your life and as a result, achieve more.

What was the first social event you attended once restrictions were eased?

I joined Fleet in December last year after working for Bank of Ireland and not being able to go out to meetings for nearly two years. The first event I attended after lockdown was the FPG Conference in Brighton. There was a fantastic turn-out and it was so refreshing to be out again and meeting with people. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed that personal contact until I was in a room with so many people again.

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

I really enjoy working within the financial services industry and I love meeting new people and having the opportunity to travel around my territory. It made perfect sense for me to combine them all together and become a BDM. I really love what I do and to me there’s no better job.

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

I think I would have to become an estate agent because I’m nosy and I would love to have the opportunity to show viewers around other people’s properties.

What did you want to be growing up?

I wanted to become an air hostess. When I was younger, being cabin crew looked so glamorous so it really appealed to me.

What’s your favourite face mask design/pattern to wear?

I don’t have a favourite mask design as such, I just have them in blue, pink, black and grey. But the best mask design I’ve seen is one with a great big smile on it which made me laugh.

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

That’s a really tough question – the only one I can think of was, ‘Is Chelmsford not in London?’

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