What locations and how many advisers and broker firms do you cover in your role?
I manage a selection of key accounts and work nationally with my field business development manager (BDM) team to manage our active user base.
How have you changed the way you establish and maintain a good relationship with brokers in the pandemic?
Good old-fashioned telephone is still the best form of contact, it’s personal and generally immediate. We see as many of our contacts in person, whether that be in an office or local coffee shop but if that’s not possible, we make full use of video meetings for that near face-to-face contact.
What personal talent/skill is most valuable in doing your job?
Resilience. Customers and brokers have gone through the home-buying and mortgage process so by the time they get to conveyancing they are pretty fed up and just want it all to be over. We have to calmly dissect each enquiry to find a solution fast for our customers.
What personal talent/skill would you most like to improve on?
I’ve been running for about five years now and am still just as terrible as when I started.
Where would you rather be stuck, in bumper-to-bumper traffic or back-to-back Zoom calls?
I find video calls really useful, so having a day of them back-to-back would probably be quite productive. Depends on the weather though.
What’s the best bit of career-related advice you’ve ever been given?
Copy the most successful person.
What was the greatest lesson you learned during lockdown?
If you just eat chocolate digestives, you will put on weight very quickly.
What was the first social event you attended once restrictions were eased?
I attended a property industry awards afternoon in March and it was just so nice to see everyone. You can’t beat an informal environment to have some really honest conversations.
What was your motivation for choosing business development as a career?
When I was 19, I worked as an administrator chasing GP reports from surgeries for a life insurance office. I used to walk past the sales team to get a coffee each morning and we would have friendly banter. The sales manager decided from this that I would be good on the phone, so gave me a try. Here I am nearly 20 years later still working with intermediaries.
If you could do any other job in the property sector, what would it be and why?
I like life on the road and meeting new people, so a surveyor I think.
What did you want to be growing up?
I went through different phases. I wanted to be a footballer, but if that wasn’t possible a fireman or a teacher.
What’s your favourite face mask design/pattern to wear?
Charles Tyrwhitt do a lovely range of masks which are made from suit fabric.
And finally, what’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?
Would you like pineapple on your pizza?
