I’m sure there’s no business owner out there that hasn’t been burnt by this situation. The trouble is, we let the past predict the future. Just because it has happened before is not justification for you doing the lion’s share of the workload and business written.
Let’s address two issues that stop mortgage businesses from reaching their true potential.
1) If I write the business myself, the company gets 100% of the income.
Yes, that’s definitely a true statement. I’m not disagreeing with the blatantly obvious, but you’re swapping time for money. There’s no scalability, and you’ll certainly hit a ceiling at some point. If working flat-out seeing clients while a team of administrators hold things together is your business plan, then you’ll do very well.
I know people in this situation with three administrators that are writing £400,000 per year. They often look at least 10 years older than they are, but the model works. It has no saleable value, but banking at that level should mean you don’t need a lump-sum sale figure to see you into your retirement; instead, you can simply become a referrer, sending your clients to an alternative broker for 25% of the income.
2) If I pass leads to a broker, they don’t convert like I do, and if they’re any good, they’ll leave and take their clients with them.
Certainly a possibility but definitely not guaranteed, and unless you build some level of trust in your team, you’ll never achieve full potential.
So, how do we start building a company where we maximise both brand and broker loyalty?
The two are well-linked, so are more easily achieved than you may expect.
Providing brokers with high-quality, high-converting leads is certainly a great starting point, but they are never going to leave while they need leads. No, they’re most likely to leave once they have their own client bank. So, high-quality leads are the reason brokers join but not requiring future leads is a reason they will leave. That’s assuming you’ve created a great working environment.
So, how do we build both brand and broker loyalty?
The broker, in their natural habitat, is quite a lazy breed. The more they can get off their plate with someone else doing it for them, the happier they are.
Admin booking their appointments, happy days. Admin submitting their mortgage, heaven. Admin covering all case progression, perfect. This removal of all aspects of the work not requiring a qualified broker to complete is the perfect situation for two reasons.
1) The broker has more time to meet with clients.
2) The client’s relationship starts building with the company.
Imagine this easily achievable scenario: the administrator calls the client to book the appointment. The administrator calls the client after any meetings with the broker to check customer satisfaction and the like. When the case is submitted, the administrator calls the customer and states that they are the first point of contact for any queries.
This relationship continues during the case to completion and beyond. Any newsletters, updates or calls are all handled by the administrator.
The adviser won’t complain, as they are now writing more and doing less admin. At least they won’t until they think about leaving, then they realise they don’t have such a solid relationship with ‘their’ clients, and they don’t fancy taking responsibility for the administration process they’re now out of touch with.
As a result, they realise they need to build on what they have as the alternative is now not quite as rosy.
You soon reach a position where the client calls and asks for the administrator or their ‘client care rep’ rather than the adviser when making any sort of enquiry.
The adviser settles into the relatively easy life of being a mortgage seller rather than a part-time administrator and you, as the business owner, now have more time for yourself while earning more income as a company and with higher client satisfaction scores.
Utopia has been achieved; you now have brand and broker loyalty working in your favour.
