'You've got two holes in your pipeline, you're only trying to fix one' – Flavin

Let's talk about your leads.

You buy them. You call them. 20% convert. Another 20% will never proceed – wrong situation, wrong time, nothing you can do. Write them off. 

That leaves 60%. 

Nobody fills in a mortgage enquiry form by accident. They sat down, thought about it, and asked for help. That’s not a tyre kicker. That’s a buyer. 

And you chased them twice, got no answer, and dropped them. 

Six months later, they are ready. They enquire again. Somewhere. You pay to acquire them all over again – a lead you already bought, already spoke to, already had a relationship with – because you walked away the moment they did not convert in the first fortnight. 

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That’s not a lead quality problem. That’s a process problem. 

 

An engaged client bank 

Many mortgage advisers would say generating more leads is vital in 2026, and a significant proportion might claim doing so is either difficult or very difficult.

The complaint is the same. Fewer leads. Lower quality. Harder to convert. More expensive to buy. 

Nobody’s talking about the 60% they already paid for and threw away. 

The firms that win in this market are not finding better lead sources. They are treating the ‘interested not ready’ as a category worth investing in. A targeted nurture sequence that adds genuine value – relevant market updates, honest guidance on what they need to get in place, education about the process – keeps you in their world until the day that they’re ready to move. So, when they wake up one morning and think, ‘right, let’s do this’ – you’re the first call they make. Not because they remembered you, but because you never went away. 

You already paid for that lead. The only question is whether you’re going to work it or waste it. 

 

Getting to clients too late 

Now here is the second hole. And this one is worse. 

It used to be the case that a new adviser entering the industry would struggle for the first two years. Get into the third year and you have your remortgage clients to start supporting your growth. 

I remember telling brokers: “Once you hit 200 clients, you have an income for life”. 200 clients all on two-year fixed rates give you 100 remortgages every year. The few that drop off are replaced by referrals and recommendations. Sorted. 

Not anymore. 

The average existing client retention rate for mortgage brokers has fallen, and for some, fewer than half of clients come back when their deal ends. Not because the service was poor. Not because they found someone better. Because their fixed rate ended, their lender sent them a letter, and the path of least resistance led somewhere that was not you. 

Let’s put a number on it. 

Let’s say a mortgage adviser has 500 cases over five years. 250 of those clients will remortgage elsewhere. At an average case value of £1,000, that’s £250,000 walking out of your business. Quietly. Without a complaint. Without a conversation. Just a product transfer that took four clicks and a lender who got there before you did. 

You spent years building those relationships. You did the work. You earned the trust. And then you handed them to your lender by doing nothing. 

 

Getting ahead of the lender 

Here is what your lender knows that most brokers do not act on. They know exactly when every fix ends. They have the contact details, the payment history, the digital portal, and a retention letter ready to go months before you have thought about picking up the phone. 

Their job is to keep the client. Your job is to serve the client. Those are not the same thing – but if you are not in contact, the client does not know the difference. 

What you have that lenders do not is a genuine argument. A lender offers their best rate once, on the day you ask, and that’s where their service ends. The lender’s job ends when the client says yes. Yours does not – because if rates fall before completion, you are already moving them to the better deal. Try getting that from a product transfer. 

Most of your clients have no idea this is possible. That is not their fault. It’s yours for not telling them. 

The fix isn’t complicated. 12 months before each client’s deal ends – not six, not three, 12 – a proactive personal message that says: “We know your fix is expiring, we’re already watching the market, here’s what we’re going to do for you.” 

Monthly touchpoints that educate. A formal review conversation at six months that treats the remortgage as a moment in an ongoing relationship, not a transaction to be completed and filed. 

Move your retention rate from 48% to 60% on a book of 500 cases and you recover £60,000 in revenue that already exists inside your business. No marketing spend. No lead cost. Just a process that means clients do not drift to their lender while you are busy chasing new ones. 

Two holes. Leads you paid for and abandoned. Clients you earned and forgot about. 

Most firms are trying to fix both by buying more leads. 

You’re not growing. You’re replacing. And replacing is just burning money twice on the same person.