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Are you an adviser, or a salesman?

by: Dominic Hennessy
  • 14/08/2012
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Are you an adviser, or a salesman?
It's the silly season - so time for a question that will get some hot under the collar...

This topic is like a mortgage hand grenade, just roll it in, retreat to a safe distance and watch in shock and awe as everyone gets rather animated.

So here is my opinion. I am not naive enough to think that all will agree, but hopefully the vitriol can be saved for some other poor soul.

Are we high minded advisers, like some Oxford intellectual, pondering the great mysteries of life over every client’s circumstances?

Or are we at the opposite end of the spectrum, commission hungry sales predators ready to pounce on the next poor unsuspecting creature?

The answer of course is neither of these…and both.

Our job is to find a few (and I mean just a few) suitable solutions and to help the client make up their mind. Too many choices and the client leaves baffled (at my place emails that need to be released in three volumes like the Lord of the Rings are banned). Yet too few choices and the prospective clients may look elsewhere.

A great, experienced broker should be able to fact find and understand the client quickly and have the right solution after a second chat. You need to be rattling these out all the time, everyone knows the tricky client who needs to talk through everything on every product isn’t profitable.

And let us be honest, dear friends. We’ve all got sales targets – but has anyone got an advice target?

That’s why a healthy intermediary market represents the best of both worlds for brokers. The ability to sell from a healthy competitive series of product ranges allows you to feel you’ve done a good job for the client – and some fees for your good work.

The harder you work and the more you sell – the more you make.

Dominic Hennessy is principal at Just Us Mortgages

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