Speaking on a panel at The Specialist Lending Event, Scott Howitt (pictured left), sales director at Chartwell Mortgage Services, said: “I think the word ‘mortgage broker’, or ‘mortgage adviser’, is quite specific. Predominantly, it’s the conduit that the customer is coming to you for… a mortgage and [I] think, actually, we’re much more than that.
“I think that, for me, it’s much more of a holistic approach, taking the customer right from the very outset to right to the very end. We should be engaged in that journey with that customer at every single stage, whether that be talking to them about affordability, right through to guiding them with the mortgage decision in principle or agreement in principle, and then carrying that customer on that journey and sharing in that journey all the way along is so important.”
He explained that brokers were constantly chasing the next lead, and he said he had been a “victim” of this as well.
“That’s probably linked to why we work so many hours, and why we make so many phone calls, and why we’re always seemingly on hand for whenever the customer wants to engage. We never switch off, as we’re always chasing the next thing,” Howitt said.
However, he said that if you do “brilliant job” with the customer, they are more likely to re-engage, so you don’t need to chase the new lead but can build up a client bank of people who will repeatedly use your service.
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Brokers are also more likely to get referrals based on customer recommendations, which is a boon for a broker business.
“These are the best types of leads because they just do business with you. They don’t doubt you in any way, shape or form. You don’t need to oversell to them. You’ve already been recommended for the service,” Howitt said.
He noted that for brokers, it was “about doing the whole thing, not just part of the thing”.
“The customer’s perception is they [advisers] just do the mortgage because they’re a mortgage adviser. We are much more than mortgage advisers. We’re almost like the house transaction expert, if you like. I get involved, and I’m sure everyone else does in this room, with estate agents, housebuilders, solicitors and accountants and helping them.
“I think it’s more of a holistic ‘let’s not be just mortgage advisers, let’s be the whole thing’, because the whole thing means you’ll get more business just by default, because you just do, I can tell you that, and you just absolutely do by doing the whole job,” he said.
‘Client retention’ is the ‘most important thing’ for any business
Howitt said when he first started, the typical financial adviser could sort a customer’s mortgage, endowments and pensions, but that “could no longer happen”.
“You can’t facilitate that, it’s absolutely impossible, because the variation in product set is just so vast. I wouldn’t expect a buy-to-let expert to be an expert in new build, for instance. I just wouldn’t. I think the criteria, products and knowing the right people, and it is about knowing the right people and trusting the right people and being loyal to those people, is very difficult.
“I think staying in lane is important and knowing that lane is really important, but when you know that there are things that are going to come at you from a different product set, or different criteria set, it’s about having the right people that you can trust and rely on to plug in.
“The service that we offer should never ever diminish because it’s not in the lane that we swim in. You should always be able to go: ‘I will give it to this person, or to this business or this adviser or this company, and they will do equally, if not… a better job, than what I’m doing’,” he added.
Howitt said a broker does not have to deliver advice across every single area of property finance, but that a broker was a “conduit to all these different things”.
“Recommend me a great solicitor, recommend me a great accountant, and recommend me a great surveying company. We plug in partnerships that I feel are just an extension of what we do, because if they weren’t, I wouldn’t do it,” he added.
Howitt said when he did refer cases, “very rarely” did he get issues, as he makes sure the “relationships are nurtured properly”.
“If you’re going to plug someone in, they’re just an extension of your business, so you have to be happy to make that recommendation,” he said.
Howitt said he was “110% confident” in who he passed his business on to, whether that was for buy to let (BTL), commercial, bridging or second charge.
“They will do an absolutely outstanding job for us and an outstanding job for the customer as well. Client retention is absolutely the most important thing for any business, especially if you are trying to grow a business. If you don’t believe that, and you’re just going to keep chasing the next lead, I’d ask you to rethink that,” he said.
Want to learn more about The Specialist Lending Event? Follow this link: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/events/the-specialist-lending-event/?tsle2026source=article
