Name: Phil Whitehouse
Company: The Mortgage Alliance (TMA)
It is no surprise that the biggest challenge currently facing brokers is finding new clients. The good old days of customers flocking through broker’s doors have been curtailed, and this pressure will unfortunately continue for some time.
However, there are brokers who are doing well, because they have embraced a more holistic approach to the advisory process. Firms that have taken a step back to evaluate their business models are surviving and picking up extra business.
Remaining positive and exploring new markets is key to opening up new revenue streams as there are still opportunities out there.
In order to do this successfully, it is important to invest time and energy in retraining and honing sales techniques.
Using existing client databases should be the prime objective for brokers who are struggling. There has never been a better time to sit down with existing clients and explore the range of opportunities, especially in the protection and general insurance markets, as vast numbers of people are under-insured.
Brokers that take the financial needs of clients seriously will place themselves in a strong position, and cross-selling will generate attractive recurring revenue and turn them into a one-stop shop for clients.
In advertising literature, it is vital to emphasise the expertise that your firm has. Forming links with local businesses can be one way to boost business volumes.
Solicitors, accountants and independent estate agents are all good potential lead generators. Even doing a free financial clinic may help raise their profile.
Name: Katie Tucker
Company: Mortgageforce
Brokers are able to find new clients, but it is difficult for them to compete with lenders for these new clients, because many lenders offer direct-only rates to new borrowers and sometimes call them months before the rate finishes.
However, brokers who are serious about their business will have geared their activities up during this quiet year in terms of marketing their skills, their mortgage related products and the benefit of impartial advice to existing clients.
The clients who find it hard to get deals today are the clients of tomorrow. Brokers need to use a decent customer relationship management system to keep good records of clients. They should also try to get consent to market from all borrowers so they contact them when their rate finishes.
They can then continually source e-mail lists for quarterly service updates and information. If brokers keep in regular contact with customers and provide them with intelligent data on the market, this should retain their loyalty until they need the broker’s help. Advisers can then re-approach them easily when LTVs improve and criteria relax.
Brokers must also ingratiate themselves with local press and make connections with local estate agents and solicitors. A decent network can provide help and supply materials to brokers. The turbulent environment has meant that a large number of brokers have left the market, but I believe this means that new clients are available to brokers who make themselves known.
Name: Chris Cummings
Company: Association of Mortgage Intermediaries
The hardest part about running any business is finding the right types of customers. In the past, mortgage intermediaries have enjoyed if not a feast, then far from a famine, in terms of new customers seeking their help. The mortgage market was buoyant and the deals were there to be done. That is now ancient history.
Some firms took the time to keep in touch with those borrowers that they had been able to help secure a good mortgage deal for. They offered them protection advice and are now able to help them rebroke that cover, as the protection market surges forward.
Many members tell me that finding the customer is not as difficult as finding a lender that will provide the money. The core issue, and the systemic root cause of the problem boils down to a lack of funding in the market. Too few lenders have the necessary capital, and appetite for risk, to lend.
The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries has been meeting with Treasury, Bank of England and all lenders to try to free up capital and increase appetite. The Government want lenders to lend – but the regulator wants them to rebuild their balance sheets.
We are caught between a rock and a hard place – and that is why our approach is changing. From now on, we are focused on two things: getting a bigger share of the lending pie with individual lenders and demanding that Government target specific borrowers with funding. The current approach does not work and it fails consumers, the industry and society at large.
