I often get asked what makes our in-house mortgage broker program more effective than others on the market, and I can sum this up in 3 reasons mortgage broker divisions do not run at capacity.
Our philosophy is “everything we do is marketing” and this puts us in great stead to ensure our programs are super successful. It ensures the right messages are sent to the right people at the right time.
Our philosophy of “everything we do is marketing” relates to even the smallest and most simple tasks you can do. Put simply – every email you write, phone call you make and action you take tells the outer world how competent you are at your role. It all adds up.
When onboarding a new accounting firm to our program it is no surprise the most important and valued task we undertake is that of marketing co-ordinator. Sure, we help with identifying the mortgage broking talent that will fill the role, handle the credit license and all the other tasks associated. But NOTHING comes close to this.
Over my time of working with mortgage broker divisions in accounting firms I have seen the contrast between those who focus on marketing and those who do not. At times we have had to let some of our clients “fail” before they accept the full power of the program.
Anyway, here are the 3 main reason why your mortgage broker division is broken:
- Everyone assumes the referrals will flow like water
“Our customers love us”
“Our customers always do what we ask”
These are some of the quotes I hear when commencing working with accounting firms that send alarm bells ringing. Both are true to a large extent with accountants. Remember you are at the top of the “trust hierarchy” with your clients no doubt. However what good is this if you do not know when and how to ask your clients for the referral?
We spend a lot of time working with each client engaging staff member to train them on when and how to ask a client to participate in the program. The messages are kept exceptionally simple to ensure a maximum take up of any offer and reduce the complexity of knowledge the accountant requires to ask. It also makes it easy for the accountant to ask and breaks down their fear of asking as well, which is by far the biggest hurdle we will face. Unfortunately, most firms will put little to no effort into this part of the program.
- They rely solely on the clients in the accounting firm
Regardless of how many clients you have in your accounting firm, at some stage it won’t be enough. We take this view from day 1 of the program and begin immediately to look outside the business for more clients. Our view is that a good program should have varied channels into the business to cover off slow times that invariably occur. I also believe as a rule of thumb the quicker the mortgage broker division becomes independent of the accounting firm the better. That is it doesn’t rely on business from the firm to survive. Other channels we look at are:
- Digital lead generation
- Social
- Others
- Outside referral partnerships
- Real Estate Agents
- Accounting firm clients with large numbers of staff
- Other accounting firms (Yes, you read correctly)
- The list goes on
We do this by mentoring the mortgage broker on business development and working with them to create new relationships. This also helps to attract new clients in for accounting, financial planning and any other additional services or partnerships you have.
- YOU are made responsible for the marketing to your clients
NUNYA is what I say to this. That is, marketing is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!
You are an accountant who has a lot of clients that trust you and love you for what you do for them with your accounting skills. Not for marketing. Not now and not ever. And you are as good at marketing as I am at accounting. Stop it, do not bother. It is what we work hardest at.
Yes, you need to sign off and approve everything 100%. NEVER give your client data up either. It is not necessary. Either outsource it from the start or do not bother.
We have created a turn-key program with an easy to understand client engagement marketing program that you approve and send. We write it, design it and make it bespoke to your business. We even write monthly blogs for you as part of our service. It is the underlaying lynch pin in the whole program.
If your accounting firm has a mortgage broker division that is struggling with these issues at the moment, or you are looking to implement a new division and are concerned about the traction you will get from your client base, feel free to touch base with me and I can help guide you through this.
Next time – we will talk about Accountants who want to be brokers too……
Steve Lake
National Business Development Manager
National Lending Group
www.nlg.com.au
slake@nlg.com.au | 0406 076 828
He also owns Referconnect, a marketing company specialising in linking financial service providers to provide better outcomes for their clients and deliver assets and profit to business owners and stakeholders.
- NLG Education Series Part 2 – SMSF Lending for Accountants - 11 July 2023
- NLG Education Series Part 1 – Commercial lending for accountants - 27 June 2023
- Nuts and bolts: How to refer your clients - 8 March 2023
