Nine Aussie Home Loans stores feature in 2024 Top Brokerages
Lendi Group chief distribution officer Brad Cramb couldn’t be prouder of Aussie Home Loans franchisees, with a record nine stores featured in MPA’s Top Brokerages of 2024.
That means a whopping 18% of the 50 brokerages featured on this year’s winners’ list were Aussie stores and the franchise network has tripled its performance from last year when three stores made the top 50.
Cramb says for Aussie franchisees this recognition is a wonderful payoff for their tireless dedication to growing their businesses and supporting their customers.
“We know our winning franchisees are delighted to have received this recognition, and they’re all very much deserving,” he says.
“This kind of recognition also adds authority to the expertise of our franchisees and brokers in these stores, and customers can walk into their appointments with certainty that they’re dealing with a trusted expert.”
Cramb says the nine incredible businesses recognised in Top Brokerages 2024 is a significant uplift from the three last year. “We know that there are several stores who wouldn’t have been too far off qualifying, so we’re hopeful of seeing more entries next year.
“It’s great recognition that Aussie is providing Australians with the platform to build a thriving broker business, while also giving the Australian public the support they need to secure their homeownership dreams.”
Of the nine Aussie stores, six are owned by multi-site franchisees.
“One of the primary reasons people enter a franchise partnership is to leverage an established brand and centralised support to achieve business growth, so we’re proud to see so many of our franchisees driving growth and scale in their businesses,” Cramb says.
He says the Aussie retail channel drives significant volume for Lendi Group and is critical to its success.
Given Aussie’s strong commitment to helping franchisees achieve growth, new territory opportunities are strictly capped.
Cramb says Aussie has identified a series of “hot territories in high-opportunity areas with significant growth prospects”.
“These provide an opportunity for prospective franchisees to service the local area and become the CEO of their own business.”
While globally retail businesses cut costs and close branches, Cramb says Aussie is continuing to invest heavily in revolutionising the retail experience for franchisees, brokers and customers.
This includes refreshing signage and storefronts, piloting interactive new touchpoints in-store and executing campaign activity to drive customer foot traffic.
“Following the migration of our network onto the new Aussie Platform in 2023, we’re able to facilitate seamless in-store-to-online experiences for our customers,” says Cramb.
The aim is to elevate the functionality and appeal of Aussie stores without excessive cost.
To expand the reach of franchisees and brokers in their local areas, the ‘Great Aussie Summer Giveaway’ was held in late 2023. It was Aussie’s largest-ever competition, with a prize pool of $250,000.
During the launch week, the record for customer appointments held in a single week was broken.
“We leveraged the campaign to support stores in driving engagement at grassroots level, matching their local area marketing spend dollar for dollar,” says Cramb.
Aussie contributed $60,000, allowing brokers to “flex their lead-generating muscles” with reduced financial barriers.
The Great Aussie Giveaway returned in May with another $200,000 in prizes, and brokers and franchisees embraced the campaign to reach more people.
“We’ve also equipped our brokers with a suite of product-led sales tools, including our new Aussie mobile app, downloadable property reports and credit score checks as a means of driving enquiry and facilitating new engagements.”
As Australia’s largest retail mortgage broking network, Aussie’s footprint of over 1,000 brokers and 220 stores means it can serve customers nationwide, Cramb says.
“Importantly, we offer our customers choice – whether they would like to engage with their broker in-store or virtually, via a mutually convenient location, or even in their own home or workplace.”
Aussie franchisees and brokers also get involved in their communities by sponsoring footy teams, donating to schools, connecting with local businesses, and more.
When it comes to building growth for Aussie stores, Cramb highlights the group’s Platform technology, Platform Plus and supported model; connecting brokers and customers in new ways (such as via the Aussie mobile app); and seamless in-store-to-online experiences.
“It’s about scalable systems and processes, growing footprint and driving efficiency and productivity.”
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