Elevating brokers through education

Brokers' long-term success depends on continuing education and development. Suncorp is one of the lenders stepping up

It’s fairly straightforward to become a qualified mortgage broker in Australia. Aside from the mandatory Cert IV and the optional finance diploma, there’s very little else required from individuals.

Unfortunately, it’s a system that can easily leave newcomers under-equipped to deal with the many challenges they face in the market – and that’s why one senior industry figure says ongoing education is essential.

“Having completed those two criteria, I don’t think it would be appropriate for a broker to simply set and forget or think there’s no reason to learn anything else,” says Mark Vilo, head of bank intermediaries at Suncorp.

“We actually find that a lot of new brokers coming into the market don’t necessarily have the skills required to deal with some of the core challenges, like handling objections, dealing with difficult customers or asking great open questions.”

It was this observation, among others, that pushed Suncorp into action, and earlier this month the lender launched its innovative intermediated learning marketplace.

“We’ve been working closely with our aggregator partners to understand the needs of brokers, and then we’ve leveraged the power of our organisation to source appropriate learning modules,” Vilo says.

One program offered in the marketplace is aimed specifically at brokers who have been in business less than 18 months. It takes participants through a full day of handling objections so they can better understand customer motivations and have meaningful, open conversations.

“We’ve been running them around the country, and the feedback has been fantastic every time,” says Vilo. “Even when I go along to one of these sessions, I always come out having learned something new or having had something reinforced.”

Of course, newcomers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from ongoing professional development – even the most experienced brokers can gain an advantage from continued learning.

“For people who have been in the mortgage broking industry for over 10 years, not only has the regulatory landscape and the range of products changed dramatically, but so too has the customer demographic,” Vilo tells MPA.

According to research firm Roy Morgan, millennials now dominate the mortgage broker market. In fact, 48.6% of those who have used a broker in the last five years fall into that age bracket.

“Brokers need to be able to break down barriers with this new demographic; they need to be confident in knowing what this age group wants, and they need to be able to remove the intimidation factor from financial services,” Vilo says.

To help brokers achieve this, Suncorp has begun running educational workshops that are open to broker customers, such as its Auction Advantage event in Sydney.

“We had a panel of experts talk about the process of going to an auction, what it means to have a buyer’s agent, and the tips and traps they should be aware of,” says Vilo.

“Brokers need to be able to break down barriers with [the millennial] demographic; they need to be confident in knowing what this age group wants” - Mark Vilo, Suncorp

“Brokers don’t necessarily get involved in the actual auction, but they were adding value by bringing their customers or potential customers to this event, showing them what the industry is doing to help.”

As brokers become more established, their challenges evolve once again, and many come up against the myriad issues faced by small business owners, including recruitment, performance management and employee engagement.

“A lot of brokers don’t necessarily have those prerequisite skills to be able to manage those,” says Vilo. However, it’s hoped another of the lender’s major education initiatives will help address the issue.

Launched last year, Suncorp’s first Synergy event brought around 1,000 brokers together to learn about a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, future workforce trends, and driving growth during periods of rapid change.

“It was about working with our partners and getting them education that’s of value,” says Vilo, who noted that the upcoming Synergy events had evolved based on direct feedback from brokers.

“Brokers told us they wanted to have more interactive conversations with people who understand and can help them in their business, so we’ve decided to create a learning environment for everyone attending.” “There’ll be something on how to build a great client value proposition, how to get social media working for you even when you’re not, how to combat decision fatigue – it’s just things that we believe will help brokers in a very practical way.” While the combination of initiatives clearly has the potential to accelerate and strengthen broker careers, Vilo says they’ve also been created with the aim of elevating the industry as a whole. “We believe there is an opportunity in our market to raise the bar. While the Cert IV and the diploma are useful, there is an opportunity to elevate the industry, and if we can contribute to that in some way, then we’re grateful.”