Aggregator also reveals how it will drive growth
Australia’s largest aggregator LMG has announced a number of enhancements to its customer relationship management system, MyCRM, with the aim of boosting speed, security, data analytics and customising workflows.
The planned additions to MyCRM were announced on the first day of the inaugural LMG Growth Summit being held on the Gold Coast on November 29 and 30.
They include:
● a future partnership with Quickli, with integration into MyCRM saving brokers time on re-viewing serviceability across lenders;
● SmartData, which streamlines the collection of client data and automatically processes it into their loan application;
● and improved reporting and a centralised view of broker clients’ full financial commitments (residential, commercial, asset finance and personal).
The enhanced functionality announcements follow on from LMG’s industry-first agreement with Equifax’s Verification Service, confirmed last week, which enables brokers to request an automated employment income report directly from MyCRM.
The LMG Growth Summit is the first time Loan Market, LMG Partner and Member businesses have gathered in the same place.
How LMG’s enhanced MyCRM will help brokers
Speaking at the Growth Summit on Wednesday, LMG general manager of broker solutions Nicole Ferguson (pictured above) said the MyCRM roadmap directly reflected the needs of brokers and how they wanted to operate, and grow, their businesses.
“All the additions have come about from listening to brokers, understanding the pain points in ser-vicing clients and their challenges to growth,” Ferguson said.
“The future partnership with Quickli will save brokers time and help them lessen the time taken to get to lodgement. The integration with MyCRM will make the application process so much easier for our brokers.
Ferguson said having a whole-of-client view within reporting that enabled brokers to see the spectrum of a client’s borrowings would help brokers add greater value to the relationship.
“LMG has a commitment to help all its businesses diversify their revenue streams across residential, commercial and asset finance and build smarter businesses, and these additions support that,” said Ferguson.
LMG’s SmartData tool for brokers
Patrick Moore (pictured below), LMG’s head of training and implementation, said LMG businesses would appreciate the efficiencies offered by the SmartData tool.
“SmartData is the new, faster Online Fact Find,” Moore said. “It reduces the time that clients spend filling in data to as little as five to 10 minutes. This will be a gamechanger for brokers, helping them turnaround applications faster and offering a better experience for the client.”
“Brokers are also going to be able to better analyse their data to look at their strengths and what parts of their service offering they want to grow. They’ll be able to better customise their data and reporting, helping them run their businesses as they want.
“With all these new additions, we’ll be improving the experience of clients which will help brokers retain their relationships and win new ones, as well.”
LMG unveils plan to drive brokers’ growth through 2024
Earlier on Wednesday, LMG executive Chairman Sam White (pictured below) told the more than 900 people gathered at the Growth Summit about his vision for the broker network and its members.
He said LMG planned to power the growth of brokers in uncertain times through advancements in its industry-leading MyCRM, enhanced compliance support to keep brokers safe, and pioneering asset and commercial finance tech-led services to make it the “home for all good brokers”.
LMG is also making additions to its trailblazing education platform Brokerversity, with the aim of making the network the most qualified and educated brokers in the industry.
While uncertainty remained in the market, White was optimistic that the service proposition of brokers had laid a strong platform going forward. Over 2023, LMG brokers hit a new high point in customer satisfaction with a Net Promoter Score of 98.
White said rather than be intimidated by the advancement of technology, LMG was embracing and integrating tech into its ecosystem so that brokers could enhance both their own efficiencies and the experience of their customers, saving them time and keeping them safe.
“Many are concerned machines will be able to analyse and understand client needs better than a broker,” White said. “Our view is that we can harness new technology to make broking and brokers better and more efficient: combining the intelligence of technology with the intellect and empathy of the broker.”
LMG focused on broker diversification
Following on from LMG’s acquisition of Nodifi (2022) and CLE (this year), LMG also continued its investment in support businesses to diversify their revenue streams, creating stronger relationships with their clients across commercial and asset finance.
“We can no longer be apathetic about the revenue streams on offer through diversification with existing clients or the threat to the client relationship through inaction,” said White.
LMG has also expanded investment into support for brokers with the following:
● a 12-strong compliance team across Australia to help brokers stay safe in their service to clients and resilient against the challenger of cybercrime;
● a 20-strong ASK LMG support team, helping brokers with all facets of their everyday business operations so they can focus on servicing clients;
● the industry’s best training and community events (380 are planned in 2024) including Brokerversity, its ‘always-on’, end-to-end digital training academy and platform that delivers daily training, or self-paced learning journeys;
● and LMG Outsource service, with teams trained-up on MyCRM and compliance, offered to the entire group, to drive productivity.
Since July 1, LMG has welcomed 101 new businesses which had taken up a variety of business service plans offered by the aggregator. New Loan Market businesses accounted for 42 of the new additions.
White was optimistic about the broker proposition.
“I bet on brokers over a single credit department; over call centres; over an institution. Our bet is on the broker, and that won't change.”
Meanwhile, in an discussion between White and NAB Group CEO Ross McEwan, NAB’s shared goals and symbiotic relationship with brokers was highlighted.
The LMG Growth Summit wraps up on Thursday.
What do you think of the planned additions to MyCRM and LMG's plan for growth? Comment below
