About seven years ago this broker decided to jump on board a new CRM offered by his aggregator
Change is something Peter Gwynne has always been quick to adapt to – and with 15 years’ experience as a broker, the CEO of Financing Property has certainly seen a lot of it.
He says using a good CRM is one of the biggest and best changes he has made to his business strategy over the years.
MPA spoke with the Gold Coast broker about the way Choice Aggregation’s Podium software helped him streamline his business practice and create timely marketing campaigns.
Developing efficiency through processing changes
When he started Financing Property back in 2006, Gwynne had a clear direction on what he wanted the business to focus on – providing finance solutions for property investors who wanted to build a portfolio of one to 15 investments.
He says his business model is ever evolving and over time his staff have helped him implement processing changes that have been vital to its success.
“Our systems are fantastic in our office and we know exactly what’s going on at any time.”
About seven years ago, Gwynne decided to jump on board a new CRM offered by his aggregator and never looked back.
“There was a whole new system that got implemented then and from day one I just learned as much as I could.”
“Many people didn’t use it, I just made sure that I persisted because I knew it would be good, I knew it was the way to go.”
CRM was a gamechanger
Describing himself as pedantic when it comes to data, Gwynne says Podium was a gamechanger within his business.
“Having a good CRM is vital.”
“This is where your whole business is contained.”
He says it allows him to execute marketing campaigns to different groups of clients in a matter of minutes. It also allows him to see the files of existing clients at a glance when they come back to line up their next deal.
“The applications are all on there. We submit everything online, so I like that it’s all there so we can just go through and look at any application at any time.”
He says other features include a very useful loan comparison tool and auto-templates for things such as birthday messages.
The importance of adapting
Gwynne says he has never been one to fight change. Instead of jumping on online forums and complaining about the challenges caused by industry movements or tech advances, he simply gets up the next day and asks himself what the changes look like. He assesses the opportunities involved and figures out what he needs to do to adapt accordingly.
This exactly what he did when given the chance to use a CRM.
“When it came in, I knew this was the future, I knew it was going to be much easier when putting your clients in and generating loan applications and so I just jumped on the change really quick.”
He says new to industry brokers should consider what software is on offer when choosing an aggregator.
“I think if you’re new to the industry you really need to look at what’s offered by the aggregator.”
“It’s really important which aggregator you go to and what software platform they’ve got.”
