Education events in five capitals will equip brokers to help more clients
As outsource Financial experiences a big increase in commercial lending settlements, the aggregator is now expanding its education programs to include asset finance.
outsource Financial will hold its first annual Asset Finance Extravaganzas in Melbourne on May 28 and in Sydney on June 4.
In addition to the Victoria and NSW full-day events, there will also be shorter Asset Finance Fiestas held in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth on May 29.
outsource Financial head of training and education Heather Gallagher (pictured above) said every year when designing education programs, she liked to add a new subject that hadn’t been tackled before.
For the last four years, the aggregator has been running the Festival of SME, a combination of virtual sessions and in-person events designed to “help brokers help small business owners”.
“We’ve seen our commercial and business settlements improve dramatically every year, but more importantly, we've seen our brokers skills in those areas grow,” Gallagher said.
Speaking to brokers at outsource Financial’s state-based Spooktacular events in October 2023, outsource recognised that the “next big thing” to focus on and an area brokers could improve their knowledge was consumer and commercial asset finance.
Brokers had been saying they wanted to understand asset finance and learn more about it, Gallagher said.
This has led to the aggregator’s first Asset Finance Extravaganza professional development days being held in Sydney and Melbourne.
“We didn’t want our brokers in the other states to not have access to knowledge and information so in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth we’re having what we call our fiestas, which are shorter two-hour mini-events – more than a coffee cluster, but less than a PD day.”
The aim of the asset finance roadshow
Gallagher said the idea of the asset finance roadshow to equip outsource Financial mortgage brokers with the skills to add asset finance to their offering.
“The goal is that a resi broker who's never been interested in either consumer or commercial asset finance is going to be able to leave this day with enough tools and knowledge to get their accreditations and get started and be able to say yes to helping their clients.”
Like the Festival of SME, the asset finance roadshow will not just focus on products and policies. There will be some lender presentations, but also panels with outsource Financial asset brokers “talking about why they write asset finance”.
“We didn’t just pick our big asset writers because that's not who our regular residential broker can relate to,” Gallagher said.
“We picked the brokers who were writing five to eight asset finance deals a month that complement the rest of their business.
“In both the consumer and commercial asset space, you want to be able to have the tools in your kit bag to say yes to every consumer who comes to see you because every time you turn them away and say, ‘oh, I don't do that’, you risk losing your client.”
outsource Financial ieducate partners involved in the asset finance space will be appearing at the Asset Finance Extravaganzas and Fiestas.
Topics include compliance and technology
In addition to panel discussions featuring lenders and brokers, the roadshow will feature consumer asset finance compliance “making sure that brokers understand their obligations”.
“We’ll also talk about technology,” Gallagher said. “We partner with Salestrekker for our software and that includes LoanQ – an asset finance origination platform to help brokers and as a partner of ours they’ll be there too, which is really exciting.”
Brokers will also be able to network with each other at the events.
Demand surges for asset finance diversification
Gallagher said there was plenty of early interest in registrations, which was “a pleasant surprise”.
With higher interest rates and inflation, reduced borrowing capacity and a more competitive market for brokers focusing on residential loans, it was not surprising that more brokers were turning to commercial and asset finance.
“I just think that brokers need to seize every opportunity that comes their way.”
Gallagher said there were misconceptions among some brokers that writing a consumer car loan took too long and was not worth the money.
“Or that asset finance is this big mystery that you can't do unless you're an expert. The aim of these events is to demystify those two things.”
All of outsource Financial’s education programs for brokers – whether they covered business lending, or alt-doc loans for self-employed clients, or how to write commercial loans – were driven by the belief that brokers should have the tools and resources “to say yes to every client.”
“Sometimes your yes is ‘yes and I'm going to refer that to somebody’,” Gallagher said.
“We do have a referral program for asset finance for brokers too and we'll talk about our Vequip program at this as well. But this day is really designed to help them say yes to the average deal they get.”
outsource Financial brokers interested in attending the Asset Finance Extravaganzas and Fiestas can register via the members portal.
outsource Financial was named as Australia’s Top Aggregators in Brokers on Aggregators award. Read all the winners here.
