This month, traditionally, for all who have been in the secured loan industry for a number of years, is one of the busiest in terms of new applications. This is due to the fact that holidays are over and the reality of the cost of Christmas coming up. So it is a time for taking stock of finances and putting houses in order. This has always resulted in the biggest percentage of loan applications received at this time being for debt consolidation.
How many loan adverts by lenders and brokers alike in the press or search engines are aimed directly at the public, urging them to consolidate their debts? Probably thousands, which results in tens of thousands of people applying direct for their loan requirements. This is a lost opportunity, because most of these people have a financial adviser or mortgage consultant that they have used regularly, but who did not relate the arranging of a loan to the services that they offer, as their title states ‘financial adviser’. They should be.
Providing the service
Think about it, how many people do you have in your client bank that you think you give good and regular advice to? Or are you just too busy with all the new business that comes in for the products and services that you normally give advice on? Well, if you do want to retain your clients then secured loans should be a part of the list of services and advice that you offer. After all, is it not easier to retain a client if you have provided what they want, than having to go out and sell yourself all over again for every new client?
Secured loans is the fastest growing part of the financial services industry and judging from the enquiries that our team are receiving on a daily basis it certainly backs this up. More and more IFAs and mortgage consultants now realise the importance of client retention and one of the services that assists in this is by offering secured loans. So the next time you come across an advert offering secured loans direct to the public, just think it maybe one of your clients who are going to apply.
Expo exposure
Although for the last umpteen years as I stated, October has been always a busy month for secured loan brokers with direct business, in the last three years it has become a very busy time also for our broker business due to our annual pilgrimage to Mortgage Business Expo at Earls Court London, which this year is on 15 and 16 November. Now, seasoned campaigners who visit the exhibition probably think that the exhibitors just turn up on the morning of the exhibition and it’s all systems go. I wish. As soon as the last one ends, the plans and arrangements for the next one go into operation with everything from the stand, accommodation, marketing material, manpower for the stand and, of course, travel arrangements, as being Glasgow-based, we probably have the furthest travelling staff at the exhibition.
This will be our fifth Expo as an exhibitor and during that time we have again seen massive changes in the profile of secured loans within the exhibition where really, in my opinion, without the lenders and brokers within this sector of the market, I doubt very much if the exhibition would be showing the growth that its organisers are claiming.
After the last Expo in Manchester in May this year, there were various quotes from industry sources that the exhibition had turned into a secured loan and lead generation exhibition. Funnily enough, I thought both these sectors of the market were part of the mortgage industry and so were entitled to exhibit. Indeed, as I previously stated, the fact that the secured loan industry is buoyant and growing has led to an increase in visitors, which can only be helpful for the other exhibitors in different sectors of the marketplace.
In fact maybe this small article will go some way in making someone else go along to the Mortgage Expo event and those people who were annoyed that secured loan companies, such as Access, were ‘daring’ to exhibit at a mortgage event may ask them what prompted them to visit and they will begin to look at the bigger picture.
