Commercial lenders provide loans secured against business property, but that does not mean the process of lending is an impersonal matter – far from it. As the market grows, it is becoming more apparent that strong relationships supported by human contact are essential to the effective interaction between lenders and brokers. We understand that all firms need advice and support about commercial processes, no matter what their size is or how long they have been handling commercial business, and the preference remains strong for face-to-face contact.
Importance of relationships
Established residential lenders understand the importance of strong regional manager and business development manager (BDM) teams, and brokers that are used to this regular lender contact in the residential side of their business will expect a similar service if they also write commercial loans. The sort of contact brokers need can be divided into three main areas: help to get started; ongoing lender communication; and support for training needs as they arise.
Help and support
Brokers wishing to get started in commercial mortgages need help on how to generate commercial leads, support in submitting cases to the lender and working the case to completion.
Access to an experienced BDM can get these processes off to a good start, and can also help firms progress from introducing business to a specialist partner to packaging their own cases.
For well established commercial specialists, the need for on-the-spot lender contact is no less important. Larger commercial specialist brokers or packagers deal in volume business and naturally there are always plenty of queries and unusual circumstances to help resolve. The regular presence of a BDM, who is an expert in the lender’s criteria and products, can help to move these cases through to a successful conclusion.
Volume business introducers also need other support to keep the relationship with the lender strong. This could include the lender providing sales and marketing training, and presentations on products. Regular contact with BDMs also allows information to flow the other way, and enables lenders to constantly make improvements. Of course, there are circumstances where a quick phone call is needed rather than a face-to-face visit – so brokers need to know that there will also be a helpful and knowledgeable friendly human being at the other end who can sort out queries quickly.
Training
Finally, experience has shown us that good training is the cornerstone to effective broker throughput. Well packaged cases and accurate placement means less time is lost in handling queries and the optimum conversion rate is achieved for the lender and broker.
People buy people. It is a cliché because it is true. Specialist mortgage lending is a service business and most brokers will only ever see a sales representative for that lender. While great strides are being made in online communications with lenders to speed up applications and offers, the demand for BDM and regional manager visits remains high. It seems that, when building successful relationships, nothing can replace the professional human touch.
