Broker wins award for one-stop-shop strategy

Her West End branch in Brisbane offers a range of services, including mortgages, financial advice, SMSFs, short-term loans, vehicle finance, and personal and business insurance.

Ms Butterworth told The Adviser that she learned about the benefits of diversification while employed by a big four bank.

“When you work in a bank you have to sell all their products. That’s what I’ve tried to emulate here, because the banks see a client being stickier if they have at least four products,” she said.

“If they don’t buy it from me they’ll buy it from somebody else, and that gives somebody else an opportunity to make money on my clients.

“I find that the reason why people keep coming back is because they feel we can offer everything they need through just one point of contact.”

Ms Butterworth said about 80 per cent of her first-time clients want a mortgage or to refinance – but they are also receptive when she starts talking about wealth management and retirement planning.

“We have that conversation with every client that comes through the door and they always bring in their super statement when we do their home loan,” she said.

Ms Butterworth, who is the West End branch principal, has four other staff: two brokers, one paraplanner and one admin assistant.

She plans to diversify further by hiring another staffer to cover commercial and asset finance.

Meanwhile, Yellow Brick Road also named West End as its Advice Branch of the Year.

Sydney CBD won the Top Branch – Revenue category, while Frankston received the awards for Top Branch – Transactions and Mortgage Branch of the Year.