Queensland’s top brokers and brokerages revealed

MADD Loans dominated the evening, as founder George Samios — who was named The Adviser’s Young Broker of the Year in 2016 — took home the award of Broker of the Year and Best Residential Broker for Queensland.

MADD’s Helen Zeremes took home the award for best loan administrator, with the judges highlighting her keenness to keep on top of her game by completing a financial planning licence.

Ms Zeremes had previously won the same award in 2015 when she was loan administrator at My Address Finance.  

Other companies that took home multiple awards included Mortgage Choice, Aussie, Loan Market and MC Mortgage Solutions.

Cube Central added to their accolades by securing the award for Best Independent Office (less than five brokers), while Cube's Scott Beattie won the Editor's Choice award.

Mr Beattie was recognised for "going the extra mile for his clients", such as by offering clients $100 on settlement for failing to return a call within four hours (or failing to provide a loan update every five working days), and offering clients a rewrite and refund of upfront commissions if they weren't satisfied with their loan in the first year. 

Eric Dong of EK Mortgage was recognised as the state’s Rising Star, while Loan Market Holland Park’s Phil Seed was crowned Best Newcomer.

Daniel Holden of HoldenCAPITAL was named as the state’s Best Commercial Broker. He has also recently been crowned as SME Adviser’s top business writer.

A list of all the Queensland Better Business Awards winners is out now.

Better Business Summit

The Better Business Awards followed on from the Better Business Summit, which shall be touring Sydney (23 February), Melbourne (2 March), Adelaide (9 March) and Perth (16 March).

The Better Business Summit — partnered by NAB —is jam-packed full of practical business tools, training and business intelligence to help brokers build a more productive and profitable business

Brokers will hear from the founder of one of Australia’s leading health and fitness brands, Michelle Bridges, as she leads a fascinating session on how she has built her brand and navigated roadblocks to create more sales opportunities and convert more deals.

Ms Bridges, who has previously praised the value of mortgage brokers, will also reveal how business leaders can perfect their profile, positioning and pitch to win more clients, more frequently.

In the afternoon, brokers will hear from neuro-linguistic programming expert and bestselling author Chris Helder, who will reveal the power of “useful belief” and impart real-world sales advice in a high-energy session that will teach brokers tactics for following up leads and closing more leads.

Leading economist Stephen Koukoulas will also provide attendees with key property and market information to help brokers give sage economic and financial advice to their clients, while marketing guru Beth Powell will unveil marketing tips and four simple steps that will help boost the efficacy of digital marketing campaigns.

Brokers will also hear from James O’Loghlin, host of the ABC’s TV show The New Inventors, to learn more about fintech and how to create a lasting point of difference, and how brokers can innovate to be at the top of their game.

With limited tickets remaining in each state, book your seat now to make sure you don’t miss out.

[Related: Better Business Summit 2017 agenda revealed]