Brokers unhappy with referral partners

According to a new poll conducted by The Adviser, 38.6 per cent of brokers are “not at all satisfied” with their referral partner or partners.

Of the 114 survey respondents, 40.4 per cent admitted they were “reasonably satisfied”, while just over 20 per cent said they were “very satisfied”.

According to The Adviser’s latest professional referral survey, accountants, solicitors and real estate agents are considered the best referrals for mortgage brokers, with more than 90 per cent of respondents indicating that they had a relationship in place with one or more of these professionals.

The Australian Lending & Investment Centre’s Mark Davis told The Adviser that the best way for a broker to become “very satisfied” with their referral partner is to think about how they can make their partner’s business successful, rather than the other way around.

“At present, we are referring approximately 1,100 leads to our business partners a year. In our business, we strive to make sure the businesses we align ourselves with are successful. If our business partners are successful, then we will be successful as well,” Mr Davis said.

“We don’t tell them what they can do for us. Instead, we show them what we can do for them and their business and we expect those we partner with to have the same philosophy.

“If they don’t want to work too closely with us, or they do not want to treat us in the same way as we treat them , then we don’t want to deal with them. We realise pretty quickly which business partners will be our primary referral relationships and drop those who aren’t.”

Mr Davis’ comments were echoed by The Mortgage Professionals' Michael Ryce, who said the best way to make referral partners excellent referrers is to give them as much business as possible.

“Tell them how you will help them in their business and then deliver on that. Professionals will be much more keen to refer you business if you provide them with business in the first instance,” he said.