In her 20th year of broking, we catch up with Peita Davies to find out all the tricks of the trade she’s picked up along the way, and why she’s opening her third MoneyQuest franchise this year.
Finance specialist, Peita Davies, has many reasons to celebrate this year.
Marking her 20th year in the industry this year, she’s not only opening her third MoneyQuest franchise in a new state, but has also been named the winner of the Editor’s Choice award NSW at the Better Business Awards NSW/ACT 2022.
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Since entering the industry in 2002, she has grown her team and business to cover Penrith and the Blue Mountains, becoming a well-known and trusted member of those communities.
We spoke with Ms Davies about how she started her journey and all the tricks of the trade she’s picked up along the way.
Why and how did you become a broker?
I actually fell into the industry. I wanted to join a bank and back then you had to sit a bank exam, which I did for Commonwealth and Westpac but I didn’t end up passing those exams. I also sat a public service exam which I got into but I didn’t really enjoy that.
Eventually, I met someone who was actually a broker and she encouraged me to join the industry. The qualifications needed to get in were sparse at the time. I remember doing a “course” at an RSL run by Choice Aggregation at the time! And the rest is history…
How has broking changed over the last 20 years?
I think the main thing is the profession itself. When you’re starting out as a mobile broker, you feel a little like an insurance salesperson. I was visiting people at home, and I’d have a little box in the car with all the different lender applications; back then everything was filled out by pen. Then you’d go in, have a meeting, and present your strategy.
Things really changed dramatically from a digital perspective, along with the professionalisation [of the industry].
Broking wasn’t something that was ever seen as a profession, it was more like a sales position, and it was – to an extent. Nowadays it’s more about the whole advice piece and actually looking at what problem your customer is trying to solve.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced over your broking career? And how did you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenges were actually growing the business. I was just a broker who happened to be good at it, and then from there, it just continued to grow from that.
The biggest challenge is: how do you fulfil the needs of your customers as your customer base grows? The industry is continually changing so it’s not just a case of more customers, it’s also licencing, preparing different documentation, CPD points, being upskilled, going digital, then of course COVID.
The biggest challenge is always knowing how to pivot, and which way to pivot, and coming up with the right decisions or the right direction to take.
You have two franchises at the moment, and you’re just about to open your third, in Queensland. Why have you decided to open up multiple offices? And how do you manage it?
Penrith and the Blue Mountains are regions where customers like local community support. It came down to being able to support those regions with a brand that resonated with the community. Penrith and the Blue Mountains aren’t a far distance from each other but they both have very different needs from a community perspective.
I have a reputation in the Penrith and the Blue Mountains area, so business comes through the door because of “Peita Davies”, but I have three brokers in that space that can manage that workflow. I’m the front space of that area but it won’t be about me once we move to other states, rather it’ll be about the brand and the broker we put there.
Through COVID and adopting digital processes, I’ve learnt that you don’t actually need to be where you want to work. If I can find quality brokers that would support me [in Queensland], why wouldn’t I want to expand the brand out there?
What are your top tips for managing a growing broking business?
Communication is the utmost [importance], as well as good workflow processes.
A tip I would give for brokers wanting to grow a team is that you’ve got to have a very clear document process and insist that your team follows it. I tell my team: “You need to walk and talk like me, and until you walk and talk like me, I’m not ready to let you go and run your own appointments.”
For us, [it’s] about talking about the solutions and goals the customer has and then we come back with the research and give them our recommendation first, and then talk about rate and price.
We definitely talk about product and the difference between different types of products, but rate and lender [are] never discussed at that point. And that’s hard for new brokers to get their head around because that’s the only thing they’ve got to focus on, and that’s not what your customer wants.
You can find out more about Peita Davies’s 20-year career and top tips for success, in The Adviser’s Elite Broker podcast.
Tune in to the episode with Peita Davies, How this broker grew her business over 20 years, below:
[Related: Winners of the Better Business Awards 2022 NSW/ACT celebrated!]
