Q. What prompted you to name the brokerage Loan Market Edge?
When naming conventions were coming into play for Loan Market. Having Townsville, Mackay, and Gold Coast, I didn’t want to have three Facebook pages and three Instagrams… but it was a bit limited to what names we could have – we couldn’t have east coast or west – so we had to come up with a name.
We thought it was about getting ‘the edge’ on your finances. So, we just took Edge and ran with it.
It has allowed us to grow across geographical space, but still come together as a group.
Q. How has the way you service clients changed over the years?
We often joke about the book of 100 pages that I’ve written – the first 99 of those are what not to do!
We’ve now gone back to setting up teams. We have an onboarding team, a lodgements/approvals team, a settlement team, and a post-settlement/customer care team.
The client experience is not interacting with all of those people throughout that process. But for us to be able to do a high level of volume with a high level of service, what we quickly identified (through making and breaking a few different models!) that trying to do full file ownership from end to end is really tricky.
The majority of our 18-person staff is for the back end. There might be four brokers at the front, but our point of difference is customer service. We only want a broker doing broker things. So, in a perfect world, the broker will do the initial chapter – they’ll do credit, they’ll do the research, and they’ll do the recommendation. They’re a specialist… and to be a specialist in their field and do the big-ticket items, we need to let everything else be taken care of by the team.
Our point of difference is customer service. We only want a broker doing broker things
Q. What has been your point of difference throughout the years?
For us, it’s customer experience and keeping customers for life. Once they’re onboarded, nobody leaves, and it’s our role to nurture that relationship.
I knew from my previous experience in sales how much easier it is to keep an existing client than it is to find a new one. So many people are forward-facing and busy chasing new clients. But I thought: ‘If we just did 10 per cent more for our existing database, we’d probably be in a much better space.’
We’re also dealing with people that already know us. They already trust us, and they want to work with us. They’re also going to go from an advocate to a raving fan – we take them on a journey to make sure. We’re sending out 15-year letters to some clients, so there are some real milestones there.
Q. What’s on the horizon for your business?
Our goal is to do a billion dollars in loans written per year by 2030. But what’s got us here won’t get us there. Without that stretch goal, without something to work towards at that level – if we miss that and hit $700 million, I’m not going to be upset because we are going to have had a whole lot of fun on that journey.
The org chart we have today will look very different by 30 June 2026, let alone what that’s going to look like in 2030… with AI, we’re going to be able to do more with the people that we have and take some of those more labour-intensive tasks off them.
Right now, I’d say 80 per cent of our business is residential mortgages. As we continue to grow, some brokers may specialise in an area more than others, for example, commercial.
Q. What advice would you share with a new broker?
Make a decision about what you want out of this career first and foremost. Cut your teeth and do your time. Don’t skip steps.
Join an amazing team, get under some leadership, and get that support around you. There’s real value in being supported and not doing it on your own because this can be a very lonely game.
And really think about your calendar. We talk about time or energy management, so make sure that your calendar reflects that. Have a look at your operating rhythms, have your non-negotiables. Treat it like a professional sports team – you have your on and your off periods. For example, I do a lot of 90-day sprints. So have your 10 weeks on and then have something to look forward to. Make sure you have that balance.
