Welcome to Spring and hopefully an active buying and selling property season as the weather fines up across most states. Early signs are that auction clearance rates are holding up and a national average of around 80% is likely.
Reflecting the slow pace in providing the necessary detail for industry to comply with the National Consumer Credit Protection (NCCP) package, the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen MP has now announced the commencement date has been pushed back 6 months to 1 July 2010. Most thought that when the reform package was first announced there was a lot of detail (and procedures) to be worked out in too short a time frame. This has been proved correct, despite earlier noise from government that delays would not be necessary or occur. Hardly surprising!
The ACCC has announced it is reviewing the NAB purchase of Challenger Financial Services and is in the process of seeking industry opinion as to the possible impact on consumers. It would be a surprise if ACCC approval was not forthcoming, given that the consumer proposition is unlikely to be impacted as brokers within the aggregator groups are still independent business operators and above influence by their aggregator as to choice of lender. Maybe it’s just a bit of “chest beating” by the ACCC after their normal role was largely steamrolled in some recent bank / bank activities.
We have announced the dates for the nMB 2010 Annual Conference, to be held on the Gold Coast at Royal Pines Resort from 24th to 26th February. It will be a hard act to follow the great conference held earlier this year, but with a number of fantastic industry and non-industry speakers lined up and the usual enthusiasm of nMB brokers, we’re all looking forward to another great event. Registration details for brokers and suppliers will be sent out shortly.
The Reserve Bank at its September Board Meeting again held the cash rate steady at 3%. In summary, the Board stated “… that the present accommodative setting of monetary policy remains appropriate for the time being. The Board will continue to adjust monetary policy so as to foster sustainable growth in economic activity and inflation consistent with the target.” Whilst an increase is still possible this year, it’s unlikely to occur before November.
Regards to all and good luck to your teams in the finals over the next two weeks!
Gerald Foley - Managing Director
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On the 1st of September 2009, nMB celebrated 8 years of business. We thank all our brokers and staff for contributing to the success of nMB during this time. Special mention must be made of Vera Jovanovic from head office and three brokers: Alex Martin of Melbourne; Nick Celino of Sydney; and Bill Keenes of Albury, all celebrating 8 years with nMB on the same day.
In nMB’s 8 years of business, the organisation has enjoyed a high level of success and frequently we are asked, what is nMB’s key point of difference? There a numerous points and a stand-out is the nMB Affiliate Model. Please see below a recent Q&A I conducted with Mortgage Business Magazine…..
How can an affiliate system help brokers generate business?
In simple terms, affiliate marketing is about engaging 3rd parties to actively promote a broker’s service.
It’s a variable cost method of marketing that provides brokers a means to increase their brand presence and expand into new markets without high advertising costs. Affiliate marketing is predominately an ecommerce business model and can be used to compliment traditional referral relationships.
Pioneered by amazon.com, affiliate marketing has become one of the most successful methods to increase sales via ecommerce channels.
Here are some of the key objectives brokers may realise from affiliate marketing:
• Build brand awareness
• Increase online traffic
• Increase number of leads
• Acquire new clients
• Increase Sales
• Extend reach to new markets
• Develop a new sales channel
• Develop cost effective distribution model
…..all of which may be achieved without adding to the cost of infrastructure or support.
How does your affiliate system work?How does it differ to traditional referrals?
Affiliate marketing is a proactive business model to generate leads whereas traditional referral relationships tend to be reactive to a client’s request.
All the broker needs to do is recruit businesses that are willing to engage in an affiliate relationship. The affiliate then publishes the broker’s service on their website, including a contact us form – code provided by nMB. Interested site visitors complete and submit their details online.
The broker automatically receives an SMS message with the client’s contact details, an email that replicates this information, and when the broker synchronises their CRM, a new client file will be created.
The broker then contacts the client, following their standard sales process and just by maintaining the client’s file on the CRM, the affiliate will automatically have access to reporting and invoicing.
The key elements that make nMB’s affiliate marketing system successful are a clearly defined business model and a unique tracking system.
Firstly, we provide brokers with a blueprint to successfully secure new relationships from marketing proposals to agreements that formalise the affiliate relationship.
Secondly, nMB’s Affiliate System tracks the entire lead to loan settlement process, ensuring affiliates are accurately acknowledged and rewarded for all loan sales originated by their organisations. Some of the features and benefits include:
• Scalability – this means a broker may have an infinite number of affiliate partners referring leads without adding any administrative pressure or costs to the broker’s business;
• Secure – protected online access which provides affiliates with an audit trail of leads supplied to the broker;
• Minimises Slippage – the system locks-down the original source of the lead to ensure affiliates are accurately acknowledged and rewarded for business generated for the broker;
• Management Information System – a web based interface that provides statistics on current and historical leads and loan sales. The broker’s affiliate partners are able to view lead statistics, workflow progress and dynamic commission reports for any given period in real-time. The reporting includes aggregate stats to protect the clients’ privacy.
What are the benefits of an affiliate model?
It is important that the affiliate relationship is mutually beneficial to brokers and their affiliates. The benefits to the broker are:
• provides a scalable solution to enter new markets & channels
• helps secure new customers
• variable-cost method of distribution
• builds brand equity
The benefits to the affiliate are:
• no-cost diversification business model
• cross-sell vehicle
• value-add service
• client retention strategy
• gives purpose to re-contact clients
• additional revenue stream
What sort of professionals or groups can affiliate partners be?
The great thing about the nMB affiliate marketing system is that it is ecommerce based. Brokers may have an infinite number of affiliates in any industry. All it requires is a website that attracts traffic and is willing to promote the broker’s service in exchange for a fee on the successful outcome.
Of course it can be used for the usual prospects such as accountants, financial planners, real estate groups, etc. but our brokers are finding success in all other areas such as: sporting groups, charitable organisations; web based shopping portals, removalists, schools & childcare centres, hospitals, etc. One of our brokers has implemented the nMB affiliate technology as the basis of a cause-relatedmarketing strategy.
Is your system available to all your members? Which brokers are most interested in using it?
The nMB affiliate marketing system is unique to our organisation and places us at a competitive advantage in the aggregator space. This business model and related technology is available to all nMB brokers. Single operators to national groups have adopted the nMB affiliate model. One of our broker groups has secured around 100 affiliate relationships.
How warm are the leads generated by your system?
The quality of leads generated by an affiliate marketing model is equal to that of any form of advertising. The major difference is that affiliate marketing is a pay-for-performance business model as apposed to traditional advertising where you pay-in-advance and hope for an outcome.
How should brokers approach clients generated by such a system?
Within our training program, we provide brokers with a documented sales system to ensure the service delivery is consistent, the affiliate is acknowledged as the source of the enquiry and the FBC (finance broker contract) discloses any marketing fees paid to the affiliates.
How would you suggest brokers dovetail an affiliate system with traditional marketing methods?
The best place to start is with existing referrals partners - nMB’s Affiliate Marketing System may be used to compliment these relationships. Firstly, it will provide a transparent reporting and payment system and equally important, it will help transform a reactive referral relationship to a proactive marketing model.
Sal Cinque - Director, Sales and Marketing
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Pre Approvals
Brokers beware, not all pre approvals are the same. It is important that a prospective buyer goes into a real estate negotiation with some level of certainty of their finance arrangements and how much they can borrow.
Opportunities can present themselves at any time and quite often don’t stay around for too long, hence the importance of obtaining a reliable pre approval, subject only to finding a suitable property to fit the security requirement. But, does such a thing exist?
In a time where Lenders are squeezing every dollar they can from processing centres, it seems that the pre approval, has suffered the most. Some Lenders do little more than a serviceability check and then issue the obligatory “pre approval certificate”, which is subject to endless conditions. When a Borrower actually works through the wording they come to the realisation that they have little more than a product brochure let alone something that will give them any confidence to go into battle with a real estate agent.
For a pre approval to provide any sort of comfort to a borrower, it needs to meet the following aspects of a lender’s criteria:
Servicing - Assessment against income servicing calculator Suitability of
Income - Income is acceptable against lender’s policy
Applicant’sCharacter - Credit history verified, acceptable occupation
LMI acceptance - All of the above meet LMI’ policy
We are in the process of updating the conditional approval section in Broker’s Forum with information which will assist you in identifying the different types of pre approval offered by lenders. We will advise as soon as this is complete.
Sarah Zecevic - Lending Services Manager
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MBS Top Tips
It seems that we all run busy offices these days. Dealing with the increasing demands of Lenders, coordinating client’s and solicitors, there hardly seems to be any time left at all. It’s during these times that we view any opportunity to save time and improve efficiency as something valuable.
It came to light following recent broker visits by BDM’s that some of the MBS functionality has been lost in the current environment. This has prompted me, from time to time, to use this section of nMB Intell as a forum to perhaps reintroduce some of you to the great features available in the nMB MBS software. We’ll start with three this month.
Bulk email using MBS CRM
Those regularly sending bulk email using MS Outlook should consider establishing distribution groups under MBS CRM. Not only do you get a professional looking email individually addressed to the person, you also dramatically reduce the chance of your message being blocked by spam filters at the other end.
User Settings/Defragment Database
Regularly defragment your database. (Not dissimilar to a “Windows Defrag” ). Regular defragmenting ensures your database is structured in an orderly manner which in turn gives you optimum response times to client information on CRM. Diarise to perform this function say once a month, lesser frequency for small databases.
User Settings > Preferences > Synchronisation
If your firewall allows, try Binary synchronisation, as it provides a more efficient way of updating your MBS CRM over the default method.
Kon Avramidis - Director, Operations
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Kate Jeremiah - nMB Marketing Coordinator
1. My all time favourite food is:
Nachos
2. The last book I read was:
The End of Poverty - written by Jeffery Sachsand Bono
3. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of:
Gossip and Lily Allen
4. My favourite saying is:
Comedy is tragedy plus time
5. My Ideal Sunday involves:
Sleeping in, then having a long, lazy brunch in the sun with friends or family. Doing a bit of clothes shopping in the afternoon, then
cooking a nice dinner and watching a DVD with my housemates.
6. If I didn’t live in Australia I would live in:
If language wasn’t a barrier I would live in Berlin, Germany now, and the South of France when I was older. I love both those
places for different reasons.
If language was a barrier, I would probably choose Vancouver, San Francisco or New York.
7. What’s one thing most people would not know about you?
That I auditioned for a TV show when I was 12. I had to be filmed pretending to be really hungover, something that I hadn’t experienced
at that stage!
8. If I could have dinner with anyone (dead or alive) I would choose:
Probably my grandfather (whom I never got to meet) and Michael
Jackson.
9. The most extravagant gift I have bought myself is:
A nice black wool coat in Paris. I justified its expense by saying that I would wear it for years. It ended up being stolen from a bar in London a few months later (it turned out I wasn’t the only one who thought it was nice)!
10. Three things I hope to do in my lifetime are:
• Travel the world
• Get married
• Have children
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nMB October Sales Meetings
Please make note of the relevant nMB October Sales Meetingdate in your diary:
Brisbane Tuesday 6th October
Sydney Wednesday 7th October
Melbourne Thursday 8th October
ACT Tuesday 13th October
Gippsland Thursday 15th October
Please RSVP your attendance to your state BDM.
