Sydney-based mortgage broker and finance consultant Australian Financial Market has commenced an expansion phase after success in its financial planning division brought in more leads than the firm could handle.
“The leads have become a bit of a hurdle believe it or not,” Australian Financial Market director Abdul Hawat told
Australian Broker. “So we’re looking at growing the team by putting another few brokers on board.”
At present, Hawat works alongside another senior broker and a support broker with the hope to expand this team by a further two brokers over the next month or so.
“The volume’s just got to the stage which takes us off the road completely. I think we’ve got five applications that have got to be lodged today. Hence, we’re trying to put more people on board and take that pressure off our backs.”
Hawat has been a director of the financial planning practice for five years. This arm is now moving forwards at full steam under the old fashioned call centre model and an in-office customer service team, he said.
A fair bit of growth is also coming through the mortgage space in addition to the firm’s financial planning division, Hawat said.
“We’ve got a book that’s been around for 11 years now. More importantly, we’ve got a big database of 60,000 leads who keep calling us wanting to do bits and pieces here and there.”
Hawat said he would be open to bringing on new-to-industry brokers as well as those with a bit more experience.
“We’re happy to give someone an opportunity to come in and learn. We’ll assist people with getting their accreditation and learning how to work with credit to become a fully licensed broker within time.”
The staff, attitude and commitment were behind the rapid growth at Australian Financial Market, Hawat said. Brokers employed by the firm will also be given excellent lead generation opportunities, he added.
“The number of appointments and leads provided is unmatched in my opinion. In this industry, anyone can go in and start their own business. You can get your Cert IV, be mentored by someone, get your accreditation through an aggregator, and then go source your own leads. The hardest part is a lot of people can’t afford to spend enough money up front to generate leads.”
Australian Financial Market spends hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in lead generation in addition to extra support measures such as training, Hawat said.
“At the same time, it’s an attractive remuneration where we pay upfront and also a trail. There are a lot of companies that provide leads which don’t pay trail.”
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