AFG has announced that it has contracted an award-winning broker to liaise between the aggregator and the broker channel.
Ruan Burger, a former director of Time Home Loans in Queensland and an MFAA Credit Advisor of the Year Finalist, will work to smooth the relationship with brokers, helping them to maximise their partnership with AFG and to accelerate their growth.
“They’ve engaged me to assist them with their broker partners and their business partnership manager in Queensland,” Burger told Australian Broker. “I do a bit of coaching one on one and in a team environment on how they can better support their broker network and their brokers.
“I think from AFG’s point of view, it came from me being a broker for quite a while, and it was best to have a broker in those conversations when they’re teaching their people how to get the best value from their broker network. The same way that brokers are continually refining how we can be better value to our clients.”
“It’ll be working with their partnership managers as well as their sales managers and they’ll get me to engage with the broker partners, across recruitment strategies, growth, margins, business setups and exit strategies.”
Burger was identified for the role because of his extensive background within the industry and his knowledge of the specific challenges faced by brokers in Queensland.
“I can only go off AFG’s take,’ he said. “They’ve seen how I’ve built two businesses, one in Regional Queensland and one in the Metro areas, and they were, in AFG’s eyes, good businesses.”
“They saw that I had the experience to build these businesses from the ground up and, if I was to sit down with brokers, I would understand the pain points and where they’re at. Like in any industry, we know what we know and we don’t know what we don’t know. Sometimes what you need is a bit of guidance to put you on the path to grow a bit faster than if you tried to do it on your own.”
