A young broker at Shore Financial has tripled his loan volume from FY14 to FY15, writing over $100 million in loans last financial year.
With just two and a half years in the business, Thomas Hawley is proving that young brokers can hit big numbers in a short time and is the fresh spark needed in an ageing industry. But he didn’t set a target of $100 million from the get-go at the start of July last year.
“Originally I set my goal at $85 million, I thought that was a big stretch at the time,” says Hawley. But a lodgement competition with two other colleagues to see who could lodge the most applications in one month (testament to the competitive but supportive atmosphere of the brokerage), resulted in Hawley writing $33 million in 30 days. So he upped his target to $100 million total for the year.
Hawley says raising the bar with high targets and achieving them is fundamentally about having the knowledge and surrounding yourself with the right people. But ultimately, you need to put in the hours.
“You really want to make sure that the people around you are pushing you. You need to make sure you’re asking why. You need to be inquisitive and you need to have to know everything. But the main thing underlying all that is just hard work - I’m contactable all the time.”
He says although first year brokers may not have the experience yet, they can make up for it by showing the client they have all the knowledge. “You just need to know what you’re talking about, back to front. People can recognise that very quickly… and clients will test you.”
“Be as diligent and have as much attention to detail as possible and I can tell you you’re credibility will very quickly increase and then that challenge of getting into the industry and securing clients will become a lot easier. If you can have such great knowledge and service that you need less leads to get a desired settlement amount, well then you’re already halfway there.”
Hawley broke down the broker role into three clear components early on in his career; managing clients, understanding product and policies and managing referrers. Efficiency is paramount along with showing the client the value proposition of a broker beyond interest rates. He demonstrates this by connecting with them, providing superior customer service, going beyond the knowledge required and thinking long-term what would be best for the client.
“I kept focusing on trying to be on top of the game on those three separate core business functions that I just think are so critical. You can’t let any of those dwindle if you’re an end to end broker.”
And how to bring your A-game to work every day?
“I just really enjoy what I do,” he says.
