29 year old general manager Matt Cunliffe is reaping the results of advertising in his clients’ native language
Matt Cunliffe has come a long way since his first broking role, expanding Mortgage Choice’s reach in Brisbane.
Twenty-nine-year-old general manager of Mortgage Choice’s Brisbane CBD branch, Matt Cunliffe has expanded its reach not only geographically but also through language.
After seven years with the Brisbane branch, Cunliffe also now manages their recently launched extension in Sunnybank Hills, decked out with effective multilingual advertising to better cater for their growing Chinese clientele.
“We noticed a need for a Chinese speaking broker almost three years ago,” says Cunliffe. “Just with the size of the market that was looming in the Brisbane area, with regards to overseas investors.”
So they brought on board a new broker, Charlie Zhu, two and a half years ago until demand grew so much they built a team and office around him, opening up their Sunnybank Hills office in August 2014 and setting themselves apart from their competitors.
“As far as I’m aware, we are the first Mortgage Choice offices in the country to have both Chinese and English signage on the building.” Cunliffe says about 95 per cent of business at the Sunnybank Hills office is ethnic Chinese and settlements have totalled in excess of $20 million within their first two months of opening.
“It was a pretty rapid result and the numbers have really stacked up,” he says and they will also be pushing to utilise the social media tools popular amongst Australian-based Chinese businesses competing for the growing customer base.
Cunliffe will also be embracing a new challenge from 1st July this year, when he takes over ownership of the branch. “With the transition of ownership, as long as we continue to perform exactly as we are now, I’ll be happy.”
Hailing from New Zealand, he worked in banking before transitioning to broking in 2008 with Mortgage Choice. “I started off as a broker and as the owners wanted to take a backwards step from the business I stepped up into a managerial role. So I’ve been managing now for 3 years.” But Cunliffe didn’t get to where he is today without hard work and perseverance.
“I think in the first year of being a broker, I clocked up about 65 000ks in the car - that was probably the biggest hurdle. I worked long hours and then made up for it on the weekends.” His work ethic and positive attitude allowed Cunliffe to settle big loans right from his first year. “I did see every single lead that was thrown in my direction,” he says.
“Give every lead you’ve got the same time of day. Most will turn into a deal eventually, be it the first home buyer who’s not quite ready yet or person buying their 10th investment property - make sure you give them your full attention.”
This article originally appeared in Australian Broker issue 12.09.
Twenty-nine-year-old general manager of Mortgage Choice’s Brisbane CBD branch, Matt Cunliffe has expanded its reach not only geographically but also through language.
After seven years with the Brisbane branch, Cunliffe also now manages their recently launched extension in Sunnybank Hills, decked out with effective multilingual advertising to better cater for their growing Chinese clientele.
“We noticed a need for a Chinese speaking broker almost three years ago,” says Cunliffe. “Just with the size of the market that was looming in the Brisbane area, with regards to overseas investors.”
So they brought on board a new broker, Charlie Zhu, two and a half years ago until demand grew so much they built a team and office around him, opening up their Sunnybank Hills office in August 2014 and setting themselves apart from their competitors.
“As far as I’m aware, we are the first Mortgage Choice offices in the country to have both Chinese and English signage on the building.” Cunliffe says about 95 per cent of business at the Sunnybank Hills office is ethnic Chinese and settlements have totalled in excess of $20 million within their first two months of opening.
“It was a pretty rapid result and the numbers have really stacked up,” he says and they will also be pushing to utilise the social media tools popular amongst Australian-based Chinese businesses competing for the growing customer base.
Cunliffe will also be embracing a new challenge from 1st July this year, when he takes over ownership of the branch. “With the transition of ownership, as long as we continue to perform exactly as we are now, I’ll be happy.”
Hailing from New Zealand, he worked in banking before transitioning to broking in 2008 with Mortgage Choice. “I started off as a broker and as the owners wanted to take a backwards step from the business I stepped up into a managerial role. So I’ve been managing now for 3 years.” But Cunliffe didn’t get to where he is today without hard work and perseverance.
“I think in the first year of being a broker, I clocked up about 65 000ks in the car - that was probably the biggest hurdle. I worked long hours and then made up for it on the weekends.” His work ethic and positive attitude allowed Cunliffe to settle big loans right from his first year. “I did see every single lead that was thrown in my direction,” he says.
“Give every lead you’ve got the same time of day. Most will turn into a deal eventually, be it the first home buyer who’s not quite ready yet or person buying their 10th investment property - make sure you give them your full attention.”
This article originally appeared in Australian Broker issue 12.09.
