In under two and a half years, Romeo Raad has become an award-winning mobile broker and one of Aussie's best.
A broker for barely two and a half years, Romeo Raad joined Aussie Home Loans in Novemb
er 2012 and hasn’t looked back at the career in debt collection he left behind.
He has since won the ‘Achievement Award NSW/ACT’ at the MFAA 2015 National Excellence Awards and struck a perfect customer satisfaction score last financial year. Raad says it was an unexpected surprise to receive the award after only a few years in the industry. “It was a great honour and a very humbling experience.” Working for himself appealed to Raad as he realised during his time as a collections manager that he was working harder and harder for less pay.
“I’ve gone from collecting debt to giving people responsible debt,” says Raad. “I wanted to work for myself in a job where the harder I worked the more reward I’d get and I spoke to a couple of people who were doing broking at the time and it sounded like a great idea.” So he transferred his relationship management skills to broking along with his can-do attitude and tireless work ethic.
“I understood early on that if I was going to be successful quickly I needed to get the volumes in so I was at work very long hours, worked weekends, whatever it took because I knew when my business became successful I could slow down - it wouldn’t be forever.” Raad enjoys the flexibility of being a mobile broker and the work/life balance he was looking for, having the option to work from home or utilize the office facilities provided by Aussie.
“This work/life balance suits me to a tee - if I need to take my kids to school, I can. If I need to pick them up, I can.”
As a broker starting out, he says Aussie surpassed his expectations. “The training and support I think is second to none. I’ve talked to brokers from other aggregators and other brokerages and you’re kind of on your own. With Aussie you’ve got your sales managers, your credit coach, your Marketing Manager and such a good network of experienced brokers that if you get stuck you’ve got someone to talk to.”
Aussie also asked Raad to become an accredited mentor with the franchise which he says was a great opportunity to give something back. “When I was new, the senior brokers helped me and without their help I would’ve struggled. So now I’m in a position to help others, I’m happy to do it.”
Getting a perfect NPS score
When asked how new brokers would go about achieving a perfect NPS score too, Raad had some tips to share. Providing a reliable and fast service where communication is key is the first step. “I get back to them when I say I’m going to,” he says, calling them back within the hour if they’ve left a message. “If they’ve emailed me - I’m an email junkie so I always respond to their email ASAP.”
Perseverance is also important to remember with broking being a long term game. “If you work hard and you put the hours in, you will see the rewards come later but you’ve got to be patient - it takes time to build your book. If you hang in there, look after your customers and work hard, you’ll succeed.” And thirdly but equally important is building rapport and trust with your customers. “By listening to the customer, you can gauge their reactions and you can get a gut feel for what they’re thinking so you can tailor your approach to how they’re feeling.”
Rapport and trust
Raad noticed that most of his customers picked their product in the first appointment, so instead of a two appointment process, he tailored his approach to suit, saving time to see more customers. “I’ve found that if you build that rapport and you make them feel comfortable with you and they trust you and can see you know what you’re talking about, they’re confident enough to pick a product with you then and there.”
Although, he recalls one scenario where the clients were nervous and unsure whether to choose fixed/variable or which lender so noticing this, Raad said he would email them the best three options, told them to have a think and let him know. “The relief on their faces was so obvious - that I wasn’t going to try and get them to pick a product then and there. And the next day they came back and said, ‘yep, we’ll go with this one.’ You’ve got to gauge that - if you’ve got your head in your laptop and you’re not really watching, you’re not going to pick that up.”
In his early days starting out he turned up for a meeting and the client already had another broker there already. “I was the third broker that they’d met that day and I had to wait for about half an hour on the porch.” While waiting he found common ground with the husband on fishing but when it was his turn they said the previous broker had offered a better deal than his. Rather than pushing his deal further, Raad closed his laptop and agreed it was a good deal but to check its ongoing fees and then spent the remaining half hour of the appointment talking about fishing and left with some hooks and sinkers.
He emailed the client the next day if they’d heard back about the fees, which they hadn’t and a few hours later the wife called and said frankly, “my husband wants to go with you because he likes you. Even though you can’t beat the rate, he’s prepared to pay a little bit more because he likes you.” “If the customer likes you and trusts you they’ll do business with you regardless of the rate sometimes and that stuck in my mind and taught me a valuable lesson early on; it’s all about building that rapport with your customer.”
And as much as Raad appreciates the unlimited earning potential and flexible working hours, he says the best part is “the satisfaction on people’s faces when you get them that loan”.
This article originally appeared in Australian Broker issue 12.11.
er 2012 and hasn’t looked back at the career in debt collection he left behind. He has since won the ‘Achievement Award NSW/ACT’ at the MFAA 2015 National Excellence Awards and struck a perfect customer satisfaction score last financial year. Raad says it was an unexpected surprise to receive the award after only a few years in the industry. “It was a great honour and a very humbling experience.” Working for himself appealed to Raad as he realised during his time as a collections manager that he was working harder and harder for less pay.
“I’ve gone from collecting debt to giving people responsible debt,” says Raad. “I wanted to work for myself in a job where the harder I worked the more reward I’d get and I spoke to a couple of people who were doing broking at the time and it sounded like a great idea.” So he transferred his relationship management skills to broking along with his can-do attitude and tireless work ethic.
“I understood early on that if I was going to be successful quickly I needed to get the volumes in so I was at work very long hours, worked weekends, whatever it took because I knew when my business became successful I could slow down - it wouldn’t be forever.” Raad enjoys the flexibility of being a mobile broker and the work/life balance he was looking for, having the option to work from home or utilize the office facilities provided by Aussie.
“This work/life balance suits me to a tee - if I need to take my kids to school, I can. If I need to pick them up, I can.”
As a broker starting out, he says Aussie surpassed his expectations. “The training and support I think is second to none. I’ve talked to brokers from other aggregators and other brokerages and you’re kind of on your own. With Aussie you’ve got your sales managers, your credit coach, your Marketing Manager and such a good network of experienced brokers that if you get stuck you’ve got someone to talk to.”
Aussie also asked Raad to become an accredited mentor with the franchise which he says was a great opportunity to give something back. “When I was new, the senior brokers helped me and without their help I would’ve struggled. So now I’m in a position to help others, I’m happy to do it.”
Getting a perfect NPS score
When asked how new brokers would go about achieving a perfect NPS score too, Raad had some tips to share. Providing a reliable and fast service where communication is key is the first step. “I get back to them when I say I’m going to,” he says, calling them back within the hour if they’ve left a message. “If they’ve emailed me - I’m an email junkie so I always respond to their email ASAP.”
Perseverance is also important to remember with broking being a long term game. “If you work hard and you put the hours in, you will see the rewards come later but you’ve got to be patient - it takes time to build your book. If you hang in there, look after your customers and work hard, you’ll succeed.” And thirdly but equally important is building rapport and trust with your customers. “By listening to the customer, you can gauge their reactions and you can get a gut feel for what they’re thinking so you can tailor your approach to how they’re feeling.”
Rapport and trust
Raad noticed that most of his customers picked their product in the first appointment, so instead of a two appointment process, he tailored his approach to suit, saving time to see more customers. “I’ve found that if you build that rapport and you make them feel comfortable with you and they trust you and can see you know what you’re talking about, they’re confident enough to pick a product with you then and there.”
Although, he recalls one scenario where the clients were nervous and unsure whether to choose fixed/variable or which lender so noticing this, Raad said he would email them the best three options, told them to have a think and let him know. “The relief on their faces was so obvious - that I wasn’t going to try and get them to pick a product then and there. And the next day they came back and said, ‘yep, we’ll go with this one.’ You’ve got to gauge that - if you’ve got your head in your laptop and you’re not really watching, you’re not going to pick that up.”
In his early days starting out he turned up for a meeting and the client already had another broker there already. “I was the third broker that they’d met that day and I had to wait for about half an hour on the porch.” While waiting he found common ground with the husband on fishing but when it was his turn they said the previous broker had offered a better deal than his. Rather than pushing his deal further, Raad closed his laptop and agreed it was a good deal but to check its ongoing fees and then spent the remaining half hour of the appointment talking about fishing and left with some hooks and sinkers.
He emailed the client the next day if they’d heard back about the fees, which they hadn’t and a few hours later the wife called and said frankly, “my husband wants to go with you because he likes you. Even though you can’t beat the rate, he’s prepared to pay a little bit more because he likes you.” “If the customer likes you and trusts you they’ll do business with you regardless of the rate sometimes and that stuck in my mind and taught me a valuable lesson early on; it’s all about building that rapport with your customer.”
And as much as Raad appreciates the unlimited earning potential and flexible working hours, he says the best part is “the satisfaction on people’s faces when you get them that loan”.
This article originally appeared in Australian Broker issue 12.11.
