Brokers are our bloodline: Bluestone

Bluestone Mortgages reflects on the value they place on brokers as they reach their first billion dollars in settlements

Brokers are our bloodline: Bluestone

As Bluestone Mortgages recently hit its first billion dollars in settlements since returning to the market, we ask its Head of Sales and Marketing what the main drivers are behind achieving this milestone

Royden D’Vaz: Bluestone Mortgages' recent billion-dollar milestone has been as a result of two drivers:

  1. Being a true specialist lender

Bluestone Mortgages has resisted diversifying its product offering and remained solely aligned with the SME and credit impaired space/ developing corresponding financial solutions that directly support these sectors. These robust products provide an attractive alternative and are designed to meet specific market needs and evolving end-user requirements. The high product uptake has been driven by the product structure and corresponding features that directly support market demand and address common pain points (i.e. products geared to provide finance to start-up businesses with 3-months ABN vs evidence of the standard 24-month trading history that’s traditionally required). 

  1. Increased broker support

The company conducts continuous due diligence to ensure its delivering optimal products, and importantly, supporting the broker community and enhancing their user experience. This has been supported by scaling and expanding the BDM and credit teams. 

This approach has escalated the trajectory to meet the billion-dollar milestone, with 54.4% of the target occurring over the last 12 months – which directly coincides with the implementation of this strategy.

MPA: What challenges and opportunities has resisting diversification presented?
RD: Bluestone Mortgages has a very specific product offering which directly aligns with growth segments. This is an immediate opportunity to provide financial solutions specifically geared to increasing market demand and expectations, as demonstrated by its substantial growth in the last 12 months.  Having linear shopfront was initially challenging, but has become one of the company’s greatest strength in that it’s clearly defined, easy to understand and therefore offer to clients to address common market challenges.

MPA: How is Bluestone’s strategy focussed on going beyond expectations for brokers?
RD: Brokers are the bloodline of the business. Accordingly, there are dedicated resources committed to ensure that Bluestone consistently meets and exceeds broker expectations. This is demonstrated through the recent expansion of the BDM, sales and credit assessor/underwriting teams to ensure greater 1:1 interface, quicker turnaround, and overall, an enhanced user experience. In addition, we’ve facilitated specialist lending educational workshops, along with a continual stream of support collateral designed to assist the sales process/convert end-users (with the option of white-labelled brochures, etc, that are customised on the broker’s behalf with their logo/branding as the company recognises that brokers’ cash flow is often tight and that marketing their business is quite often not prioritised). 

MPA: How is the SME market tracking and what current trends should brokers be aware of in this space? 
RD: SMEs continue to demonstrate considerable growth and increasing market dominance. As such, SMEs are becoming savvier about (and open to) alternative funding solutions and are much more proactive about seeking advice about the common challenges of managing working capital and/or obtaining funding. By embracing specialist lending, brokers are in an ideal position to be solution providers to this buoyant sector and as such create stickier relationships and increase revenue.