How award-winning broker Ian Robinson builds trust with clients

Being in the business of commercial lending, Ian Robinson, founding director of Robinson Sewell Partners, and his team are trusted with the most precious resources that underpin their clients’ livelihoods. Every transaction draws upon their qualifications and experience to achieve the desired funding solution.

Beyond a typical transaction
To win and keep clients’ trust, RSP maintains a multilayered, client-centric focus. “RSP’s credit advisory services go beyond the two dimensional debt-funding transaction,” said Robinson, the 2017 Broker of the Year (commercial and specialist lending) at the Australian Mortgage Awards.

“Multilayering is identifying a client’s long-term strategy, succession and risk appetite,” he said.

The team draws upon their accounting and corporate governance knowledge to ensure their funding strategy is bespoke to tax, audit, reporting and structural requirements. 

“It’s a collaborative approach that opens up communication between all the client’s key stakeholders and advisors such as accountants, consultants and wealth professionals,” he said.

It’s like driving
RSP’s clients are generally farmers. It’s normal for Robinson’s team to be on the road, covering hundreds of kilometres for client visits. And for them, managing clients works the same way as driving: eyes focused on the horizon whilst remaining aware of the immediate environment. One activity should not dominate the other; both work in a symbiotic relationship regardless of which activity demands one’s immediate attention, said Robinson.

To deliver exceptional client experience, Robinson learns his trade by heart, manages achievable and realistic expectations, and builds a reputation that can be relied on even by critical stakeholders. 

While Robinson acknowledges social media’s necessary role in today’s operating environment, he doesn’t consider it a silver bullet. RSP designed its genome around physical social connectivity to create a tangible sense of trust with clients.

“This behavioural trait is too powerful to ignore,” Robinson said. “Getting out and shaking hands is still the primal force of success.”

Nominations for the 2018 AMAs are now open. To nominate, please click here.