Nadine: How can a broker differentiate themselves from another broker in this industry and market?

Barry: Yeah look, it’s a very very busy industry and unless you’re first there, it’s always hard to be a little different. So step number one is to I guess make the decision to change and a lot of people do that but at the end of the day they end up doing the same stuff they did last time, so it’s a tough decision and any change management project needs three things. It needs readiness, you need to be ready, saying yes I’m ready to do this. You need capability so you need some tools some training perhaps, in your business.

But most importantly you need belief, you need belief that you’re doing this because you believe it’ll all make a difference. So what you gotta look at is is where you are now in your business, where you’d like to be, and then what most people forget is how they’re going to get to where they want to be from where they are now.

So there’s a few things that you need to consider. You need to define your difference, so what what is your added value? Think of yourself and the way that you deal with anyone if you’re purchasing any particular item in around your home. What are the things that you like from someone that’s selling something? And then see if you review your business, are you offering that same service and things that you like, are you offering to your clients? So make a bit of, as I say, hit list, of things you like and make sure they are part of your service offering. And how is your business relevant in the rest of the market? What are pain points for people in, I guess the finance space? And is your service relevant, are you resolving some of those pain points for consumers?

Nadine: Okay, and you talked a little bit about earlier developing those real relationships?

Barry: Yeah, real relationships with your customers are important. I think if you speak to me and they go, yeah of course I’ve got relationships with my customers, but there’s a lot of automation out there. I guess automation is good if you’re doing nothing, but I think it’s very important to put some real in it. So look to ways that you might be able to touch your clients by simple things like phone calls, and thanking them for the service they’ve offered. Or it may be something that you know about, or you’ve made your business know.

If they want to on the weekend, then give them a call, you know, make a habit of picking up the phone and ringing say, five, ten of your customers. Set yourself a target each week, just to talk about them, and make them feel that that you really do care about them. It’s not just a machine that’s staying in touch with them.

Nadine: Yeah, definitely.