Business
To say James Hasselle is an impressive individual is an understatement. From starting a ‘greenfields’ Mortgage Choice in Burleigh Heads over a decade ago, these days, James enjoys having 3-times the market share that a typical broker would earn from their own suburb. In real terms, this means they write a significant volume from local clientele due somewhat to their positioning in high-traffic areas, but also to investing into quality relationships with other local traders, and providing their clients a service experience that they can’t help but want to tell others about. For example, clients are offered a snack and beverage from the in-house menu. It’s different, and worthy of talking about. And, if you call any of their three offices, there’s just one phone number, which keeps things really simple for clients. Combined with other touch points like their annual home-loan health, it makes it easy for existing clients to return and for James’ team to be kept front of mind. Equally impressive is the decision James implemented to change the delivery model for his business. With a team of 4 loan writers, he has personally stepped back from loan writing to he can focus solely on operating the business. Not easy to do when you were writing $141 million per annum, but it’s a decision James knew would enable him to mentor and empower his team to become even more exceptional in their own right. July 2019 was their first month under the new model, and they submitted the same volume as a year earlier without James writing a single loan. Naturally, he will need to communicate effectively with existing clients to manage expectations, and to have great processes in place to handover new client enquiries, etc. Equally, this decision provides James an opportunity to establish new referral partnerships, and to spend quality time at home with his wife and young family. Though it’s early days yet, James might just be onto something here and it’ll be interesting to see which other brokers will be bold enough to follow in his steps. James Hasselle’s website James Hasselle’s Facebook page Double Your Settlements: Watch this free training so you can double your settlement volumes with structure and consistency.