Aussie pair driving top performing store now chasing $1bn loan settlements
Belinda Woodley and Matt Rose head up the Aussie Prospect store in South Australia. For nine consecutive years of their 11 years as franchisees, the business has outperformed the national network and ranked as the top store.
That’s no mean feat in a chain of more than 220 stores, where the top 50 all receive over $1 million in annual commission payments.
Belinda and Matt have leveraged the Aussie name and all the support and tools available to drive their business forward. And they’re not done yet.
The top performing Aussie store is setting the pace with an ambitious goal to settle loans valued at more than $1 billion annually.
Yet neither Matt nor Belinda came into the mortgage broking brand with any lending experience. Matt was in retail management, and Belinda specialised in recruitment.
She joined Aussie as a mobile broker 18 years ago. After seven years she combined forces with fellow broker Matt to purchase a store; today their multi-award-winning business has 14 brokers and six support staff.
At one point, two other franchise partners were in the business; they parted ways last year. This enabled Matt and Belinda to reset and scale the business. They invested in their premises, new technology, and a great team of brokers.
Scaling the top performing Aussie store
The pair have invested significant funds into a renovation of their store to provide multiple consultation spaces, back office workstations for 26, and design features that enhance the broker and customer experience.
Belinda says “There was a cafe and shop next door to our office and we always joked about knocking down the wall and opening up the space. We had grown so much that we leased another property a few doors away to house the admin team but we felt segregated.
“So when the opportunity arose to take on the next-door site, we jumped at it. It has more than doubled the rent but it is a more professional office, and there is room for us to expand.”
Building the team
They pivoted from the traditional remuneration model of self-employed brokers, to paying salaries in order to attract and retain top tier local talent. This has enhanced the culture in the office too, says Belinda.
“PAYG has really worked for us; everyone is really motivated. Aussie and Lendi have a good recruitment focus and recommended some great candidates with the right personality and level of ambition for our business,” she says.
Their recruitment process is focused on employing the right individuals not just for financial performance but for their personality and team spirit.
“Culture has been a massive thing for us. We have such a lovely vibe and we all look after each other,” she says. “In this industry you can’t do it all by yourself. Our success as brokers has been the team,” she says.
Driving success
It’s also been about hard work.
“When I started I was working from 8am to 10pm; you’ve got to put in the hard yards. This is not a Monday to Friday 9-5 job. You have to care about your clients and want to do the best by them. If you make it enjoyable, that makes you more successful,” she says.
“We are putting in the resources now to invest in the business. We are excited about what we
are setting up to enhance the client experience. That’s how we can scale,”she says.
Brilliant tech helps scale the business
With their eyes on growing the business, Belinda and Matt were swift to adopt Aussie’s supported store model, Platform Plus.
Using this system Aussie’s internal Associates team pre-qualifies leads and then books them straight into brokers’ diaries.
“Platform Plus will enable our brokers to focus on doing the part they really enjoy – directly interacting with customers and providing lending solutions. As franchisees, we’ll also have a greater capacity to support and mentor our brokers in-store,” says Belinda.
“Aussie’s Platform is an interactive system so the client can see what we’re doing. It is more professional for clients and it’s becoming more intuitive week by week with the constant improvements,” she says.
Harnessing the Aussie tools
Matt and Belinda are part of the Signature Diamond Program, a cohort of the top 25 brokers within Aussie. The group participate in focus groups and quarterly planning sessions.
“Aussie and Lendi are constantly bringing new ideas for client solutions. They are very much listening to our feedback and we are seeing improvements within this team week by week too.”
As the top performing Aussie store owners Belinda and Matt have proved the value of harnessing the tools provided and investing in opportunity.
“It’s all about creating a seamless experience for the client. Aussie is known and trusted and its affiliation with Lendi gives us strong technical advantages as well. I’m proud to work for Aussie,” says Belinda.