Only 5.5% disagreed or strongly disagreed, with the rest unsure
83.7% of brokers either agreed or strongly agreed that BDMs play an important role in the industry today, reveals a new survey by Smart Money People.
Only 5.5% disagreed or strongly disagreed, with the rest unsure.
These findings were part of Smart Money People’s Mortgage Lender Benchmark, covering mortgage broker opinions on UK mortgage lenders for H2 2023.
The latest edition comprises feedback from more than 790 mortgage brokers, providing 3,666 individual pieces of feedback on 105 lenders.
Further insight found that 32.2% of brokers said they typically first hear about a lender and what they offer from business development managers, with only product sourcing scoring higher (35%). Additionally, when asking brokers what they would consider as their most valuable form of support service to serve clients effectively, 37.3% said BDMs, beating the likes of dedicated phone lines, training programs/webinars and live chat.
Whilst the slight majority of brokers (43.3%) were happy, over a third (36.4%) said they did not feel their lender gave adequate BDM support, with the rest unsure.
Finally, one area that saw a lot of attention is the move from in-person business development managers to telephone-based BDMs and less availability on the road and, although some brokers appeared comfortable with this change, many blamed the apparent problems with availability and accessibility on the lack of in-person support.
Jacqueline Dewey, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Money People, said: It is clear that brokers still clearly value the role of business development managers and although they understand the need for lenders to evolve, moving too quickly to a hybrid approach is a concern and can damage that lender’s relationship with its brokers.
She added: Lenders who can excel in providing superior BDM support with business development managers who have good case knowledge, along with being readily available and accessible will stand out from the crowd.
