Why agents need to embrace the incremental revenue

It’s easier than you might think.

For any agent the challenge of making a business successful is hard work with the focus on maintaining good stock levels, operating compliantly, keeping customers happy, and staff motivated as well as ensuring a healthy income.

Introduce Embrace Financial Service and you can embrace additional revenue as well as increase levels of customer satisfaction.

Specifically set up with estate agency businesses in mind, Embrace Financial Consultants have experience arranging mortgages and protection insurance for all types of customers - from first-time buyers and long-term investors, through to customers remortgaging and those up and downsizing.

We spoke to Paul Rogers; one of the owners of Rogers Stewart Associates Limited, who have three Reeds Rains branches across Teesside. Paul believes introducing Embrace to your business is a ‘no brainer’.

“Lawrie Stewart and I have been operating as a Reeds Rains franchise in Middlesbrough, Stockton and Guisborough since 2008 and have offered sales, lettings and financial services from the very start,” says Paul.

“However, as customer expectations for quicker and more efficient services have increased, and as some income opportunities have decreased, we came to the conclusion that we needed to review our customer proposition and, from this, decided that financial services (including mortgage and protection insurance) was one area we could really grow and benefit from as a business.”

“It’s for that reason we turned to Embrace Financial Services.”

A turnkey solution – everything is taken care of

“Embrace offers a turnkey solution with fully compliant financial consultants on hand, comprehensive support and training for my staff, promotional material and a great website that we can refer our customers to.”

“It has been a perfect solution for us and means that I’ve been able to   focus on the day to day running of the business without worrying about compliance and the heavy regulation surrounding financial services.”

“Everything is taken care of and all we have to do is make sure we get the appointments booked in.”

My teams have benefitted, as have our customers

“Embrace have been extremely easy to work with and are very professional and, because the financial consultants sit within the branches, they have become an integral part of the team; spotting opportunities as appointments take place and coaching and helping us all on an ongoing basis.”

“My teams can now more confidently speak about financial services and position it as a natural ‘additional’ service to our customers.”

“It’s also easier for them to reassurance sellers that the buyer, who chooses our service, is in a position to go ahead and can make a big difference to the speed at which the transaction is completed.”

“Where a buyer already has existing mortgage or protection plans in place, we also make sure that we offer to check their deal or premiums to see if we can beat them – when we do, it simply adds to the customer’s satisfaction and increases the likelihood that they will recommend us and generate even more business opportunities. It’s been a great support to our staff and a great motivator.”

“We do the same for our sellers, as well as our landlords, encouraging them to meet our financial consultant to see if we can improve their mortgage deal or protection products. We have a good landlord portfolio so this has worked well for us.”

Here Paul explains his five key reasons to work with Embrace…

1. There’s no red tape or stress over compliance. You don’t have to worry about all the rules and regulations surrounding the provision of financial services – Embrace do all that for you.

2. The financial services proposition is managed by Embrace. They look after your financial consultants’ performance, so all you need to worry about is booking the appointments.

3. Great continuity. If your financial consultant goes on holiday, cover is provided so there’s no interruption to the service being offered to your customers.

4. Embrace have a proven track record. With more than 25,000 mortgages completed and more than £3.5bn of lending secured, it’s one of the most successful mortgage brokers in the market today – which brings added reassurance about using them.

5. They offer choice for customers. With 1000s of mortgage options available to them, and some great protection products, they are rated 5 stars on Trustpilot which helps sell the service and complements an agent’s reputation locally.

“I would honestly say that for any agent worried about the challenges they currently face, or which they fear may come, should consider the introduction of financial services (or the revision of any existing financial services proposition) with Embrace Financial Services.”

“Their financial service package is fully supported, fully compliant, easy to implement and provides a great way to generate income, support staff and enhance your customer proposition - and ultimately the reputation of your business. And its hassle free.  It really is a no brainer.”

If you are interested in finding out how Embrace Financial Services could help you, please contact Scot Flight, National Business Development Director for Embrace Financial Services via scot.flight@embracefs.co.uk.

*Melanie Cowell is PR Manager at Embrace Financial Services