Mortgage Solutions recently ran a very insightful article on what brokers want and expect from their Business Development Managers (BDMs). It reinforced the importance of a good BDM and the value of face-to-face engagement with brokers, as well as highlighting some of the attributes that make a good BDM and where brokers can sometimes get frustrated.

At Investec Private Bank, building strong partnerships is very important to the growth of our business and this means that we invest a lot in creating a team of best-in-class BDMs. So, I thought it would be interesting to offer a lender’s perspective on the role of BDMs.

We currently have a BDM team of six people, who work with more than 1,300 individuals at over 250 firms. All our BDM’s have been sourced from within the business and have a strong understanding of Investec’s unique culture, as well as a set of complementary skills.

The interesting thing about this team is that it takes a year to train each new BDM to the level we require. They will still be out on the road visiting mortgage brokers during this time, but in order to be considered fully skilled, it takes a year.

The reason for this is that our BDMs are trained to do more than just take an enquiry.

Most BDMs are there to develop business, to promote the brand to the intermediary circle and to effectively discuss cases at a high level. Our team does this but far more too – they undertake regular floor walks of some broker firms and deliver educational presentations, but they also take their role to the next stage. Subject to due diligence and credit consideration, they have the ability to discuss the structure of a deal with a broker and provide indicative terms.

They work with brokers to provide a ‘yes’ or a quick ‘no’ regarding whether a case will be one for Investec, before handing over deals to the bank’s team of Private Bankers. This means they free up the bankers to write the business rather than go looking for the it, which gives us scale and enables us to work more efficiently.

Each BDM is assigned accounts they individually manage, and they sometimes also work together on cases, depending on who is on the road and who is in the office. So, it’s a very involved role that bridges the gap between our private bankers, brokers and their clients.

The information provided by the BDMs is crucial to ensuring our Private Bankers can get the best outcome, and this partnership is imperative to running our business at the level we do.