A new role with established relationships

Katie Scanlon is new to mortgage broking, but she is hardly new to lending. After nearly 25 years at Suncorp, she joined Brisbane Finance Group to look after residential clients alongside a team with an established commercial and asset finance focus. The team can refer clients across both sides of the business, while people Katie has helped in previous roles are also coming to her for advice.

Many of her current enquiries involve refinancing. Katie meets clients across south-east Queensland and speaks with interstate clients by video. As she builds her broking business, each file brings another set of documents, client details, conversations and follow-ups to manage. She wants those moving parts under control without making the experience feel impersonal.

“I was nervous using the Salestrekker 2.0 Client Portal, and I really felt like it would take away from the personal approach that I try to give as a broker,” Katie says. That concern was real for someone whose long banking career was built on knowing the person behind the application. However, her concern didn’t last long and Salestrekker 2.0 transformed her approach to customer service.

Prepare the file and protect the personal touch

Katie now sends the Salestrekker 2.0 Client Portal to every customer. They can begin entering their information and providing documents before they meet. Katie can see and update the information as the application takes shape. She has also set up loan check-ins at six, 12 and 18 months and two years, and uses tasks and notes for more individual follow-ups.

For one client returning from Singapore, she recorded why they had agreed to wait before speaking and set a reminder to call. That detail matters to her. “It’s nice when someone calls you and says, ‘Hey, how was Singapore?’” she says. The prompt gives Katie the context to follow through on a promise in her own voice.

She recently sent the Client Portal to clients before going away. By the time she met them, most of the initial information was there. Instead of using the appointment to collect names, dates of birth and identification, she could confirm details, discuss risks and check their understanding. “It was more a conversation rather than a meeting,” she says.

Katie also completed the eight-week Salestrekker Academy and is putting what she learned into practice in stages. For now, she is choosing the tasks that make an immediate difference, then returning to her notes and recordings as the business grows. She plans to explore Policy AI in the future.

More client time and confidence in each file

Compliance AI is already part of every application Katie prepares. She says it has helped get her reasoning onto the page. The tool gives her a first draft of the compliance narrative. She reads it, corrects it and adds anything missing before it goes further. “I would be lost without that tool,” she says.

That review has also improved how she records information. When a draft does not capture something she expected, Katie checks the file and sometimes finds that she had not entered enough detail. It encourages her to make the client record more complete. Clients have commented that their statements of credit advice capture the conversations they have had with her. Katie remains responsible for checking the final wording.

The benefit is visible in the meeting as well as the file. Clients arrive having done much of the initial data entry, and Katie can spend the time on questions that call for her experience. She sees the saved administration time as room to meet more people and give each of them proper attention.

“The time that you’re not spending doing that administration kind of stuff is more time that you’re prospecting, more time you’ve got to meet with customers,” she says. With a growing residential book, and a clear preference for personal service, that time has a practical value. Katie’s next step is to use more templates and automations as she learns where they fit.