MPA hears from three experts on how they initiate a refinance conversation.
Nerissa Moore
Director
Fortune Finance
During my initial conversations with a new client, I review their long-term goals and position the concept of refinancing from day one. For some clients, this is simply to pay off their home loan faster by taking advantage of great deals on the market over time. For other clients, the goal is to build equity in their home with a view to embarking on a property investment journey.
Generally, I initiate a refinance conversation as part of my annual client loan review. Where a refinance benefit is identified and equity is a consideration, I target a suitable lender and order a valuation first to determine if a refinance is viable. For other clients where equity is not a concern, I complete a product comparison showing them their projected savings over the loan term, as well as the reduced time it will take to pay off their loan if they were to refinance and continue repaying at the same level.
Gareth RobinsonCo-director
Expert Finance Group
Cold call: Introduce yourself/company then the reason for your call. “You may have seen that there have been some incredible new discounts offered in the market. It’s a great time to make sure you aren’t overpaying for your mortgage so I’m calling to see if I/we could help you save money and time. I actually just saved a client in a similar position $X/ yr, so with that in mind, do you think it would be worth a few minutes of your time to see if I can achieve the same result for you?”
In person: Focus on the client and ask a lot of questions about their goals. From there, it’s a simple matter of saving them as much as you can, then drawing the correlation between that saving and something they wanted in their life. People care less about numbers and more about wants – paint the picture for them showing what they could do with the savings, not just the savings themselves.
Adam ForteFranchisee
Aussie Norwood
Communication is the key. Clients will engage brokers/banks to check their current repayments and ensure they are still on a competitive interest rate. If they aren’t, and their lender won’t come to the party, it’s at this stage I emphasise the benefi ts of my service and how I have the ability to speak to a panel of lenders to see if there’s a better deal out there.
I always sit down with my client to discuss their goals and look at their current circumstances as a whole. Ideally, I would have already gathered some basic customer information before an appointment so I can do some research. Clients respond well to dollar fi gures and interest rates, hence knowing how much you could potentially be saving them by switching lenders is a great way to go! Ultimately, it’s important to crunch all the numbers to ensure that the client will be better off over the long term or that a new loan would better suit their specific requirements.
