The best time to speak to your BDM is before you need them

Business development managers (BDMs) are often the first port of call when a broker needs help. A case has hit a snag, or there is a question that cannot quite be answered by reading a lender’s criteria, so the broker picks up the phone and asks their BDM what can be done.

That is clearly part of the job, but I think brokers can get far more from that relationship by bringing the BDM in earlier. If we can look at the circumstances before the application is submitted, there is a much better chance of identifying what the lender will require, how the case should be packaged and whether there are other options the broker may not yet have considered.

One foot in each camp

A BDM spends every day speaking to brokers about the cases sitting on their desks, while also working closely with underwriters, case handlers, property teams, completions teams and legal partners. That places them at a unique, and highly useful, vantage point between the broker who knows the client and the team of people within the lender who will ultimately assess and progress the application.

Knowing the intricacies of criteria is quite clearly part of that, but the role goes much further than simply being able to recite lending policy verbatim. A good BDM combines strong technical knowledge with practical experience, helping brokers identify the most appropriate lending solutions for their customers.

We saw that recently with a self-employed applicant looking to maximise their borrowing for a large property, where averaging the previous two years’ accounts did not provide the level of borrowing required. Rather than simply leaving it there, the BDM asked when the applicant’s financial year had ended and found it was actually six months earlier.

That gave us another option through our Bespoke range. We were able to look at the latest year in isolation, which was stronger than the previous year, alongside management accounts covering the trading period since, and that supported the level of income required.

It is a really good example of why I would always rather a broker picks up the phone early when a case looks a little less straightforward. Give us the facts at the outset and let the BDM work through them before time is spent packaging an application that may not present the customer’s circumstances in line with the most appropriate mortgage option.

Sometimes it comes down to one question

Sometimes, the answer can be surprisingly simple. One of our BDMs recently spotted an AIP decline where a broker had accidentally entered the balance of a credit card in the field for the monthly payment, which had distorted affordability and caused the initial decline. A quick call allowed the AIP to be corrected and the case to progress.

On another case, a young first-time buyer in their first job was struggling to reach the required borrowing because of affordability. The broker had already come to us because our affordability calculation produced a higher maximum loan, but it still did not quite get the customer where they needed to be.

The BDM suggested joint borrower sole proprietor as another option, with the applicant’s mother happy to join the mortgage and her income providing the additional borrowing needed. The broker had another route to explore and, crucially, one that worked for the customer.

At its core, the BDM role is about bringing clarity to lending criteria and helping brokers assess cases with confidence. It is about understanding what is possible within the lender’s policy, asking questions and making sure a potentially good case is not lost simply because the right question was never asked.

Getting it right before it reaches underwriting

Packaging is probably one of the clearest examples of where a BDM can make a real difference. We look closely at our conversions from AIP to application, application to offer and, ultimately, completion because that data can show us where cases are getting caught and where some practical support could help.

A well-packaged application gives everybody a better starting point, with the right information and documents there from the beginning rather than being requested further down the line. The broker spends less time going backwards and forwards and the customer is less likely to be left waiting while another document is tracked down.

Ask your BDM early

As I see it, our role is to make life easier for brokers and find the right ways to get a case from A to B.

The relationship works both ways, too. I want brokers telling our BDMs about the types of customers coming through their doors and any parts of our process that are causing friction, because we can feed that back to the teams responsible and work out whether something can be done differently.

My advice to brokers is to use that access well before a case gets into difficulty, and to treat their BDM as someone they can bring into the process early rather than somebody to call at the point of last resort. Give them the facts, keep them close to what is happening in your business and draw on the experience they have built up across hundreds of cases.