Customers will thank you for diversification

10 March 2014  |  Nick Bendel 
This article was recently published on The Adviser, click here to read the original post. 

Somebody is going to sell your clients other financial services – so it might as well be you.

That was the key message from a panel discussion on diversification during the Adelaide leg of the Better Business Summit.

Blackfish Finance owner Leah Busby said she wanted Blackfish to be the one offering clients products like insurance and car leasing rather than the company's rival firms.

Ms Busby told the audience that customers were usually grateful when they learned they could consolidate their range of financial products with a single supplier.

She also said clients who bought multiple products became more loyal and were less susceptible to being poached.

Choice’s state partnership manager, Chris White, said brokers should educate clients about the firm’s full range of services during the first meeting and should also promote the services on its website.

“These are products that your customer needs and if you don’t do it, somebody else will,” he said.

Mr White also advised the audience to take the time to familiarise themselves with their new products and any possible referral partners, because “brokers sell what they know”.

Connective director Glenn Lees said diversification would help brokers grow their revenues.

Brokers needed to stake a claim in other markets because firms from those markets were looking to diversify into home loans, he said.