Shawbrook meets 150 brokers at Partner Days
Shawbrook Bank opened up to 150 brokers about the mortgage market and its products through a range of workshops last week.
Jason McGee-Abe spoke to Karen Bennett, Sales & Marketing Director, Commercial Mortgages, Shawbrook Bank, to find out more…
B&C: Karen, we heard on the grapevine that you hosted a day of workshops for your broker partners recently, how did it go?
KB: We actually had two days for the brokers last week. One in London for our southern broker partners and one in Birmingham for our northern broker partners. We were really pleased with the turnout – we had over 100 in London and 50 in Birmingham. We kicked off with presentations from Stephen Johnson, Stuart Kelly and myself, followed by small workshops on a variety of topics.
What did the brokers think of the days?
Everyone we spoke to found the day useful and enjoyed it, especially the mortgage market overview at the beginning. We collected feedback at the end of each day and nearly two thirds of the brokers rated it very good or excellent.
Were there any areas covered in the workshops they found particularly useful?
We had lots of positive comments about our legal team coming to talk to them. We have Pure Law in the building, meaning that all our deals are mandated internally and the brokers really appreciated having the chance to ask them questions about typical legal challenges. We also brought along one of our valuers, Pinders, which went down well. Brokers sometimes have a rocky relationship with valuers so having one answering questions was helpful.
In terms of topics covered, there was a lot of buzz around our STL offering and specialist buy-to-let products such as HMOs. These sorts of deals need careful handling so we were pleased to be able to give our brokers some hints and tips on them.
Were there any differences between the two partner days?
The atmospheres at the two were quite different. Sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason – the London day was busy, fast-paced, noisy, whereas up north the day had a more community feel. However, the business priorities for the brokers were quite similar.
Were there any areas the brokers identified for improvement?
Quite a few people wanted more examples of deals to discuss, so we’ll look at producing more case studies. They also wanted more details about products and some mentioned that last year’s product brainstorm was a good idea so we’ll think about that too for next time. We really value broker input and it makes sense to have it at the beginning of the product cycle.
What are the brokers looking forward to from Shawbrook?
We had an enthusiastic reaction to some of the product initiatives we’re planning for this and next year – watch this space!
Are there any more takeaways you’d like to mention?
We’re thinking about extending the social side of the partner days. A whole day of workshops is thirsty work and we had internal and external feedback that a couple of drinks afterwards wouldn’t go amiss. Also, the northern partner day was hosted in West Brom’s stadium and there were a couple of requests for a tour afterwards – we’ll see!
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