Ok, so I am usually nerding out listening to music, tinkering with email marketing models and figuring out how to maximise my clients results.  For most of the time I am very much 'in my head'.  But, as an attempt to get out of my head (and into others), I have been writing down some insights.

This morning, a magazine sent through some interview questions for me to answer.  The first was how did I get into this business?  As I reflected on my journey, I thought about the first really good result I got for one of my clients.  At the time, he was just a friend, who was struggling with his mortgage business.  It was 2009, and the GFC was hurting us Kiwi's.  

Me, being my bossy self, nagged him to give me his database, so I could email his clients on his behalf.  I wrote a heart felt email about how business had become very tough, and what crazy times they were.  

We asked his clients, to fill out a survey, so he could gain some insight as to how they were handling the GFC.  If he could provide information, advise or services that could really help in a time of need for everyone, at least he would be kept busy, even if he wasn't writing loans.

Within days he had around 110 replies.  He only had 400 people on his list, so we were extremely happy that he had such a good response.  A lot of people commented, how happy they were to hear from him, others thanked him for reaching out.

The survey questions, delivered a huge amount of information.  We found that he had a lot of property investors on his database.  35 were planning to buy an investment property within the next 12 months..taking advatange of the crashing house prices.  With this information he was able to approach these customers and get 28 of them pre-approved for lending.  Securing the commission, which he may have missed out on.

He also found that a lot of his clients were under-insured.  This gave him the opportunity to partner with an insurance adviser.  By partnering with and insurance adviser, he was able to earn revenue off his existing clients with a new service, and he was able to be the referred and trusted broker to the Advisers database.

Within months, Fred had bounced back, and was doing a lot better than the other brokers in his area.

The lessons I learned form this one send out is:

• Keep talking to the people who have helped build your business.  They probably have your back.
• Survey your database at least once a year.  You never know what opportunities you will find.
• Take action.  Information is just information, until you do something with it.