iscover
iscover 
These themes were discussed in a recent episode of Business Accelerator, with Alex Whitlock and Jason Back. Here, Back urged brokers to let clients “set the standard” as everyone will have different expectations.
“The customer should set the standard. There’s nothing wrong with being well dressed and if the customers dress down fine, the next time you’ll know that,” Back said.
“The suit and tie and these days has probably gone to the realms of a relic but it’s really dress to your audience. So, I don’t expect agri brokers to be wearing suit and tie. I expect them to be potentially wearing a polo shirt with their brand and matching what the client’s doing.
“But again, this is understanding the environments in which we each operate in. I look at the next generation of brokers coming through, how they’re relating on socials or in real life would differ potentially to a more mature client and that’s okay too. But you need to talk to your audience, you need to be listening to what they’re saying, you need to be looking at what other brands are doing outside of our industry and how they connect with the clients to make sure that we fit within that realm of what the customers’ expectations are.”
This professionalism and catering to clients’ expectations go beyond dress codes. Marketing is an integral component of a broker’s effectiveness. This can be the first point of contact between borrower and broker, so first impressions across social media mean a lot.
“I see pixelated photos on websites, I see outdated stock images of homes on brokers’ websites, that annoys me that one. I see old LinkedIn photos. I sent a client of mine on Friday a referral to a photographer that we use for professional images,” said Back.
“What about collateral that goes to your referral partners? What are you sending out to your clients? And to your point, communication. The use of things like large language models and GPTs can be fine for certain circumstances. But we are really losing some of these things that make us unique but also people looking to us as professionals. I think we really need to lift the bar.”
Whitlock agreed that professionalism is important when contacting a broker.
“I wouldn’t expect to see a broker wearing a suit, a shirt and a tie these days. However, when I look at a website, I would expect the photos to be sharp, the photos to be professional. I expect to find information accurate and up to date,” Whitlock said.
“Even little things that I noticed on websites where they might have copyright 2019 on a website it has an impression of it being a little bit covered in dust. I expect to see things looking fresh, loved and up to date because it’s a reflection of how you present yourself. And of course, you don’t expect to meet people in outdated office attire these days but I think having good attire, looking clean, and well pressed is very, very important. As important as it ever has been.”
Even the mundane considerations can have an impact on overall image and attractivity. For example, Back said that backgrounds on Zoom calls should be considered.
“I’ve got a marketing audit that’s got 150 questions and it only just starts to scratch the surface. It might look at things like colour palettes. So, it could be from your email signature all the way through to your website and your socials to your branding, the background for your videos and your Zoom and teams calls,” Back said.
“[It’s important] to step back and look at your business through the customers’ eyes. I find it really helpful to bring in teenage kids, your son or your daughter, because they’re generally not going to hold back and they’re pretty brutal. And they’ll come in and they’ll go, this is outdated, this doesn’t match.”
The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full episode of Business Accelerator, click below:
ISCOVER 
