Former CBA productivity specialist helps drive Loan Market broker business growth

Award-winning aggregator Loan Market has enlisted former senior CBA figure Michael Zavelberg to support the growth of brokers across its national network.

Mr Zavelberg brings to the aggregator almost a decade’s experience in enhancing the productivity of mortgage brokers, developing a reputation as the ‘Kaizen Master’ through employing the Japanese improvement principles to broker offices.

As Head of Business Improvement, Mr Zavelberg will support, train and coach Loan Market brokers to embed the same Kaizen-focused growth strategies and tools that enhanced the operations of leading brokers across Australia. Strategies and tools that are increasingly important, at a time when brokers face evolving change.

Loan Market’s Executive Director of Network Success Andrea McNaughton said Mr Zavelberg’s appointment would open-up opportunities for brokers to take their businesses to the next level at a critical time for the industry.  

“I don’t think there is anybody that knows brokers businesses better. This is a huge boost for the network,” said Ms McNaughton. 

“Michael will offer enormous assistance to Business Owners and Brokers, helping them re-engineer processes with Client Service Managers in line with Best Interests Duty (BID) and growth in online delivery of services.”

“Right now, is the best time to look at your processes and ensure your business is running as efficiently as possible while offering customers an excellent service.”

“Loan Market is focused on attracting the best talent to help our brokers breakthrough to the next level of business, building stronger and bigger teams,” said Ms McNaughton.

“Mr Zavelberg has helped hundreds of brokers tear-down their own business barriers by adopting Kaizen principles. Importantly, he’ll be showing our brokers how to adopt accountability in all their business activities, and how to engage their teams to get the right support.”  

Mr Zavelberg said all broker businesses could benefit from running a Kaizen session.

“Excellent brokers are continually seeking out efficiencies in their operations and improving customer service and their team capabilities at the same time,” said Mr Zavelberg, who joined Loan Market this week.

“The focus on making every activity as productive as possible takes on extra importance once the Best Interests Duty (BID) comes in on July 1.”

“Brokers are also facing the global challenges being dealt by COVID-19 which, in the immediate future, will change how we interact with clients. Homing-in on daily practices which produce the most benefit for clients, whilst achieving efficiencies for the business, will be part of my immediate focus.”

Having facilitated hundreds of improvement workshops, Michael recognised the ethos behind successful transformation projects are team engagement and team development. Both are embedded in the ‘continuous improvement’ principles of Kaizen.

“Kaizen also puts a lot of focus on making performance visible, a prerequisite to identify improvements. I help brokers to make better use of their data to identify improvement opportunities and enable them to track and manage their teams better.”

“What it [Kaizen] means, is you consistently improve in small increments together with your team instead of aiming for transformational, drastic improvements that take years,” he said.

“From delivering tech and process improvements that translated to significant business benefits, I now use Kaizen workshops for coaching and training teams to enable them to identify business issues and implement improvements.”

A critical component of business improvement is culture, said Mr Zavelberg. Whilst he was only new to the brand, Mr Zavelberg said it was evident that Loan Market’s culture filtered down from the Corporate level to the brokers, themselves.

“The talent within Loan Market and the culture of Loan Market that is espoused is outstanding,” he said.

“With my background in IT, I appreciate how technology can be an enabler for business success. Loan Market has invested significantly in ensuring its bespoke MyCRM and best-in-breed digital tools ensure brokers are kept safe, win back time, find and keep clients and grow their businesses.”

Mr Zavelberg said he was excited to see how his Kaizen principles would be supported by Loan Market’s MyCRM and supporting digital tools which have been developed to make compliance and the customer experience more streamlined post-July 1. 

“I think broking is very complex. Brokers have to deal with a lot of different people, lenders, products, processes, as well as managing their own business and staff. With my experience, I can support brokers to identify improvements across their business faster,” said Mr Zavelberg.

“Through Kaizen, I’ll be helping Loan Market’s brokers establish the environment from which they can introduce more efficiencies that translate into more enquiries, more conversions, more settlements, happier teams and better client experience.”

PUBLISHED March 24th, 2020 IN News

Angela Tracey

Angela is obsessed with marketing solutions that heighten brokers’ online visibility, build their profile in their local marketplace and ensure potential clients are knocking on their door (so to speak). With over a decade of experience leading her own digital marketing agency, helping SMEs win local area market share through the strategic integration of online, social and database marketing, Angela has the know-how to support brokers with solutions that help them find and keep clients.