The Intermediary – January 2026 - Flipbook - Page 30
BUY-TO-LET
Opinion
A GOOD TIME
n the vast majority of these
articles I tend to write about
our industry, or landlord
issues or wider buy-to-let
(BTL) trends, but this time I
want to focus on something
a lile different and a lile bit
more personal.
It is about how we, as lenders
and those that work for lenders,
communicate with you, brokers,
and perhaps how we might be able
to improve on this in order to get to
the right outcomes quicker and with
more clarity.
A recent experience of mine
brought this to the surface and made
me realise that even those of us who
work with brokers every day might
not be as strong at communication as
we think we are.
I
A day that changed my view
Late last year I spent a day in media
training with Alex Hammond and
6
John Fitzsimons from Fleet’s PR
agency, Square 1 Media.
I will be honest. I did not expect to
gain much from it. I write the odd
piece for the trade press and speak to
journalists occasionally, so I thought
I had a decent grasp on the basics.
Within the first hour it became clear
how wrong I was.
One of the first things that struck
me was how rarely we stop to think
about what we are saying. When
you’ve worked in this industry for a
long time, when you speak to brokers
or indeed other industry people, you
can all too oen dri into auto mode.
You handle questions without
thinking, you give familiar answers,
and you rely on instinct more than
conscious thought. It gets the job done,
but it can also allow weak habits to
creep in, and it sometimes means
the message you give is not as clear or
helpful as it should be.
At the start of the session I
WES REGIS
is national account manager
at Fleet Mortgages
struggled far more than I expected.
The moment I tried to switch off
my normal auto pilot and move into
more deliberate thinking, I could
feel my mouth racing ahead of my
brain. To my surprise, I found myself
slipping into a defensive style that is
nothing like how I speak on panels
or when dealing with brokers. It was
discombobulating to be put in such an
uncomfortable place
But, in a way, the discomfort
actually helped. It pushed me out of
my usual paern and forced me to
slow down, take a breath and shape
what I wanted to say rather than fall
back on old habits.
Once I relaxed and took guidance
from Alex and John around thinking
more clearly about what I really
wanted to say, how I might handle a
seemingly difficult question, then my
answers improved.
I was geing across the answers
and the messages that I wanted to get
across, rather than fumbling my way
around to try and reach them. They
had more structure, but still sounded
