The Intermediary – October 2026 - Flipbook - Page 89
B RO K E R B U S I N E S S
Opinion
How ambitious
are you?
I
was asked recently what I had
done differently in building
conveybuddy compared
with my previous business
in this space, and my answer
was probably much simpler
than expected. This time around, we
decided to be more ambitious about
what we wanted to achieve. Our
ambition is to become the number one
business in our sector.
Saying that is obviously the easy bit.
You also have to be prepared to put in
the time, money, people and resource
required to give yourself a chance of
achieving it.
It got me thinking about what
ambition means for an advisory
business, particularly at a time
when there remains considerable
uncertainty about what the mortgage
and housing markets might look like
over the months and years ahead.
Not just more clients
When we talk about growing an
advice business, the conversation can
naturally focus on generating more
leads, writing more mortgages and
bringing more clients through the
door, but I am not sure that should be
the only way we measure ambition.
There is another question: how
ambitious are you for every individual
client relationship you already have,
and that you secure in the future?
When somebody comes to you, is
your ambition simply to arrange their
mortgage successfully, or do you want
to become the business they think
of whenever they have any related
property or financial advice need?
For many advisers, that means
looking beyond the mortgage and
considering protection, general
insurance (GI), conveyancing and the
other services a client may genuinely
require as part of their transaction.
Of course, this should never
be about trying to sell somebody
something they do not need, but
where those needs clearly exist,
the client is going to have to meet
them somewhere. If they require
a conveyancer, for example, they
can either go away and find one
themselves, or you can recommend
a service they know, understand and
trust, while remaining connected to
that part of the client’s experience.
Before opportunity
There is a wider business lesson here,
because ambition requires investment
before you necessarily know exactly
where the next opportunity will come.
By the time you read this, we will
be approaching another Budget, and
there will inevitably be a huge amount
of discussion about what it might
mean for housing, mortgages and the
wider economy.
Trying to predict precisely what
will be announced is unlikely to get
us very far. Advisers cannot control
Government policy any more than
swap rates, lender pricing, economic
conditions or consumer confidence.
What they can control is how
prepared their businesses are to
respond to whatever comes next.
Different market conditions will
produce different opportunities,
whether that means greater activity
among purchasers, remortgagors,
landlords, first-time buyers or existing
borrowers.
The firms ready to make the
most of those opportunities will not
necessarily be those that suddenly
change direction aer the market has
moved, but which have already built
the relationships, processes and range
of services required to meet more of
their clients’ needs.
The first call
For me, this is where the real
ambition should lie, because there is
considerable value in becoming the
first individual or firm a client thinks
of when something changes in their
financial or property circumstances,
or a need presents itself.
HARPAL SINGH
is CEO at conveybuddy
That relationship is difficult to
build if contact only takes place
when a mortgage deal is approaching
maturity, whereas helping clients
with a broader range of genuine needs
gives advisers more reasons to remain
relevant throughout the relationship.
Conveyancing is obviously the part
of that equation I know particularly
well, and we have consistently
argued that advisers should be
confident enough in the service they
recommend to put their own name
behind it.
The same principle applies more
widely, because advisers do not have
to provide every service themselves,
but they can make sure they have
trusted businesses around them
which can provide the expertise their
clients require.
Ambition backed up
There is nothing particularly difficult
about saying you want to grow a
business, become the client’s first call
or provide a broader service, just as
there is nothing difficult about me
saying I want conveybuddy to become
number one in our market.
The difficult part is making the
decisions and investments required
to support that ambition, then
continuing to make them when
market conditions become less
predictable. None of us can know
precisely what the Budget will deliver
or what the mortgage market will look
like six months from now, but that
does not prevent advisers preparing
their businesses now for whatever
opportunities emerge.
Ultimately, ambition should not
simply be about how many more
clients you can aract, but about how
much more value you can provide to
every client who chooses you. ●
October 2026 | The Intermediary
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