Podcast #15 - Finding Your Niche

CMME is a business that has a strong proposition in a specialist area. They offer mortgage advice to the growing British workforce of freelance and self-employed workers. Despite opening up shop in 2006, they survived the credit crunch and are now the largest player in their field. As British jobs have become more and more flexible, CMME’s niche has expanded.

Being successful in a niche isn’t easy. Taj explains that businesses targeting a niche should clearly communicate their proposition to their target market and show how they fit their needs. Another key part of success in a niche is to build strong relationships with lenders and encourage them to shift their criteria in your favour.

This is much more difficult for smaller brokers, but becomes easier as businesses grow and they begin to gain traction with lenders. Improving relationships with brokers means engaging with lenders’ product development teams, underwriters and compliance teams to shape a strong proposition with a bank.

Operating in a niche can also help your business attract top talent. Rather than competing with all the larger brokers for the best staff, as more general brokers would be, you can build a strong brand in your niche and find that great brokers will gravitate towards you.

In niche sectors, there can be greater opportunity to talk with the customer about protections than there would be in the mainstream market. In CMME’s case, they frequently sell income protection cover to their customers who may have a greater risk of income volatility.

The Growth Series is a dedicated resource that aims to help mortgage brokers grow their business using digital and communications marketing techniques. For more hints and tips on how to grow your business, you can sign up to the Growth Series for free, here.

Podcast #15

0.00 - 1:01 - Welcome and introduction

1.01 - 22.43 - In conversation with Jeremy Duncombe & Taj Kang, talk about how mortgage brokers can grow through operating in a niche. In particular they discuss:

• How CMME grew to be a larger business through operating in a niche

• How to be successful in a smaller field

• The opportunities and challenges that come for business who work in a niche

22.43 - 23.45 - Outro