Professional blog

Task  – Short Answer

In order to successfully complete some of the tasks in this assessment you should have access to the following documents. These are available in the AAMC Training Useful Resources or you may wish to find your own/use your company documents.
•    Credit Guide – important facts about the business and products you provide
•    Adviser Profile – this may be included in your credit guide and could be simply your licence number as the services you provide are one in the same as your licensee
•    Client Needs Review – for client data gathering
•    Preliminary Assessment

Questions

1.    What do you believe to be three good prospecting methods and why?  
    
2.    In your own opinion, what are some areas which are important to say about yourself and your business when creating a Facebook or LinkedIn profile? Why would correct and professional information be important to your organisation?

3.    What is cold calling? Is cold calling an effective prospecting method? Explain your answer.

4.    How would you build a relationship with a client through cold calling?

5.    In your opinion, why would the following areas of information (found in the Credit Guide) be important for a new client to understand? How could this information protect all parties?
•    your role and responsibility as Credit Advisor
•    the role of the organisation  
•    the identity of and information about the Credit Licence holder
•    the range of services provided
•    all costs, fees, commissions etc. associated with the transaction
•    the procedures for handling complaints and disputes.

6.    Why do you believe is it important to encourage prospective clients to express their needs and goals when completing a data collection?

7.    Your client Mary Jane has advised that she would like to purchase a home worth $400,000 and you have worked out associated costs of around $30,000. She has a deposit of $150,000. She has spoken to friends and are concerned that she may have to pay mortgage insurance which she hears can be a very high cost.
Complete a quick LVR calculation and explain the outcome to the client. Why is it important to respond clearly to the client in this case? What could you do to make sure the client has understood what you have advised?

8.    Your client Mary Jane is hesitant about completing some of the information in the client needs review. As an Adviser, you must fully complete a client needs review for a number of reasons. What is a probing question you may ask the client to determine their resistance? What are two points you may highlight to the client to try and overcome this situation in an appropriate manner?

9.    A prospective client is hesitant to use you as their broker because they are already a client with a competitor. What interpersonal techniques and communication skills would you use to overcome this?

10.    You have now gained Mary Jane’s consent to move forward with fully completing the fact find. She has advised that further to the basic information provided above in question 7, she is buying the home to live in and she is a single parent on a good income in long term employment. Mary Jane would like to pay the home off early but would also like some spare funds for a holiday over the next 12 months. Protection of the home and her child in case of job loss or becoming ill is highly important. Mary Jane would like to purchase another investment property down the track to provide for her retirement. Prior to a marital separation, Mary Jane and her ex husband had paid off another mortgage. Mary Jane has a clear credit history. The client may also like a 100% offset account as she had one in the past and it worked well to pay the loan off quickly. Mary Jane would prefer a major bank as she is concerned a smaller provider may not have any branches in her area.

Whilst it would be prudent to complete a fact find under normal circumstances, for this exercise we will ask you to complete the table below. In the table below highlight and record the client’s goals, concerns and creditworthiness (why the lender should consider them for the loan).

11.    John has asked you for some advice on buying a car for personal use worth $40,000 over a five year loan term. You have completed his client needs review and must now complete some research to present John with appropriate finance options. Research and present two products that may be appropriate for John (you can use a number of sites including rate city to complete this activity).

12.    Using a search engine, research “Ten tips to protect your customers’ personal information”. Select one of the 10 points and in your own words briefly describe the purpose of this step.

13.    You have completed a fact finder, costing analysis, and LVR calculation for a client and have worked out the due to affordability issues, based on the living expenses they have provided, the client is unable to borrow the required loan amount. They would be able to borrow a loan amount of $5,000 less. Referring back to your client needs review, what additional question/s would you ask the client?  

14.    After you have completed the product research how would you prepare for the next contact?

Task 2 – Written Test

1.    List six buyer motives and in your own words, analyse and discuss issues relating to two of them.       

2.    Using conflict resolution and persuasion techniques, write a response to the following examples of buyer resistance:
Not interested    
Send me some information    
No money – Can’t afford it    
You’re wasting your time