Submissions for the Connective Excellence Awards closing soon

July 10th, 2019

With submissions for the Connective Excellence Awards closing in a few days, we speak to leading broker, Louise Lucas at The Property Education Company, about why she enters the esteemed awards, and why you should to.

 

Louise, congratulations on taking last year’s Empowerment Award for Victoria. What would you say to other brokers considering entering this year’s awards?

Just go for it. The opportunities that fall out of winning a Connective Excellence Award far outweigh the time and effort required to draft a submission and reach out to your network for support.

And it doesn’t matter if you don’t win. Becoming a finalist looks good in the eyes of your clients and it can certainly be leveraged to help promote your business and drive leads.

Regardless of the outcome, pulling a submission together is a valuable process as it makes you think objectively about your business and consider areas where you are excelling and those in which you could do better.

 

Is there anything that you learnt from entering the Connective Excellence Awards that you can share?

Don’t be afraid to ask your clients and broader network to vote for you.

If you provide your clients with a great service and meaningful assistance on important financial decisions, then they are more than willing to return the favour.

In fact, they want to help you out. It makes them feel good and validates their choice in you as a broker.

 

What did you include in your submissions that helped you win? What do you think stood out for the judges? 

You need to be specific and quantify any claims with real life examples. For example, you can’t just say that you provide excellence in client service – you need to demonstrate, in practice, how you have delivered great customer outcomes while also conveying your passion for your work and clients.

 

We are all time poor. Is there a lot involved in pulling a submission together?

I think Connective recognise that we are all busy working on our business and for our clients so the whole process is straight-forward and user friendly.

I deliberately try to spend as little time as possible drafting the submission as you don’t want to get bogged down in the detail. If you over think things you run the risk of becoming entangled in the nitty-gritty and this can detract from effectively communicating the broader story.

 

How have you been able to leverage the award win?

We promoted the award win across all our channels – from our website, social media, to direct client communications.

It’s been really helpful in raising our profile, and particularly through social media, you can never underestimate how far word can travel when your clients ‘like’ and ‘share’ across their own channels. Inevitably, it assists with generating leads and referrals.

We have also been approached by local media, including general mortgage advice for the Bunnings newsletter. The award win adds another layer of independent credibility and that’s appealing to the media when they are seeking comment from industry participants.

 

Any last words? 

It really is worth getting involved. The award night itself is always a lot of fun, and as a finalist, you really feel like a special part of the room. It’s a fantastic way to wrap up the annual conference.

And aside from the other benefits I’ve already mentioned, it’s also a great way to recognise the achievements of the broader team.