Money Management's BDM State Winners 2016

NSW/ACT 

Daniel Clark 
Zurich Financial Services 

As the financial services landscape constantly evolves and business owners become increasingly time poor, it is vital for BDMs to add value to their business and find out what makes them tick as a person, Daniel Clark believes. 

The NSW life risk BDM said he derives joy in being able to partner with advisers and help them jump over any hurdles by understanding their goals and challenges as well as those of their clients, and offering his own ideas and demonstrate what has worked well for other businesses in similar situations. 

"As insurance BDMs we need to change the conversations that we're having with advisers in order to move away from selling a product solution, to having deeper business to business conversations with our clients on how they're going to adapt to these changes," Clark said.  

Clark joined Zurich as a customer service consultant in 2009, and became a new business case manager for Queensland in 2011, before becoming a NSW life risk business development associate in 2013. 

Queensland 

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Michelle Dolan 
Macquarie 

The biggest reward of being a BDM for Michelle Dolan has been seeing life insurance claims being paid to people in their time of need and the positive impact funds make to their lives. 

"It is also rewarding when you get an update on the progress on of the client from the adviser and the fact that before you met this adviser he was not writing your company's product solution," Dolan said. 

With over 15 years of sales and training experience in the banking and financial planning industry, Dolan prides herself for her strengths in relationship development, training, financial product sales, strategic planning, achieving targets and campaign management. 

Dolan started off as a personal assistant to a senior financial planner at Westpac in 2001, before moving into a financial planner role in 2003. She has worked as a BDM in Tower, and Macquarie Life before settling into a BDM role at Macquarie Wealth Management. 

Victoria/Tasmania 

Tracey Moore 
BT Life 

Former BDM of the Year finalist for Victoria, Tracey Moore, said building relationships was key to the role, as this then led to bonds and loyalty. 

"I have recently experienced this when I changed companies. Often we feel that the relationship is with the product provider due to many reasons and unless we have built strong relationships with our advisers, that tends to be true. 

"However, being able to transition those relationships across with you only proves how valuable you are as a BDM to them and their business," Moore said. 

Moore recently helped BT get on the approved product lists of more firms, with one being a large dealer group who mainly write risk. 

"Through my strong relationship with some key advisers we have been able to re-engage the dealer group into discussions on potentially looking at becoming part of their APL," she said. 

Moore started her career at National Australia Bank in home-side lending and has worked as a BDM in FIIG Securities. Prior to joining BT Life in 2014, she worked at AIA Australia as a client development manager for three years. 

Western Australia 

Bernie Fernandes 
Synchron 

Bernie Fernandes was appointed by Synchron to grow his state from 14 risk-focused planners with an average age of 69, to 28 within 12 months, and he was able to achieve this target within six months.  

He carefully selected those planners who could meet the firm's benchmark for quality advice and possessed business acumen. 

"The greatest enjoyment I get in business is seeing a planner come on board who has a vision for their clients, their future, our industry and are looking for a vehicle  to help them achieve this goal and exceed it with the benefit of my industry experience and guidance and my network," he said. 

He also said he enjoyed seeing the growth in gender equality and ethnic diversity in WA in the last four years, with the appointment of female planners as well as planners from diverse ethnic backgrounds.