BDM of the Year Award 2005

It may be a job to most people, but business development is clearly a labour of love for Natasha Williams.

And that passion for her work is one of the reasons why Williams, a business development manager (BDM) with Timbercorp, has been voted the Money Management/Tribeca BDM of the Year 2005.

“All through uni you hear everything is about loving your job, and so many people I know don’t have that luxury. I love my job, I love the people I work with,” Williams says.

It is no wonder then, that she has been able to transmit this infectious enthusiasm to the many advisers she deals with.

Like many other BDMs, Williams started out as an adviser herself before moving in-house at Timbercorp six years ago. As senior BDM, her role is to liaise with financial advisers and accountants to establish mutually beneficial relationships, and educate both clients and advisers on how agribusiness can contribute to their portfolios.

“Agribusiness is a very dynamic industry which has been going through fundamental changes, so it’s growing. I enjoy being an active part in helping advisers find out how what some people might consider to be a smaller asset class can become a key component of their portfolio. Over six years you build really strong relationships and a lot of mutual trust and excitement,” Williams says.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing though. During her time with Timbercorp, Williams has weathered some hard times, when the agribusiness industry was suffering from an image problem generated by “myths about tea trees and ostriches”.

However, she says her approach to adviser relations helped her through these difficult patches.

“I guess that’s where my background in focusing much more on the strength of the relationship rather than just a product push is very different to your traditional funds management model. The industry has grown so much in the last four or five years — there have been so many challenges and things to learn along the way.”

Because the investment time frame on Timbercorp projects varies from 10 to 20 years, the relationship between the business and advisers, as brokered by Williams, is even more important.

“I’m so fortunate that being an emerging asset class, my advisers are just as passionate as me, and there’s a lot of focus on it not just as a product, but as a powerful leverage tool. So there’s a lot of energy with my advisers. It’s exciting, building strategies around what they’re doing with their clients, so it’s very interactive.

“We build our businesses together and build our relationship with always the end goal in mind of building the client’s portfolio.”

Frank Marino, an adviser with Professional Investment Services, believes Williams strikes the right chords.

“She stands out. Often there can be information overload, but she gives us just enough information to keep us interested. From a technical point of view, Natasha is a shining star. And she’s friendly but doesn’t get in your face too much.”

According to Marino, this is the key for BDMs to be successful with advisers.

“You need to have that balance between not being too pushy and pitching the information at the right level — enough information to be interested in the product but not too much to put you off,” Marino says.

Williams also enjoys the client contact involved in her job — especially since she knows they really have to make the effort to come and listen to her.

“A major part of my role is doing client seminars in conjunction with the advisers. No one wants to go out on a weeknight, but to know that clients come along and listen to what I say and stay around afterwards, that is by far the most rewarding part of the job.”

And what does Williams think makes a good BDM? Passion.

“If you don’t have the passion, you can’t convey anything to your advisers, and you can’t convey the enthusiasm and your strong belief for the product itself.”