Meet the Brokers

Andre: What made you want to work in commercial finance?

Steve: What I’d always liked about working in banks is being the go-to person for customers, and the idea of building relationships and trust with customers. I had a lot of clients, and I wanted an environment where I could help and say yes to customers.
 
After leaving Handelsbanken I worked at a friend’s brokerage to find my feet before setting up Q Commercial Finance four years ago. We’re based in Shropshire and benefit from people wanting to use local businesses. 

I’ve now got 23 members of the team. I merged with a mortgage brokerage and financial planning business to create Q Commercial. With a banking background, we wanted to create a one-stop shop for our clients. I’m passionate about providing the services that help us to help them and say yes.

Andre: What makes Q Commercial Finance different?

Steve: I’d say it’s the relationships we have with clients. It’s not just about getting a deal through and saying goodbye. We support our clients throughout the process and have a lot of repeat interaction with our customers. We have that old-school banking relationship with our clients where we know them, their business, and their objectives. 

Andre: High Street vs. Challenger Bank?

Steve: The Challengers are making the High Street banks look silly. They’ve had it their own way for so long and now, with COVID-19, the Challengers are coming to the forefront thanks to integrated technology and dealing with brokers really well. It doesn’t have to be that complicated for customers. If High Street banks don’t evolve, they’ll just be transactional, and customers won’t see them as lenders. 

Andre: You put forward a deal which led to Redwood getting their 1000th lending customer. Your response?

Steve: Great! 

Andre: How did you hear about Redwood?

Steve: I’ve been aware of Redwood for a while and Andre joining the bank put it back on our radar. It’s all about relationships and with a Business Development Manager as good as Andre, we wanted to reignite the relationship and see how we could work closer with Redwood for the benefit of our customers.

Andre: How have you found working with Redwood?

Steve: It’s been impressive. The management and after-offer stage has been really good. Redwood demonstrates a great understanding of the deal and does something very different to High Street banks. They have great people with a high skill level working on cases. When you’re working with a High Street brand, you know you have to push the deal through. When you’re working with Redwood, you feel like you’ve got someone with you working on your deal, sharing the workload and making the client happy. 

Andre: You recently attended Redwood’s Broker Lunch in Birmingham – what are the benefits of events like this?

Steve: It gave me the opportunity to meet Gary Wilkinson and Leon Marklew – it was great to interact with key people from Redwood and know the broker/bank relationship is a valued one.