On the eve of Verico's fifth anniversary - it's coming up in June - president Colin Dreyer
is keeping busy expanding the national network's business-building services to brokers. It's another way he hopes to keep growing the network while sticking to the same model that has made the company a success.
"The basic premise of Verico is a network that provides tools and services to help brokers build their businesses and that has stayed the same since the beginning," says Dreyer, who is based in
Vancouver. "We haven't tried to redefine ourselves - our model still stands and we've had that ability to also deliver what's needed to our members as changes in the industry happen."
Focus on quality
Since Verico was established in 2005 by Dreyer and his business partner, John Kelly, the network has recruited 165 business owners across the country. Dreyer says members have to go through an intense selection process, including a six-page application form, and are selected based on their professionalism, which includes experience and production levels.
"We have always felt that our demographic was the top companies across Canada and we always wanted to differentiate ourselves from our competitors in terms of quality," he says, adding that the network has taken an industry-focused promotional approach as opposed to targeting consumers. "We're all about being the best for the industry and we'll let the industry people be the best for the consumer."
That focus on quality also links directly to lender relationships, which Dreyer says are top-of-mind at Verico. The company has a dedicated employee who works on lender partnerships and the network aims to keep efficiency levels high among its members.
"We realize the lenders want to be profitable, the brokers want to be profitable and the consumer needs to be serviced, so it's finding compatibility between those components and making sure we do a good job of that," he says.
New services
Over the past year, Verico has added a number of new services and initiatives for its brokers. Last year, the company introduced a new proprietary CRM system that works through Filogix and re-launched its creditor life insurance program. More recently, a free website tool called
VeriSite was introduced, which allows members to customize their websites with different designs and colour schemes as well as blogs and social media links. There are also new consumer videos that brokers can put their own individual branding on, and, at the end of last year, Verico Coach was launched to provide monthly TV coaching sessions to licensees led by top broker Greg Williamson.
"We want to make sure people are very understanding of what it takes to build a business - it's a very committed endeavour and these services show that we're here to help,"
Dreyer says. Education has also remained a key component of the network, Dreyer adds, which is why Verico started "regional days" this year, which encourage networking among brokers and lending partners in the same area. In the coming months, Dreyer also says there are plans to launch a program that will better connect consumers and referrals and an "internal information communications system" for Verico licensees. And in celebration of the company's five-year anniversary, Dreyer says there will be licensee retreat in Las Vegas in
the spring.
"We always want businesses to be built in the collaborative sense," he says. "We don't force
programs on people who don't want them or don't want to pay for them - everything we do is in
harmony with our members."