On Point Data believe you cannot deliver the best standard of service without the best people on your team. One of the company’s earliest hires, Business Development Manager Leanne Lolley, is a shining example of client dedication and professional initiative. Read on to learn about her interesting career and collection of hobbies.
To meet Leanne is to observe her exceptional client care and communication levels. Therefore, it’s unsurprising to learn that her first role in the conveyancing world was customer service. Aged just eighteen, she began work on the help desk of a major search provider. She spent her first year with the company here, fielding calls and dealing with complex customer issues and queries.
After a successful first year on the help desk, Leanne seized an opportunity to expand her skills and work in operations. Assisting with the provider’s Local Authority project, she built relationships with key points of contact and helped onboard them to the firm’s hub system. Leanne’s ability to create opportunities for herself is a theme that emerges even from this formative point in her career.The project was soon completed, but Leanne was keen to keep moving forward.
‘After such a hands-on role, I didn’t want just to go back to the help desk. I managed to retain some of the Local Authority account management responsibilities and create a role that was very much a smashing together of other things. It was a job that I carved out for myself.’
Her next step took her into Lead Generation. Despite having no sales experience, Leanne saw the position as a challenge and applied anyway.
‘My manager at the time gave me a great reference; the hiring manager, in turn, gave me a three-month trial. I ended up loving it. The minute someone says no to me, it becomes a challenge.’
Spurred on by the financial incentives, Leanne thrived in the lead-gen position for several years until the company began making roles like hers redundant, migrating the associated responsibilities to account managers. Undeterred, Leanne managed to identify lower-tier accounts that didn’t have a manager and continue her habit of building a unique, constantly evolving role. The outcome of this habit was that, over time, Leanne had come to hold a complex position with varied yet essential responsibilities. Naturally, she wanted to be valued accordingly, though her seniors did not grant this request.
By this point in her career, Leanne had started a successful taekwondo club where she was responsible for coaching several white-belt students on the national team. As such, when an internal employee trainer position arose, Leanne felt well qualified to apply. However, her employer thought she ‘didn’t have any training experience.’ To Leanne, these nos were beginning to feel more like brick walls than calls to arms.
Newly married to her long-term partner, Paul, Leanne decided to pursue a window of opportunity presented by a competing business. Leanne went on to spend several years in this role and, again, grew her role into a dynamic position that ultimately incorporated marketing, admin and sales across various offices.
However, in a tale that won’t be unfamiliar to much of the conveyancing industry, this company was then acquired by a large overseas business. This acquisition triggered changes to key working methods that ultimately clashed with Leanne’s values. The falling standards and rising prices she was being made to offer clients meant Leanne began to seek opportunities elsewhere that better suited her professional values.
Enter, On Point Data. Having previously met company founder Jeremy Dorkins, Leanne was more than open-minded when he reached out to see if she’d be interested in joining OPD.
Despite Leanne’s immediate affinity with the On Point Data ethos, she and her husband naturally felt anxious about leaving an established company and taking a gamble on the brand-new OPD. Kevin and Jeremy’s response was to insist on taking the couple out to dinner to explore their concerns. While the dinner date initially felt unusual for the industry, it further demonstrated to Leanne On Point Data’s thoroughly human way of doing business and the level of effort and care they apply to their partners.
Does she feel she made the right move? ‘Absolutely. I’m so proud to have witnessed the rapid progress of On Point Data. Coming on board at this early stage has given me a sense of ownership of my work that I’ve never experienced before. What’s most impressive to me about Jeremy and Kevin is the way they’ve taken their personal reputations and turned them into a solid brand.’
This endeavour has been continued through their hiring process as they continue to bring on established and highly reputable industry names. Leanne has been selling searches for nineteen years, and her reputation speaks for itself.
On what resonates most about the OPD way of doing things, Leanne is clear. ‘It’s the people, the ability to pick up the phone and reach real people. Technology enhances our service, but it doesn’t define it. Many of our competitors focus so much on the technology that they lose sight of the bigger picture.’
‘In our line of work, the end client is buying a house. In most cases, this is the most significant investment they’re ever going to make, and it can throw up a great deal of stress and uncertainty. Who does that get put on? The solicitor. Especially if they are stuck without answers, their technical systems can’t navigate a specific issue, or they struggle to get through to someone with detailed knowledge.’
’Whereas, when one of our clients encounters an issue, they immediately pick up the phone to us. More often than not, we use our expertise and intimate knowledge of their case to resolve the problem right away; failing that, we pull in favours or phone the necessary stakeholders and ultimately get the information or resolution the solicitor urgently needs. You have a problem, you pick up the phone. It’s that simple.’
Outside of work, Leanne is now Vice Director and Secretary of the 8000-members-strong International Taekwondo Council, of which she was the first female member of the committee and also the youngest. As well as running day-to-day operations, Leanne runs the ITC events team, organising six major competitions annually, attracting hundreds of competitors.
Taekwondo is a true passion for Leanne; she competes, teaches, and even umpires the sport. But as if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Leanne has three horses and a donkey, eventing and showjumping the horses where she can.
How does she manage? ‘Firstly, I have an army around me. I’m so lucky to have a close-knit support system of family and friends. My partner is highly supportive and also the South East Rep for the Taekwondo Council too. Of course, you have to be meticulously organised to manage so many different things, but ultimately, On Point Data makes it a reality. My job makes all of my other passions possible. It’s great to work somewhere that affords you so much autonomy and flexibility. They’re just awesome.’
By August, Leanne will have been a part of the OPD team for a year. Living in her hometown of Swindon, her key work areas cover the Southwest and South Coast. But by her own words, she’s not bound by location.
‘I love that if I make a connection anywhere in the country, On Point Data’s nationwide reach means I can work with anyone and travel anywhere to make it happen.’
If you’d like to get to know Leanne and discuss working with On Point Data, or perhaps, organise a free self-defence session for your firm (location-dependent), then you can reach out via email at leanne.lolley@onpointdata.co.uk
This article was published by On Point Data as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer.
The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
