"The most important thing is the passion, the passion of working with excellent people, the passion of serving our mortgage brokers, and eventually, and most importantly, is the passion of serving the home buyers."
Sushanta Sen, Director of Sales
Sushanta Sen knows all about creating connections. As Director of Sales for MCAP and a part of the MCAP team for over 16 years, establishing genuine, long-lasting relationships have helped him in his career journey and his personal life. According to Sushanta, “it’s like family here at MCAP.”
Before joining MCAP, the first half of Sushanta’s career was dedicated to retail banking where he was part of several teams where he gained exposure to customer service, operations, account management and sales leadership. It was in this role that he first connected with MCAP’s then Head of Sales for Ontario and built a connection that opened the door to a new career at MCAP. He now proudly works alongside the VP of Sales and coaches a team of twenty-three Business Development Managers (BDMs) and five Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) across Canada.
“Our business, our industry, is based on trust, knowledge, connections and managing emotions.”
After making the shift from retail banking to a mortgage finance company, Sushanta worked hard to adapt to his new environment and role. While the two industries have their differences, Sushanta focused on the similarities — things like emotions and human connection — to help him excel. As he explains, “our business, our industry, is based on trust, knowledge, connections, and managing emotions. Home buying and financing are probably some of the highest strains of emotional stress for people and especially with what has happened in the last 16 months with COVID-19, it has just created a much bigger challenge as it’s all virtual connections.”
“I think the video component of our interactions and the digital face-to-face connection is something beneficial to come out of this time.”
But challenges can often be opportunities in disguise. In adapting to the virtual landscape caused by COVID-19 restrictions, Sushanta and his team learned how to be agile and adopt a new way to work. “It’s a good challenge that we are facing,” he says. “I think the video component of our interactions and the digital face-to-face connection is something beneficial to come out of this time. In addition to the virtual connection, what we have done differently is creating more video content that we are sharing at our BDM level as opposed to strictly emails and write-ups on products.”
“A lender or mortgage broker community needs to stay above what is available to everyone and provide meaningful advice to a client.”
Adapting to a new environment with an enhanced focus on digital tools isn’t completely new to Sushanta. As he recollects on his days in retail banking, he recalls the shift from going into a branch to update a bank book to having online access to all your banking. The shift can be felt throughout the financial sector. As Sushanta shares, “in the financial services industry where most of the knowledge was stored with professionals based in offices, it’s now available in this virtual community through different websites, like lender, MPC, and insurer websites. Access to information is, I believe, the biggest change.” But, as he points out, access to information isn’t necessarily giving customers everything they need. “With more information available, there’s more out there that a customer is going to see,” he says. “This is where a lender or the mortgage broker community needs to stay above what is available to everyone and provide meaningful advice to a client based on their situation as opposed to advice for all.”
“What I give is what I get back.”
One thing that’s undeniable about Sushanta is his passion for people; it’s what keeps him motivated. As he explains, “what I give is what I get back. Just serving my people, be it my family in the home or my team that I support, coach, and mentor. The way that they share with me and the feedback I receive in terms of how I’m helping them become successful, not only professionally but personally. That to me is the most significant reward.”
Mentorship is something Sushanta holds dear to his heart and part of what has helped him grow as a person and a leader. It’s something he encourages each person to pursue regardless of their position, career goals or personality. A self-described introvert, Sushanta believes that each personality type holds potential. “We all have balances of being shy, or an extrovert or ambivert. It’s all inside of us,” he says. “It just comes down to what we want in our lives and what we want to learn or achieve.”
“It’s about being available for the people at the right time.”
For Sushanta, Blue Culture always comes back to one thing, the people. As he explains, “The connections we have with people matter, it’s definitely all about the people. From our customers, our family, our partners, stakeholders, it’s all about managing emotions. Of course, processes, interest rates, and structures are very important but it’s the delivery of all these things and how you manage expectations that’s key. Most importantly it’s about being available for the people at the right time.”
