News

What Makes a Great TPI Partnership: Inside Our Broker Onboarding Process
Choosing a partner is only half the equation — what happens after you sign is what determines whether the relationship actually grows your business. Here's an honest look at what good onboarding and ongoing partnership support should look like, and how it plays out in practice.

Why Onboarding Is the Real Test of a Partnership
Most TPIs and aggregators sound similar in a sales call. The difference shows up in the first 90 days: how fast you're quoting live business, how much hand-holding you need, and whether your account manager actually knows your book of business by week four.

A strong onboarding process should cover:

• System access and training — not a one-off webinar, but working sessions until your team is confident quoting independently
• A clear first-30-days plan — specific milestones (first quote submitted, first contract live, first commission paid) rather than an open-ended "let us know if you need anything"
• A named account manager from day one, not a rotating support queue
• Documentation handed over up front — LOA templates, disclosure wording, escalation contacts — so you're not chasing this down mid-deal

What Good Partnership Support Looks Like Month-to-Month

Once you're live, the partnerships that work well share a few habits:

• Proactive rate and market updates rather than brokers having to ask
• Renewal pipeline visibility so you're not relying on memory or spreadsheets to track when client contracts are coming up
• Content and marketing support — case studies, market commentary, or client-facing one-pagers your team can put their own name on
• Regular (not just annual) performance reviews — looking at conversion rates, time-to-go-live, and where deals are falling through

Broker Snapshot: What a Strong Partnership Solves

"Before, every quote took a day or two of back-and-forth. Now I can turn around a competitive rate for a client while I'm still on the call with them. That alone changed how many deals I close."
"The thing that actually mattered wasn't the commission rate — it was having someone who picked up the phone when a supplier dropped the ball on onboarding a client. That's when you find out who your partner really is."
"We started using their renewal alerts instead of our own spreadsheet, and we picked up three contracts in month two that we would have otherwise missed."
(Use this section as a template — swap in real, attributed quotes from your own brokers once you have permission to use them. Specific, named case studies will significantly outperform composite examples for both SEO and trust signals.)

What to Ask a Prospective Partner About Onboarding
"What does my first 30 days look like, specifically?"
"Who is my named contact, and what's their average response time?"
"Can I speak to a broker who joined in the last 6–12 months about their onboarding experience?"
"What marketing or content support is available to me as a partner?"
The Bottom Line
A great TPI partnership isn't won in the sales pitch — it's proven in onboarding and the months that follow. If a prospective partner can't clearly describe their first-30-days process, that's worth treating as a signal in itself.

Want to see our onboarding process in detail, or talk to a broker who's been through it? [Get in touch] — we're happy to set that up.

Testimonial
“I joined Richard as a Partner to Utility Helpline well over 10 years ago now, just after he had launched the service and I am pleased to say that it was probably the best business decision I have every made. With a deep knowledge of the utility industry, Richard is a ‘hands-on’ manager of people both as regards his clients and his hand-picked staff, all of whom are highly competent, personable and dedicated to the business.  The highest level of integrity runs throughout.

"Utility Helpline now offers a broad range of valuable business utility services, selected and developed by Richard and his team. As a result, Utility Helpline has become one of the most reputable, comprehensive utility service companies in the market today and one that I am proud to be associated with"

"Commission percentages are higher than that offered by many brokers, payments are always very prompt and I have never had any financial issues. I would thoroughly recommend Utility Helpline as a brokerage partner."

Contact Will or Richard on 01432 378690

 Energy-Broker-Platform-UK