Introducing Brokers (IBs) are key for any broker: they boost retail traffic that might otherwise be too difficult or too costly to generate. But many brokers are competing for their attention and struggle to attract their precious order flows.
In her four years at the helm of the Titan FX Partnerships team, industry veteran Misuzu Masuda has learned that nothing gains and retains IB’s trust quite like genuine attention and helpfulness. And she shares her experience with us today.
What is the profile of your typical Introducing Broker?
IBs are a varied bunch: SEO wizards, broker reviewers, trading school operators, YouTube coaches, Discord channel owners, Expert Advisors (EA) or some combination of the above. They range from someone who simply posts our affiliate link on their social media account to established players who actively engage traders across multiple channels.
The majority are middle-aged males but a whole new generation is rising through the ranks. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many women: In my time at Titan FX, I’ve only known two female IBs!
How are these B2B clients distributed in terms of revenue?
They tend to follow an extreme Pareto curve: about 3% bring in 90% of our total IB traffic. But they’re not always the same people and the distribution changes over time and depends on factors like special promotions. There’s a group of old-timers, perhaps a tenth of our IBs, who’ve fine-tuned their skills so they can perform well and who regularly rotate in the top positions. They fall under our Tier 1 program, with the VIP treatment including superior “rebates” or commissions.
How do they come to you?
Many of them start out as retail traders on our platform and then get interested in our IB program. Others are established IBs working with other brokers but who want to add our trading platform to their offering because they think it will appeal to their retail traders.
How do you stand out from other brokers?
Our most important task is to listen to the needs of our IBs. We go above and beyond to help them succeed, whether they’re beginners or experienced.
It all starts with cultural affinity. There are native speakers on my team for every target market. We always answer the phone and we try to regularly meet our biggest IBs in-person. For example, our Japanese-speaking team travels Japan from north to south every six months, hosting dinners with our Tier 1 clients and taking appointments with anyone else who wants to meet.
The human connection is so important because it allows us to tailor our service to their needs and to build real enduring relationships.
We also pay attention to the small players who are just getting started. They need to find the right business model, build their operations and grow their customer base. It’s important for us to support them at that point or else many will simply give up. So we invite each new registrant to an onboarding call to discuss how they can leverage the program, help them navigate our platform, address their concerns, show them the marketing tools we’ve prepared for them, and instill the confidence they need to take these crucial first steps.
Finally, we’re attentive to the mood on social media and to feedback gathered during our monthly B2B sales meetings. New products have emerged from this process in the past, such as our Copy Trading offering launched last year. We weren’t into it at first but when everyone kept asking for it, we made a concerted effort.
Do you offer custom solutions to IBs?
Of course! We offer three to four IB-specific promotions every month. Different IBs have different requests, depending on their business model. The educator types like to host internal contests with their students. The SEO types like special offers, such as account-opening bonuses. Others prefer to organize trading competitions with prizes or cash rewards. We do a bit of everything and we keep coming up with new ideas, thanks in large part to the feedback we get from working closely with IBs.
On a personal note, what’s it like to work at Titan FX?
I’ve worked at two brokers before and they focused almost exclusively on making the numbers. It was a dry, high-pressure environment that made me feel like an assembly line worker. And if I had any ideas about how to improve our operations, nobody really listened.
There’s a world of difference at Titan FX. The team is very friendly, highly diverse and spread across multiple locations beyond the paradise that is our home nation of Vanuatu. flung from our island paradise. As I have explained, we have a strong culture of caring for our customers—and each other. Each of us has the space to share our ideas and to try things they’d like to implement, which is very fulfilling. That means that instead of chasing short-time gains we’re building sustainable growth, a bit like growing a family business.
