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Many of you must be conducting investor awareness programs (IAPs) to acquire new clients. But Mumbai MFD Gajendra Kothari of Etica Wealth Management has taken ‘Mutual Fund Sahi Hai’ overseas.
Recently, Gajendra conducted IAP sessions in Belgium and Dubai. He is planning to conduct another session soon in Thailand.
Talking to Cafemutual, Gajendra said that a few of his clients who are into diamond business gave him the idea of reaching out to the Indian community in Antwerp, Belgium. In fact, one of his NRI clients who is a fashion influencer in Belgium helped Gajendra in this endeavour by promoting this knowledge session among Indian community.
Gajendra further told Cafemutual that he created a Google sheet to capture interest of overseas investors for such an event. He said, “I decided if I get 30 responses, I will go ahead and do IAPs. Interestingly, 65 people had shown interest to attend my knowledge session. In fact, I have to do two sessions to cater to this size of audience.”
In these sessions, Gajendra talks about his own investment journey which includes mistakes and learnings. He shares with people his own account statement on how he planned education of his daughter through mutual funds and how he is going about retirement. He said, “People don’t relate to finance. But if we can make the concept simple and connect it with real life, they become curious and show interest in knowing about it.”
Gajendra also sets aside 2 hours for QnA sessions so that he can address queries and concerns of investors. He said, “In my experience, many NRIs invest in NRI FDs which are generally tax free. They don’t know about the benefits of mutual funds. Also, they have a lot of queries related to taxes and compliance. Further, these QnA sessions cover a lot of topics which are important but not part of your presentation. It also gives you an opportunity to connect with people one-on-one.”
Similarly, Gajendra held two sessions in Dubai through his existing set of clients. He spends at least 7 days post his sessions to meet these prospects and existing clients. He has spent Rs.2-3 lakh from his pocket to fund these sessions.
While talking about the conversion rate, Gajendra said that he has converted 4-5 clients from each session but existing clients give more business. “While my objective is to spread awareness about mutual funds, even if I get two clients, my cost will be recovered in the long term as you get high ticket clients. However, the key benefit of doing such a session is that my existing clients who stay in these locations and attend the session give me more business.”
Gajendra shares with us three mantras for conducting overseas IAPs:
- You have to be good with your content. Generic IAP content will not work for them. You will have to cover topics like taxation and compliance
- Have a system in place to facilitate international investment. Not all overseas people hold PAN to be able to invest in Indian mutual funds. It is better to route them through international investment platforms. These platforms facilitate transactions in Indian and international index funds through any bank account
- Have patience as hard selling does not work here. Overseas clients and NRIs have travelled across the countries and they have better understanding of the subject. However, stay in touch with them post your sessions. Such sessions yield results but take time
Gajendra’s company Etica Wealth currently manages AUM of Rs.1600 crore. The company caters to 6000 clients including 120 NRIs.
