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At the recent Cafemutual Confluence 2024, Chandigarh MFD Rajeev Kathuria won the prestigious Cafemutual Big League SIP Champion Award for having the highest number of SIPs in north India.
North India includes Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Powered by CAMS, the award aims to recognize the hard work of MFDs who have achieved business milestones. It identified 24 MF champions across five broad categories – SIP, equity inflows, new folios, fintech player and overall business. The award was based purely on quantitative performance during the FY 2023-24.
Rajeev became a mutual fund distributor in 2019. He followed in his father’s footsteps who started his mutual fund distribution business in 2000 along with two sons. However, Rajeev did not join the family business and started on his own.
Rajeev shared with us his a few key learnings on achieving this milestone:
Meeting at least 20 new people a day
Rajeev makes it a point to meet at least 20 new people. While he owns an office, he never sits in the office.
He starts his days by spending 2 hours in the playground doing exercise and meeting a couple of new people.
The MFD finds an opportunity to meet new people wherever he goes throughout the day. For instance, every time, when he wants to get a haircut or even have a panipuri, he goes to a new barber or a vendor to make them his client.
A good number of Rajeev’s clients are from the bottom of the pyramid. He claims that majority of roadside chaat vendors across Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula are his clients.
Rajeev has a daily ritual to go to temple and gaushala and has made many pandits, pujaris and gau sewaks his clients.
The message
Rajeev asks thought provoking questions to prospects like how they plan to provide for children’s education, children’s wedding and fund their retirement. In his experience, many people don’t have an answer to these questions, and this opens a new line of conversation for him.
He encourages these prospects to start a SIP with a small amount to test the waters. Even if he gets lumpsum money, he recommends his clients to do STP to reduce the risk of timing the market.
Next, he showcases how his SIPs have done in the long term to establish trust and give confidence to investors.
He recommends his clients to continue SIPs for at least 10 years.
The MFD also encourages them not to go aggressive i.e. starting with a higher amount and then reducing it or stopping it further. He tells them to start with a small amount and increase their monthly contribution eventually.
No group meeting
Rajeev believes in doing one-on-one meetings with prospects. Even for group meetings, he restricts it to 5 individuals.
He believes that the conversion rate is higher in small groups. Also, people are more comfortable discussing finance in a smaller gathering.
Thanks to all these activities, Rajeev has persuaded 3000 new clients to start SIPs in just one year.
