Srikanth Matrubai
In 2006, Srikanth started writing blogs. He started sharing his views on markets, products and gave tips to investors on his blog. During the 2008 crisis he wrote a blog post titled ‘Don’t worry about the crash’ in which Srikanth made a case for staying invested in equities to make good returns instead of bailing out. An NRI from Bahrain, who had lost substantial amount of his money in direct equities (his Rs. 1.6 crore portfolio had become Rs. 60 lakh) during the 2008 market crash, came across Srikanth’s post. Intrigued by the post, he exchanged emails with Srikanth. After a few telephonic and email conversations, the NRI flew down from Bahrain to Bengaluru to invest through Srikanth.
Srikanth advised him to switch his money from direct equity to mutual funds. He recommended him to invest in a few balanced and diversified funds. Another thing which helped Srikanth convince the NRI was that he invests his own money in the schemes before recommending them to clients.
“Within three and half years, the client recovered his losses and made profits. He is retired now,” recalls Srikanth.
From this experience, Srikanth learned that knowledge empowers clients. He says that advisers should not push clients to invest in mutual funds. Rather, they should educate them. ‘If clients like your approach and trust you, they will automatically come to you. So don’t be pushy,” says Srikanth.
Kalpana Sheth
Back in 1990s, Kalpana Sheth, founder of Tejas Consultancy started sending postcards to housing societies in Malad to acquire clients.
Kalpana used to urge people to invest in mutual funds through post cards. However, she didn’t get a single client for a year! However, her effort paid off when one person approached her to know more about mutual funds. Since mutual funds were new, people were not familiar with them. “The client was not sure whether he could trust an unfamiliar product like mutual fund. It took me quite a few meetings to convince him of the benefits of MFs and finally he agreed to invest. Since he was risk-averse, he invested in a fixed income product,” recalls Kalpana.
“The client was happy with the performance of the fund and he also gave me referrals,” says Kalpana. Kalpana still manages her first clients’ portfolio.
From this experience, Kalpana learned that being persistent is the key to succeed in advisory profession. ‘I waited for a year to acquire my first client but I didn’t give up. I have learnt there is no substitute for hard work if you want to acquire clients in the initial stage,” says Kalpana.
