Hiten Shah, Hiten Shah Financial Advisors
When I started as a financial adviser, I found it a struggle to acquire new clients, managing to acquire only 4-5 clients with great difficulty. There were days when I didn’t have money to fill petrol in my bike! So I wanted to acquire clients, especially HNIs, as fast as possible.
My father advised me that ‘number of clients doesn’t matter and rather I should focus on creating value for existing clients.’ He also told me that no client is big or small and I should work with all types of clients. So I started giving the best services to my initial set of clients and started receiving referrals from them. His words helped me a lot.
Another advice which I received was from a senior IFA which I still follow - ‘don’t push products which AMCs want to sell. Recommend what your client needs.’ Since we are in service industry client satisfaction should be our top priority.
Today, I have 258 clients with Rs. 20 crore AUA in mutual funds.
Pranav Patel, JK Securities
After finishing my higher studies and a short professional stint overseas, I joined my father’s brokerage firm in Anand, Gujarat. The firm’s predominant focus was direct equity and I wanted to start offering mutual funds. I had been investing in mutual funds for a while and found them to be ideal for retail investors. So I wanted to offer mutual funds to my customers.
To learn more about MF distribution, I started attending industry conferences. The key learnings from attending these conferences was that one must strive for achieving 3Ts – transparency, trust and time. Trust is the end result of being transparent and giving time to your clients.
At one of the conferences, the speaker talked about why it is important to give time to our clients by staying in touch with them. This advice remained etched in my mind and I still follow it. Also, I learned that transparency is key to gain client trust. This advice has helped me build a strong relationship with my clients. Today, our firm manages Rs. 50 crore in MFs.
