Be flexible and adaptive:
Vijay Shankar was included in the match against Pakistan as opener Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the world cup due to injury. India’s fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar pulled his hamstring in the fifth over of Pakistan’s inning after which skipper Virat Kohli turned to Vijay Shankar. The latter successfully provided the first breakthrough to the team on his first delivery of the match. His statement was, “Coming on to bowl so early was a surprise for me but I have to be flexible in my role.”
The only constant in the world is ‘change’. The mutual fund industry and especially advisory community is going through the phase of transition. The key to success for advisors here is to adapt to these regulatory changes and focus on growing business from here. With the new regulations, cost has come under pressure and we can reduce our cost of operations by leveraging technology.
Be watchful of opportunities:
Mohammad Amir started the first over with a maiden with the new ball. Since he was the highest wicket taker of Pakistan then, both Rahul and Rohit were watchful of playing against him. Both waited for the right opportunities to score boundaries against Amir. Result: They end up scoring at an economy of over 6 runs per over.
Most distributors concentrate only on equity funds and SIPs. In my view, advisors like us should look at different MF products to offer solutions to clients. For instance, there are schemes like balanced advantage funds for post-retirement cash flows and income funds for near term goals and facilities like step up SIP, STPs and SWPs to offer solutions to clients.
Keep trying:
If we look at the statistics, there were 118 dot balls (39.3%) where India could not move the scoreboard. Despite this, the team scored a big 336 runs.
If we look at sales statistics of distributors, generally 20% clients contribute to 80% of AUM. However, most of us expect positive response from every sales meeting and calls. And if something goes wrong, we get disheartened.
We need to understand that though we put our 100% effort to acquire new clients, there can never be 100% strike rate. So rather than getting disheartened, we should continuously look out for clients who would play a role of a ‘boundary’ in our ‘game’.
Don’t be emotional with clients:
Kohli’s statement: “I think Pakistan outplayed us in the champions trophy final but if you focus on this game as too emotional, things can go wrong. We are professional about it and the result is what matters.” The gist here is do not get emotional, be professional and focus on game.
Most distributors treat their clients as family members. However, in the process, many clients do not value your time and importance. In my view, it is extremely important to strike the right balance of professionalism and emotional attachment in dealing with clients.
Assess yourself:
Indian cricket team has developed five main parameters for assessing a fielder’s quality – interception, throws, catches, run-outs and runs (saved, given). For example – For catches, grade one is a straightforward catch which earns you one point, and if missed, two points get deducted. Grade two, which gets you two points, is where the fielder needs to move and is under pressure. If missed, you lose one point. The Grade three is a half-chance – nobody will complain if you do not take it, but if you do, it’s a game changer and fetches you four points. Team management use this data to calculate the net productivity of a player. Clearly, the methodology coupled with an increased emphasis on fitness has paid off for India.
A distributor should develop a points system to grade himself and his team. He can have a self-assessment grade system wherein the points are given/taken away on various parameters such as communication skills, objection handling from clients, knowledge sharing with clients and success ratio of closing a call.
To conclude, as we enjoy this world cup looking forward to see India in semis and finals, let us keep looking for “Mauka” to learn, implement and enrich the game of mutual fund distribution with better shots and boundaries.
Prarthana Dave is IFA from Baroda. She also runs financial learning academy NV Financial Academy.
The views expressed in this article are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cafemutual.
