At a time when entire business community is reeling under pressure due to nationwide lockdown, India’s largest mutual fund distributor, NJ Wealth has registered over 39,500 new SIPs in the first phase of lockdown between March 23 and April 14.
In fact, the company recorded 3.75 lakh transactions in mutual funds, 3.09 lakh trades on stock exchange and opened over 12,160 new accounts in just 21 days.
Neeraj Choksi, Joint MD, NJ India Group attributed this to continuous training programs and smart technological advancement. “We have been imparting training to our partners to keep them motivated. In fact, we have increased such sessions recently to encourage our distributors. Also, we have spread the simple yet powerful message that the recent correction offers a good opportunity for investors, both existing and new, to invest in equity funds. This coupled with smart technological support to distributors has ensured smooth business continuity even while working from home.”
Adding to Choksi’s view, Husaini Kanchwala, Product Head – MF, NJ India said that his company imparts one-hour-digital training ‘NJ DigiTalk’ to distributors on a daily basis. In fact, over 3500 distributors attend these sessions regularly. These training sessions cover a host of topics - business development, product knowledge, sales and marketing, he said.
Another factor that helped the company is trust of distributors and investors, said Choksi. He said that even as many investors witnessed sharp downfall in their investments, investors working with NJ distributors follow asset allocation suggested by their internal system which limits downside risk. This has helped the partners build trust with their clients especially during times like this, he added.
Talking about how distributors should deal with the current challenges, Choksi said that distributors should stick to the basics i.e. ask their clients to diversify their money and stay invested. He said that they should tell their clients that volatility is an integral part of investments and things will only get better from here.
Husaini said that his company has been urging distributors to stay in constant touch with clients during lockdown. “These are difficult times and we believe that MFDs should reassure their clients that they are there to protect their wealth.”
