In this edition of ‘Principal Business Champions – Winning Ideas’, we asked distributors across the country to share their views on how they convinced clients to save more.
The Principal Business Champions is a joint initiative of Principal Mutual Fund and Cafemutual that offers a platform to the MF distribution community to share their successful business practices and ideas.
The contest has received some interesting responses from distributors. Here are the entries that received the highest votes.
Website winner: Roopesh Jaitly, Lucknow
‘Tracked down clients with lavish lifestyle prior to lockdown and advised them to start SIP’
At first, I tracked down clients who were maintaining a lavish lifestyle. Such clients were investing less than what they were capable of because they were splurging on weekend breaks, movies, etc, Now, due to lockdown, all these expenses have reduced.
I approached them and told them to utilise the savings generated during these lockdown months. Investing those savings through a new SIP will not only create a good buffer but also fund their next international trip post lockdown. I helped them recognise that this is once in a life opportunity to boost funding for other life goals.
Additionally, I was able to activate old clients who had stopped investments due to less savings during the lockdown.
Facebook winner: Mukund Seshadri, Mumbai
‘Told clients to reduce usage of credit card and save instead’
I believe lockdown has taught all of us a great lesson on why savings are important. People who survived during the first five months of complete lockdown without regular income know it best. Hence, I believe investors just need a nudge and direction to park their savings wisely.
Since lockdown, we have restricted our spending to household goods and our expenses on shopping on non-essential goods have reduced. I told my clients to try to save that amount and invest it no matter how small the amount is for future contingencies.
Moreover, I interacted with all clients every month to check their financial stability. I followed up with those who were working from home and hence saving on extraneous expenses. I told my clients to reward themselves first by saving for their future.
Twitter winner: Harish Krishnani, Bhopal
‘Approached millennials who had kept away from investing’
More than anybody, young individuals need to inculcate the habit of saving. Over the years, I have noticed that young individuals are not very interested in investments compared to other age groups. Hence, I started targeting them during lockdown through webinars on why investing at an early age is important.
At a time, I interacted with 40-50 new young investors and introduced them to the power of long term compounding. I introduced them to short term as well as long-term investment to meet life goals. Virtual interaction made it less awkward and easy to catch up with millennials in their comfort zone. This activity helped me to convince millennials clients to take investing seriously.
