Traditionally,
advisors approach investors and pitch their services. This, according to Pradip
Chakrabarty, founder of advisorkhoj portal, is one of the reasons why investors
don’t feel the need to pay for advisors services.
“If a best heart surgeon comes to offer his services at your doorstep then you will discount the credibility or capability of the doctor. Naturally, the fees that this doctor can command will be less. The situation is similar in the advisory profession. When an advisor starts off he approaches people. It is not the other way around. Through our portal, investors will approach advisors.” says Pradip. He feels that this reversal in trend will help advisors command a fee for their services.
That was the idea behind the genesis of advisorkhoj, a first-of-its-kind initiative where users can locate an advisor based on their location, services offered by an advisor, qualification, etc. To make it easier for investors to locate advisors they have a choice of alternatives – they can give a missed call, write an email, call up the helpline number or contact advisors directly through the portal. The aim is help investors identify and locate an advisor who best suits their needs. The portal only throws up results of the list of advisors having valid ARNs. “Our team monitors the ARN expiry of advisors. We also prompt them to renew their licenses before it is due for expiry.” says Pradip.
The portal has already registered 12000 advisors from 600 locations and aims to enroll 30,000 advisors by December. Pradip is also planning to register the large pool of insurance agents on his portal.
Advisors can register themselves on this portal by paying an annual subscription fee which ranges between Rs 1000 and Rs 6000.
Pradip’s initative has been received well by the industry stakeholders. He was among the 11 advisors who bagged the MFRT’s Samman award recently in Hyderabad.
The biggest challenge for Pradip is to attract prospective clients for advisors. He plans to popularize the portal by buying ad space on Facebook, Google search, Linkedin and sending mailers to a database of investors.
He plans to simplify the user experience on his portal. Currently it takes four to five clicks to locate an advisor. Pradip wants to enhance this search capability to two clicks.
Disclosure:Cafemutual was the Online Media Partner for the MFRT event.
