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As a part of Franklin Templeton’s Invest for Progress Campaign, here are three more inspiring short stories of women MFDs that are sure to brighten your day. Every story epitomises a laser-sharp focus, a well-planned approach, and a solid commitment.
So let’s celebrate and applaud the three champions - Bina Shetty, Manjula S and Mansi Shah.
Chapter: Bina Shetty - The Referral Magnet
Bina, a Mumbai-based chartered accountant shifted her base to Pune post-marriage. She started her second work innings in Pune with a mutual fund company and received praise for her ability to convince clients as well as her people management skills.
Over time, her entrepreneurial instincts took over and she decided to nurture them by taking up mutual fund distribution.
However, being new to the city, she largely leveraged cold calling to reach out to prospects. To begin, she browsed through telephone directories and visited various trade bodies to create a database.
In her calls, as a conversation starter, she spoke about her professional background, the importance of financial security and ended by seeking an appointment. She keeps a close track of every discussion as a result of which she is able to successfully close six out of every ten calls.
As her new clients began to benefit from her guidance, they voluntarily gave her references and in no time Bina became a referral magnet. This is how her business and client base grew organically.
Apart from cold calling, Bina attributes her success to a focused approach where she targets one investor category at a time. For instance, she started her journey by reaching out to doctors, then to corporates and so on. In fact, recently, she has reached out to schools so that she can speak to parents about the need to plan for their children’s future.
Bina believes that a focused approach like this helps to increase client conversion ratio.
Besides, she strongly endorses women empowerment and educates domestic helpers about the importance of financial independence.
Through her journey of more than two decades, Bina has learnt :
- To keep close track of every client call/communication for taking it to a conclusion
- To identify target investor segments for channelizing efforts in the right direction and increasing client conversion ratio
Chapter: Manjula S – Your Friendly Neighbourhood Advisor
Coming from a family of chartered accountants, Manjula started her career with a tax consultancy firm. After working there for six years, she realised that mutual fund was the sole financial product that could address multiple goals. This is when she took a keen interest in mutual funds and registered as a mutual fund distributor in 2002.
As a mutual fund distributor, Manjula always kept it informal and focused on being friends first then a financial guide. She met her professional acquaintances with their family at their home and struck up casual conversations. She continued to have such relaxed meetings to know her prospects better and also to let them know more about her values, skills and working style.
This worked fantastically well and Manjula went on to onboard new clients. Gradually her business grew through references and today she manages family office assets of over Rs. 1,000 crore.
Manjula is based out of Bengaluru and believes that quality servicing is the key to creating a loyal client base. As a practice, she makes notes of key events like clients’ appraisal cycles and serves them reminders to invest with every rise in income.
She personally gets involved in every client request and takes up the responsibility of coordinating with the respective fund house/RTA (Registrar and Transfer Agent). Further, the friendly meetings with family members give investors the extra comfort to reach out to her without any hesitation.
Learning from her own journey, Manjula advises aspiring women mutual fund distributors to become an expert in their field and create a niche by specializing in a specific area of financial advice. She also suggests using social media and other digital platforms to showcase one’s expertise and attract new clients.
Her journey highlights:
- Keep it informal, try being a friend to your client first then a financial guide
- Quality servicing and being accessible is the key to creating a loyal client base
Chapter: Mansi Shah - From marriage cards to business cards
Mansi, a chartered accountant by qualification, started her career in the MIS department of a textile conglomerate in 2004. However, with marriage being on cards and coming from a traditional Gujarati family from Ahmedabad, Mansi left her job to adapt to her new role and family responsibilities.
However, Mansi’s husband and family were completely in tune with her career aspirations and encouraged her to start something on her own. As a budding entrepreneur, she identified and analysed various avenues and zeroed down on mutual fund distribution basis two parameters - its growth potential and the flexibility for a better work-life balance.
Since she was new to the industry, Mansi chalked out a plan to upskill and acquire clients. She immersed herself in extensive reading and regularly attended educational sessions/mutual fund events. Simultaneously, she leveraged her family’s social circle and made a list of prospects.
Many prospects that Mansi spoke with were comfortable traditional investment options and had a conservative approach. Thus, to make mutual funds relatable, she introduced them to debt funds first. She also demonstrated a comparative analysis of these funds against traditional investment options. Later, based on their needs, Mansi encouraged her clients to introduce equity in their portfolios.
While the prospects started with small amounts to test the water, they gradually increased their investments as they gained confidence. And, as clients’ confidence grew, referrals began to pour in and her business scaled newer heights.
Another thing that worked for Mansi was sound operational knowledge. She did everything from the scratch including form filling to data entry. This gave her an in-depth understanding of the backend activities and helped in training her team well. After all, a well-trained team is key to efficient client servicing.
Today, Mansi caters to over 2,500 clients and credits this to the personal attention that she dedicates to each one of them. She stays connected through physical and virtual meetings once every quarter.
Her journey emphasizes the importance of:
- Having sound operational knowledge to build a well-trained team and serve clients better
- Personal attention through regular meetings to nurture stronger client bonds
