Tell us about your early career. Did you always want to be a financial planner?
I come from a small business family which has been dealing with finance. Since finance was always in my roots, I chose to continue this legacy. I was the first in my family to complete SSC. After completing CA, I landed a job at Sharekhan on the day of their launch. I was part of the founding team and worked there for five years. Here, I learned various aspects of adopting technology and that has been my core foundation.
My next stint was at Motilal Oswal where I was responsible for branding on a pan India basis. I was a domain specialist with a technology and marketing edge. Along with my team, we setup more than 500 outlets across India. I have also worked for Prabhudas Lilladhar and IIFL.
What inspired you to take up financial advisory?
I saw clients go bust very closely & very regularly when I was part of the brokering industry. Somewhere, I felt guilty though I was not directly involved. I wanted to deal with clients on the other side of the fence. Now I represent clients and not the industry anymore.
Tell us about your initial journey. What kind of teething trouble did you face?
Being a new kid on the block, we had trust issues. Prospects didn’t like to deal with a stranger when they had already burnt their fingers working with many other advisors in the past. We built trust with our beliefs and values. Our communication was so strong that clients eventually started testing us and finally enrolled with us.
Tell us about your business model. How is it different from your competitors?
- SEBI RIA: When everybody was still thinking whether to register as RIA or not, we got our firm registered with SEBI. This made us stand out from other non-registered advisors.
- Technology: This was the major differentiator which helped us acquire 500+ clients in 40 cities in just 12 months. We did some intelligent digital marketing and got into rich conversations with prospects. Once clients were convinced they immediately subscribed to our products.
- We productized our services: Services are very tough to sell and to put a price to it is equally challenging. We found it logical to productize our services into different buckets with some good branding. That made the entire process of communication much simpler and faster.
You have created separate product baskets for different sets of consumers. What are the criteria of choosing the funds?
We have six product baskets, out of which E-fortune, M-fortune and Super Filter picks have performed exceptionally well. We have three different criteria before filtering any fund:
- Risk Profile & Trade Profile: We do a detailed profiling of the clients based on their temperament, investible surplus and overall net worth. Once we get the profile right, we recommend them one of our six products and then the discussion revolves purely around that product.
- Expectations: We define expectations from each product and do not let clients get carried away by market movements. This makes them stay invested throughout as the client is made to follow the rules defined for the product, money management and asset allocation.
- Rich conversations: Clients have valued the time we have put in giving them a patient hearing and helping them get a solution after we have defined the problem.
How much assets under advisory do you currently have?
We advise on close to Rs. 40-50 crore purely in equities.
What was your biggest learning as a financial advisor?
Costs: We have been investing in our company regularly and confidently as we have a business plan in place for the next two years and hence every penny earned is re-invested back in the business. We started with a team of three and are now 15-member strong team. We have invested in the best of technology and communication system.
Research: Identifying the right research partners has been a challenge and we got it right after a lot of trial and error. Every product has been tested internally and then launched so that we project ourselves in the market confidently.
How do you win the trust of your clients?
Our credentials and client references have worked wonders. Further, featuring as experts on many platforms has given clients an opportunity to interact with us. Our deep and rich personal conversations have helped us. We have never chased sales and are always available to offer general advice on anything to do with investments. We have enrolled many clients after six to eight months because of these engagements.
How do you acquire new clients?
So far, we have focused on Google ad words, Facebook, Whatsapp, emailing (without spamming) and SMS. We say no to cold calls. We are invited by clients to call them. Of course, some clients like to meet as well.
Going ahead, what are your future plans?
- Provide an app to help clients execute our plans.
- Financial planning with Robo assistance and rich conversations.
- Create a sales force pan India: I am working with 10-member women force pan India, as a pilot, who are highly qualified and with experience in financial services industry but not employed due to marriage and kids. We are proud to empower them to become our Investor Wellbeing Officers by working from home and counselling our prospects and clients.
Please share a memorable moment in your financial advisory journey...
- The first testimonial from our client from Bangalore.
- When we touched 500 clients and 40 cities in our first year of operations.
- When someone asks How is Finapple Ideas doing? I proudly say that it is functioning on its own, self-funded and feeding 15 families.
Your advice to budding IFAs
- Be honest
- Adapt to changes, new technologies and keep learning
- Keep communication strong and simple
- Be patient but aggressive