In conducting investor awareness programs (IAPs), a key challenge for advisors is to get people to attend them. However, three IFAs - Chandan Ghosh, Somsubhra Purkayastha and Arup Kumar Mondal who run an advisory firm in Siliguri (West Bengal) called Prudent Wealth have mastered the art of conducting large scale IAPs.
In fact, this trio has grown their advisory business from scratch by leveraging IAPs to acquire new clients.
The initial days were challenging as they too struggled to get audience to attend their IAPs. To overcome this hurdle, the trio started approaching associations and groups with a large base of members such as trade unions and religious groups.
Last month, they approached the trade union of Indian Railways to hold awareness programs for their members. Though the union helped them spread the word about their IAP, the trio reached out to the members individually through phone calls. To their surprise, close to 230 workers attended their session.
Enthused by the response, they approached the local youth wing of the catholic community with a proposal to conduct a financial planning and mutual fund awareness program for their community.
The trio decided to repeat the success formula of calling up members individually in earlier Railways IAP and reached out to the members of the catholic community individually over phone calls. “We explain to them about the event and the benefits of attending our event. We tell them that this is not done with any ulterior motive.”
As a result, 1200 members of the community attended their IAP on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 which was conducted in a school. When asked why they selected a weekday instead of a weekend, he said, “We keep in mind the priority of our target audience. Since this time it was a catholic community, we decided to keep it on weekdays as these people visit the church on Sundays,” says Chandan.
Chandan reveals that his company does not take sponsorship from AMCs to conduct such IAPs. In fact, they had borne the entire expenses of Rs.70,000 on the last IAP.
When asked about the key messages in their IAPs, Chandan said, “The aim is to bust myths related to financial assets like mutual funds. Many people in B15 cities hold a mistaken belief that mutual funds are like chit funds. Also, many people in such locations get carried away in market rallies and want to earn a quick buck. We focus on addressing these mis-conceptions. We explain to them how they can create wealth through systematic investments in mutual funds. In fact, we use real life examples to make them understand the impact of inflation on money and power of compounding on investments,” he says.
Post the event, the trio aggressively follows up with the people who attend their events. In fact, they have converted 200 clients from the recently held IAP. Sharing their experience, Chandan says, “Our experience shows that we need to follow up vigorously with the attendees to convert them to clients. At times, we meet and call them multiple times to convert them.”
All these activities have worked out well for them. As a result, they have built a base of 1500 clients with assets under advisory of Rs.82 crore and a SIP book of Rs.42 lakh per month in just three years.
Here are Prudent Wealth’s tips to conduct effective IAPs
You do not need a fancy place to conduct IAPs. You can approach schools and colleges to hold such events.
Approach associations to target a larger audience. Make sure to reach out to their members individually.
Use real life examples so that your audience can relate to it.
Follow up with the people who attend your events. They are your prospective clients.
