Warren Buffet once said ‘Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful’. Markets have been volatile and under the grip of negative news since September. However, a few advisors saw opportunity for their clients in these turbulent markets too. Instead of letting their clients fear the volatility, they encouraged them to be greedy and start a SIP.
Ratnesh Varshney, Director, GLP Advisor, Aligarh
Ratnesh got the idea to run a SIP drive from Cafemutual. Reading success stories of various IFAs motivated him to run a SIP campaign. Meanwhile, a session in a conference on tapping into existing clients made him focus on his existing client base for the campaign.
Ratnesh decided to run a SIP login day on October 22 and started his preparations a month in advance. To start with, he identified clients who had not increased SIPs in the last two years and clients who had invested through lumpsum. He helped them identify their financial goals and made them understand the significance of rupee cost averaging.
He also conducted four investor education sessions over a month for new and existing clients. In these sessions, he talked about SIP as an investment tool. Thanks to his information packed presentations, he got 20 new clients from these events.
Due to his month long efforts, he and his team were able to activate 1890 SIPs totalling Rs. 23 lakh from 236 clients. All the SIPs were done on the BSE Star MF platform.
Pramod Kumar Bhutani and Mona Bhutani, Directors, Milestone Portfolio Consultants, Delhi
Pramod and Mona were motivated to run a SIP drive by the BSE Star MF team. Typically, Dhanteras is considered an auspicious investment time among Hindus. Many people purchase gold on the day. The duo decided to build up on the Dhanteras fervour by recommending clients to invest in SIPs during Dhanteras.
As they decided to focus on their existing client base for the SIP drive, they identified lumpsum investors, clients with small portfolios and clients who had not invested through them recently. They then focussed on educating these clients on the benefits of SIP. They helped the clients understand that they will be able to accumulate more units in falling markets.
Also, he has used social media such as messages to promote the campaign.
Along with existing clients, they also approached a few new clients through referrals. Their method to acquiring new clients was similar to existing clients. They focussed on educating these clients on the benefits of SIP and encouraging them to invest during the correction. They acquired around 200 new clients during the SIP drive.
Overall, Pramod, Mona and their 19-member team activated 2084 SIPs totalling Rs.24.90 lakh from around 1,500 clients during the campaign.
Dikshant Pande, Wealth Growth Solution, Nashik
Muhurat trading is quite popular amongst investors. Dikshant decided to apply this idea to mutual funds. Titled Guntavnuk Divas (it is Marathi for investment day), Dikshant encouraged his clients to start a Muhurta@SIP this Lakshmi Poojan.
He started the preparations for the Guntavnuk Divas a month back. For the campaign, he identified his inactive clients. To create buzz about Guntavnuk Divas, he shared letters and emailers with his clients, which talked about investment opportunity in these volatile marekets.
Also, he connected with these clients via call and face-to-face meetings. Knowing that majority of the clients invested in gold during Diwali, he compared the historical performance of equity and gold during these meetings.
Overall, Dikshant activated 155 Muhurta@SIP totaling Rs. 2.25 lakh spread from around 100 clients. He activated majority of these SIPs through MFU platforms. SIPs of a few new investors were executed through the physical mode.
