Inspired by Cafemutual’s article on an Amaravati IFA who activated 500 SIPs in a single day, Mumbai IFA RH Kothari logged in 1101 SIPs on July 1. The total SIP amount was Rs. 9.80 lakh with SIP ticket size starting from as low as Rs.300.
“After I read that article two years ago, I thought if an IFA in Amaravati can do more than 500 SIPs, why it cannot be done in Mumbai! Inspired by the article, I activated 541 SIPs in one day on April 2, 2018. And this year, I logged in 1101 SIPs in a day,” he said.
Smooth operation
In 2018, Kothari had initiated 541 SIPs transactions physically. He had to put a lot of time and effort then to execute his SIP drive in the physical mode. Also, there were many rejections due to signature mismatch and other operational issues.
Kothari moved his business to the BSE Star MF. Soon, he realised that executing transactions is much easier with these platforms. He also experienced reduced instances of failed transactions due to signature mismatch and other issues. Most exchange platforms offer e-mandate facility to start SIPs. The biggest advantage of an e-mandate is that it reduces paperwork to virtually zero. Moreover, it eliminates rejections due to signature mismatch, which was another challenge while registering the client for auto-debit.
This gave him the confidence to log in more than 1000 SIPs in a day.
Convincing clients
Kothari started preparing for his SIP drive three months in advance. Since most of his existing clients had participated in his first SIP drive, he focussed primarily on prospective clients for his recent drive.
Kothari conducted a few IAPs over three months to source new clients. He approached close to 140 people (who had attended his IAPs) through face-to-face meetings and phone calls. In these meetings, he explained to them the benefits of investing in equity funds through SIPs to achieve financial goals.
Another activity that worked out well for him was sending 10,000 post cards physically every month to random people staying near his office in Borivali. “People can avoid emails but they usually pay attention to physical letters. Since physical letters are the things of the past, they have become a novelty. The next part is to share a message that could add value to the family. I explain to them how they can accumulate wealth through mutual funds for their future financial goals. As a result, most of them approach me with their queries on mutual funds and become my clients.”
Finally, Kothari encouraged existing clients to top up their investing in mutual funds through SIPs to achieve financial goals.
Thanks to all these activities, over 300 people participated in the SIP drive, mostly the first time investors.
Key takeaways
- Online platforms help reduce costs and efforts to execute multiple SIPs
- These platforms also reduce instances of failed transactions
- IAPs can help acquire new clients
- You can send postcards with informative messages to get prospects
- Review investment portfolios of existing clients to see if they can top up their investments
