Traditionally Indians buy gold on Dhanteras as it is considered an auspicious day. However, MFD Prashant Kumar from Darbhanga in Bihar seized this opportunity to convince investors to deploy money in mutual funds through SIPs.
It all started when Kumar reached out to his clients during the lockdown. “During lockdown, I spoke to many existing clients. Most of these people had invested in bank recurring deposits. However, they were not happy with returns. This is when I decided to execute a SIP drive to inculcate SIP culture among the people in my city,” he said.
Overall, Kumar successfully executed 180 SIPs on Dhanteras amounting to Rs.4.25 lakh on Dhanteras. Let us look at his story in his own words:
Preparation
I started preparing for SIP drive three months before Dhanteras. Since there were no coronavirus cases in Darbhanga, I used to approach at least five clients and prospects each day through physical meetings and phone calls. Over the next three months, I spoke to over 250 clients including prospects.
In these interactions, I would tell them about the benefits of investing in equity funds and debt funds for long term through SIPs and explain concepts such as rupee cost of averaging, risk associated with mutual funds and equity & debt markets.
Since many of these people had not invested earlier, it used to take me 3-4 meetings to gain their trust in mutual funds. In addition, I took help of my existing clients who had achieved their financial goals through their MF investments. I requested them to share their testimonials so that I could share it with my clients and prospects to promote SIP drive.
Execution
Since many people in Darbhanga do not prefer the online investing route, I ran my SIP drive physically. Over the last 20 days, I met over 100 clients and prospects to collect application form, bank mandate and cheques and complete their KYC.
Learnings
- Meet your clients physically especially when you want to talk about their money
- Testimonials from existing clients matter most to investors.
- Make your clients comfortable. Just because it is easier to execute SIP drive through online platform doesn’t mean your clients will be comfortable with online transactions
- Give adequate time to execute SIP drive successfully as it involves lot of activities like meeting and convincing clients, completing their KYC and so on
- You can tangibalise the SIP experience by conducting such drives on auspicious day like Diwali and Dhanteras
