Mr. Nikhil Gandhi, Surat
Mr. Nikhil Gandhi is associated with NJ for last 10+ years. Surrounded with people who are from the CA background and associated with CA profession has never made him to take the same Path. An aim to become something in life and desire to start business on his own made him to take different path. He started his journey of entrepreneurship with Software and Hardware Distribution business, but very soon he separated out himself from this business when he made up his mind to forayed into Advisory business – a business which is altogether a different from his existing one. Friend's suggestion to look for MF Advisory was became a turning point in his life. He says in starting of an advisory business, initially days were challenging but today I can say with proud that I am managing Asset for 400+ families and my MF AUM is hovering around 45+cr. Nikhil says his success mantra is his belief that he is following till date is his one line principle - "Deliver Whatever You Promise To Your Client".
Team e-Saathi with pride presents an interview of a Sparkling Star from the city of Surat and wishes him best luck to take forward this journey of Creating Wealth & Fulfilling Dreams to more and more people in coming days.
ES: Please introduce yourself and also share your vision and mission or goals in life.
Answer: I am Nikhil Gandhi and I am in the Mutual Fund distribution business since last 9 years. I had completed my B.E. (Electrical) and MBA (Finance). Presently I am having a client base of around 400 families.
ES: Say something about your initial days in business and how you start with Investment Advisory ?
Answer: After completion of my MBA, I forayed into ICT vertical and started Software and Hardware Business. A vertical that is very far from the vertical of Investment Advisory. I was doing well in the business but it has never give me the satisfaction that I was looking for. Heard about MF and this business from a friend and I enquired about the business model. The good earning opportunity with low risk and low capital investment has inspired me to take this business and look for career in financial advisory.
In initial days everything was not right but focus on business, more and more hard work took me where I am today in this profession. I believe there is no alternative for 8 Letter word HARDWORK to get success in your career. Here, I also would like to convey a big Thanks to whole NJ Team for their wholehearted support, without their support it would have been difficult to achieve all these.
NJ's focus on development of the advisor through continuous training & development and technological support to develop advisory business Is untouchable and best-in-class in the industry.
ES: Do you promote the idea of savings through MF SIP in your clients?
Answer: Yes. SIP is always the best Investment solution for both Advisor & Client. The power of compounding can never be ignored. In fact, I believe in coming days it would be the best option for generating revenue also without worrying to much about market cycle. On the side of Investor/Client it provides considerable security against market movement and with discipline investment approach to achieve their goals.
In current financial year we witnessed a good amount of money flowing into MF from retail client base and major share is from SIP investments. It shows that investor has again started looking at investment in MF through SIP route. And this is a very good sign for MF Industry.
ES: How much importance do you give to Insurance in you advisory practice?
Answer: Earlier it was challenging to sell but when you do the need analysis of the clients, insuring their risk also becomes one of the wealth protecting strategy and therefore Insurance is very important port my advisory practice.
ES:How do you educate and convince your clients for mutual funds, especially the first time investors?
Answer: I am very much convinced about equity as an asset class and believe that proper investment in equity through mutual fund is one of the best way to create Wealth with long term perspective.
As far as convincing the client is concerned, I follow the simple procedure. I make them understand about Mutual Fund, do brainstorming with them and try to resolve their Pre MF Investment related doubts .I sit at ease and answers all questions/doubts till they get convinced for Investment.
Actually I found the best way to do it by showing them the presentation of NJ GAP. This presentation easily convince them about the advantages of investing in equity through mutual Fund for long term wealth creation. Rather I would say that NJ GAP is the EVER BEST PRESENTATION/MATERIAL that Team NJ has provided to its Partners.
ES:Summarized your experience with NJ's technology initiatives to support partners.
Answer: It has helped me a lot in monitoring and planning my advisory practice, client servicing as well as client acquisition. It is the best in the industry.
ES:What advantages do you feel TADA offers to both Clients and Partners?
Answer: It increases my reach as well as speed of doing transactions with almost zero error. Some of my clients feel freedom of doing transactions.
ES:We heard the you are very aggressive about MARS. Tell us why.
Answer: As I said earlier about NJ supports to its partner is untouchable in industry is validated with this initiative. This again one of the best solution provided by NJ to its partners and their clients. Actually MARS was the need of time and I think on very right time NJ came up with this Solution.
Considering the Good number of client base and to provide comprehensive advisory with monitoring every aspect of investment and again if we look at Clients Goal it was far difficult to an individual to manage Client's portfolio. NJ MARS provides best solution to all these as it provides customize portfolio which caters to the need of an individual investor which may fall into any of the risk category. Monitoring and required re-balancing on time to time in each portfolio is done by NJ Research Team. All these results in Saving of time for an Advisor and of course that can be leveraged to acquire more and more clients.
These days I am aggressively looking to on-board more and more clients to NJ MARS. And also being an Agency manager I am advising and supporting My Team to go for it. The Result has started coming - We together has achieved an AUM of 3 Cr. In MARS till date.
ES:Please share with us any standards / best practices related to client segmentation. If yes, also share any differentiation made in service offerings to these client segments.
Answer: I have done segmentation of clients based on their AUM and Live SIP value into Silver, Gold & Platinum category. My communication and interaction frequency is depending upon client category.
ES:Can you share any incident /event which has had a lasting impact on you or your business as a financial advisor /distributor?
Answer: This profession has given me lot of respect among my clients and their family members. It gives me great satisfaction when I see my clients progress in achieving their financial goals in life.
ES:How do you assess /see the future of financial advisory business in India? How can we as Partners be ready / prepared to make the most of it?
Answer: I am very much optimistic about the future of financial advisory business in India, of course there will be more stringent regulatory requirement.
ES:How do you assess your your business? Are there any specific parameters you refer to?
Answer: I have decided a 5 year and 10 year roadmap. On basis of long term goal, I have decided short term target in terms of no of clients, AUM and live SIP amount. I do monitor achievement of these parameters.
ES:How much importance do you give to Asset Allocation & Risk Profile while offering solution to clients need ?
Answer: I do believe in Asset Allocation and try to implement whenever possible. I don't follow any scientific Risk Profiling method, but I do decide the same on the basis of discussion with the client.
ES: Having more than 10 years of experience, tell us how one can win the trust of the Clients?
Answer: We all know that winning the trust of client is very crucial in this business. To grow your business into many fold I believe that technological backing and other support are important but tell me what if your client does not give you investment and not believe in you ? No technology will help to get it.
"Promise to client what you can deliver !"
With my own experience on a very broader basis I can say that you must deliver to your client what you promise to them and then only everything will work in your favour.
ES: What suggestion / advice you would like to give to new Partners who have yet not established themselves in the business?
Answer: People will need a personalised advise to manage their finances, and there will be always demand for good quality financial advisor. Be in the business and be with clients in good times and bad times.
ES: Your Business Targets ?
Answer: I would like to achieve AUM of Rs. 250 crore in next 5 years Rs. 750 crore in next 10 Years.
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