Meet Mr. Ashish Trivedi, Mumbai
Ashish, a finance graduate belongs to a middle class family. He in his early career worked for export houses and also joined his hands in his family business. Having strong inner desire to become a boss of his own embarked to an overnight decision of quitting a job. He started his journey on a path to become an IFA. Staring was not easy as he had least knowledge in financial product distribution and wealth management, but though it never proved a barrier for him. By leveraging his rich experience, multitasking capability and an always confident attitude in rolling out new products and services, he today has turned himself as a very successful IFA. He sells all Products & Services in the basket of market which is a rare success that all achieves. This sets a benchmark for all NJ Partners.
Team E-Saathi pride sharing this interview of Mr. Ashish Trivedi with our readers who always give emphasis on knowledge and advocate himself as a trouble shooter for his clients.
Introduce Yourself with us.
I have completed post graduate diploma from NMIMS , started as finance executive in one of the leading export house, later joined family enterprise in chemical exports. I was handling multiple task from normal banking to production , exports, liaison of 22 govt. agencies, quality inspections at vendors unit, overseas sales and exhibitions.
Started as normal executive to as good as CEO of 3* export house, was really a very good learning process all the way. Coming from a lower middle class family with no knowledge of financial market, business of financial planning and wealth management was a distant dream.
However always wanted to be my own boss. Hence associated with a multinational for part-time business of marketing FMCG. In the process I came across MF advisory and NJ network.
Setting the financial advisory business takes some time. How did you handle the challenges on the financial front in the initial period of the business?
Oh, GOD! Sailing was not at all easy. It was an overnight decision to quit job and start on my own without any settlement from the existing employer. In fact was indebted to family and friends for some time. My 1st business application was from non-family member and that too in Reliance Natural resources NFO in Jan 2008. After I got registered as a Partner at Andheri Branch in March 2008, and had a meet with Mr. Prakash Rane I got convinced that very moment about NJ business model and income potential.
Alongwith the courage, financial and moral support of our AM Mr. Prakash Rane and our mentor Mr. Vibhash N Desai, who is also one of the top partners in NJ, started operating from home. I was the 1st person in the morning to reach NJ branch and start calling 20 people daily till I reached 300 clients. Thanks to all NJ team in Mumbai, no matter which branch it is, was great support in terms of all technical and administrative help.
Luckily NJ introduced Insurance business and I immediately grab opportunity to make my cash counter rolling. Aggressively sold Health, Life and PA policies with an entry through CAR insurance renewals. This helped me to sail over initial turbulences. Later we understood that it was an integral part of SAMPOORNA SURAKSHA.
Please tell us your approach /method /process to selecting mutual fund schemes for your clients for investment.
The process is in place. We start meeting with questions and END with questions. So while doing presentation of Power of Equity and GAP, most of questions are answered and only formality left is signing of requisite forms with cheque.
Scheme selection is always from NJ star Funds matching clients goals and risk appetite. Once we are through with planning process, no matter which scheme is selected, goal will be achieved. Our mentor always say “WHY” is more important than “HOW”.
Secondly, when we start meeting, we always keep YOU(client) before I. Clients interest is prime and hence 99% of the cases we generate business in very first meet.
You are very positive and aggressive in selling all products & services offered by NJ. How do you do this, What is the secrete to cross sales products and reason behind this sparkling success ?
Share your expertise with us in detail
Its Supermarket concept that works.
15 years experience of multitasking helped in executing SUPERMARKET concept in financial product distribution. I was very good at product selling and placement for new products in new market during my export job. Always was in front while introducing new concept in any market or to any clients.
As I said above, we are “TROUBLE SHOOTERS”. Keeping eye on the clients thought process and goals with time horizon, we try to establish right product mix. At times, though there is new launch of real estate by NJ, we advised not to go for it as client has over exposure to real estate. Hence always maintain balance in asset allocation. In that case, we have converted that investment portion to PMS / MARS as there was nil or little allocation to equity in overall assets.
So in all, we have offered all product or services like MF, Sampoorna Suraksha, NJ PMS, MARS, Equity PMS by outsourced product like MOSt Value strategy, Nj Realty flats, open plots and now ROW houses.
What are the important characteristics you think necessary to get success as Financial Advisor /Distributor? How can we strengthen these characteristics in ourselves?
Keep the business simple and keep client interaction in language which layman can understand. We need to keep on sharpening our edge, meaning upgrading our knowledge. Knowledge is for us to identify solution for client situation and not for showing to all others. We have never missed any knowledge session, product launch or seminars arranged by NJ team or AMC. Well known proverb is best fit here “There is always room for improvement”.
Inculcate listening skill and not hearing only. I am still learning carefully listening to client. Speak less and understand more.
Commitment for service and enthusiasm. We are doing right thing for client, Feel good factor will add zing to the business.
There is no shortcut to success. Effective and timely planning, Hardwork, focused effort, periodical review of our own business plan will take us to much ahead of our desired goals. If we take data published by various agencies, financial advisory / distribution business is just begun. 75% or more savings are just idle in bank Fds.
What changes and benefits has TADA brought to your business? What advantages do you feel MARS offers to both Clients and Partners?
Latest technological development in form of TADA and MARS is the buzzword today. NJ has an excellent online system which has no match as of now with such a simplicity. NJ TADA has few very unique features like inter AMC switch, rebalancing module with 12 different options in MARS, an excellent substitute to PMS for small ticket size. Also it takes away worry of scheme selection and rebalancing all the time with move of market conditions.
Now to expand my business I do not need to cross even local boundaries thanks to TADA. I am handling efficiently my clients out of our state or country with help of email and Tada. Just a phone call and I can get register sip or lumpsum transaction easily from my office desk.
What has been your experience with BizMall Service and how it has benefited your business?
Hats off to bizmall creative team. Every month client wait for my newsletter and email for promotions or info sharing. One of my client complained when she doesn’t received our newsletter for a month. She made me to send the missing one atleast by email as no hardcopy left over.
We do not try to “CONVINCE” clients but we pass on our confidence to take them informed decision with facts and figures. NJ printshop is best place to get all that. We use NJ printshop extensively for branding. Tent/Canopy, leaflets, Newsletter (both physical and soft copy) every month, news magazines, articles, account statement of our own clients, valuation report, Need assessment tool, Gain / Loss simulation report, and latest hit is “MCS and FSS”. We have ordered 5000 qty of FSS to increase visibility in our local area and we see dividend started raining in.
How much importance do you give to Insurance in you advisory practice?
Insurance is an integral part of Financial plan. We 1st allocate investible surplus of client for SAMPOORNA SURAKSHA and then write cheque for SIP or Lumpsum MF.
Self evaluation and assessment is something we all should do regularly. How do you assess your own self and/or your business? Are there any specific parameters you refer to?
We have an excellent mentors. We have to submit our monthly data as projected v/s achieved through help of account insight report. We have famous MONDAY meeting in NJ Andheri branch to share our experiences and get to know something new from our associates. This keeps us going during the highs and lows.
We need to get 25 new clients every month, so min. 20 cold calls every morning, 3 meetings daily with NJ power of equity and GAP presentation, weekly 1 SMS and 1 email for product promotion or article sharing. This has been a routine since last 5 years to get all 400 families in our group with multiple product allocation. If there is less net salesin any of the month, its understood that one or more of above routines have been missed out.
What suggestion / advice you would like to give to new Partners who have yet not established themselves in the business?
Advice new partners to be confident that you are with right organization, be committed and focused, have faith and patience ( it took 3 years to get 1st HNI client in my list). After reaching to 23000 cr AUM, 10lacs + clients, 100+ offices nothing more need to be proved that NJ has an established system in place and just follow what their BM/RE tells them to do. Be regular and consistent in activities like leaflet distribution, newsletter, stall activity, road shows, client meets, etc in specific locality.
Your Business Goals going forward.
My mission is to help minimum 1000 families to be financially free with adequate knowledge of wealth creation & management. Our near term goal is to reach 75 lacs SIP by March 2016, 100 crores AUM latest by June, 2017 and 1000 crores AUM by 2025. All the above through online platform. Now all my new clients are compulsory TADA clients.
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