Meet Mr. Dharmesh Soni
Mr. Dharmesh Soni, DRS Wealth Creator, is one of our early Partners at Rajkot, Gujarat. Mr. Dharmesh has managed to build a strong clientele of over 3,000 investors in his journey to success. He is an active marketeer and user of BizMall and rates Client Centricity is the first characteristic needed to be a successful financial advisor. A firm believer in the asset allocation principle for portfolio management, he is also very active in promoting MARS and TADA to his customers. We are glad to bring this interview of the rising star from Rajkot...
What inspired you to choose the career of a financial advisor /distributor?
In was working in Dubai as an an Accountant and Finance has been my favorite subject for long. Therefore, when I returned to India, I choose to go to build my career in the financial field. Mutual funds caught my eye and I decided to start with the same.
You have a good client base. Please tell us how you have managed to build your clientele.
Mostly I acquire Clients trough referrals as I was new in Rajkot. Later, I started with one pager insertions and advertisments in local news papers. I followed this up with NJ Biz Mall products. These three things have helped me build the clientele that I have today. I would suggest Partners to use NJ Biz Mall products actively in promoting themselves.
NJ has been promoting BizMall services in Partners. What has been your experience and how has BizMall benefitted your business?
Biz Mall has greatly helped me to creat my image in the market. I continue to actively distribute One Pagers, Leaflets, & other appropriate materials from Bizz Mall. Biz Mall has helped me in the market to make my name familiar to the public. My market today knows me, knows what we are doing and this way. They even come to me for help and advice if they have any problems in mutual funds or insurance.
In your view, what three essential characteristics should a person possess to be a successful financial advisor /distributor?
We can count many characteristics need to be a good financial advisor /distributor. However, given my experience, I would put the following three characteristics at the top of the list...
- Client Centricity
- Honesty and
- Transparency
How much importance do you give to Asset Allocation & Risk Profile in your advisory process?
Yes I strongly believe in Asset allocation. Quite often, as an when something happens in the market, investors try to respond without even trying to understand the reasons behind the market behaviour and ignore advice. We thus believe that it is really very important to suggest investments according to the Asset Allocation so that the clients do not get worried. With time, we can now see the asset allocation making positive impact on our investor's portfolios, who are with us since long time. With this behind us, they now trust our advice and do not respond to markets or what others are saying.
As an advisor, please share with us your process of selecting the right mutual fund schemes for your clients for investment.
It was a learning curve for as in my early days I made some mistakes while selecting funds. But as the Experience grew, I became more skilled in selecting the rights funds for different clients.
My process is relatively simple. I begin by trying to judge the risk appetite of the client for investment – whether he is ready for volatility or a bumpy ride in short term or is looking for a stable ride or a mix of all types of rides. While doing this, I also consider their mind-set, their living standards and of course, their time horizon. My understanding of all these things helps me to decide which type of schemes are most appropriate for the client's needs.
What advantages do you feel MARS offers to both Clients and Partners?
I have a question first... Why did you take so much time to introduce this? If it was introduced at an early stage, I surely today would had an AUM of least Rs.200 crores!
It definitely is a game changer. MARS helps rebalance my client's portfolio and this greatlyl saves my time & efforts. The clients are also very happy since they feel that we at DRS are personally taking care of my investments and are informing me to rebalance... WOW. Nobody is doing business this professional way - always keeping an eye on investments, which the client himself personally can’t. We also share our MARS portfolio services & it’s impact & how it works to our prospective investors. It’s just great.
Please share your experience and thoughts on NJ TADA.
We believe that TADA is also a great tool in our hands and it is, in totality, far ahead of the industry. It even helps me to aquire more clients as all my new Clients come only through TADA. It is also very much helpful to serve Client’s all transactional needs and general queries.
Off late, I came to believe that the finance industry is largely moving towards being digital. So why not I? I wanted to be the first in Rajkot to offer all kinds of financial services through the online format. And today I am proud that I am doing so. All credit goes to NJ. I believe there would be no IFA in Rajkot who has around 300 clients on the Demat platform.
Please share your experience in promoting NJ TADA to your clients and how have you been able to convince them to start TADA.
Frankly, I faced no challenges in promoting TADA. But for the clients who do not understand or are not interested in TADA, I generally tell them that, in a year or two, just like stock market, it may also become compulsory to transact MF on the TADA Platform. So then why not do it right away? None of my clients have opposed my opinion on this.
Can you please share your short term and long term targets for your business.
We are looking at AUM figures for our targets. Our Short Term target for next 5 years is to reach at an AUM of Rs.150 crores. The Long Term target for next 10 years is to reach at an AUM of Rs.500 crores.
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