P.N.Venkateshwarlu
Strategic Investment Planners - Bangalore
Q : Please introduce yourself and also share your vision and mission or goals in life.
Answer : This is P.N.Venkateshwarlu age 56 years. I am from Bangalore. I run a firm named “Strategic investment Planners”
My Journey with NJ started 16 years back. We have seen many clients becoming financially secure and enjoying their retirement, which motivated me to do my business with client centric approach . Today ,we manage 44 Cr of AUM and 51 lakh of SIP Book with 1000+ clients . My aim is to make 100 families financially independent in the next 5 years. My goal in life is to serve my clients as long as possible. I am assisted by Mr Shyam, he is with us for the last 14 years.
Q : What inspired you to choose the career of a financial advisor / distributor?
Answer : My personal experiences while handling my family business made me take up this profession. I found a huge opportunity here to serve people and the society.
I had desires to do something of my own, hence I decided to become a financial advisor and use my knowledge & experience to help people take the right investment decisions.
Q : Do you promote the idea of savings through MF SIP in your clients?
Answer : Yes , SIP is the Best way to Invest in Mutual fund , it silently contributes to creating huge wealth for Investors. It’s the best method to achieve one's financial goals. Hence our main aim is to help our investors to accumulate, average and compound their investments in short SIP. NJ SIP tools and GAP presentation was one of the best way which I find, to explain clients about SIP and How its work.
Q : Client communications is an integral part of your business. Please share any best practices / services related to communications adopted by you.
Answer : I am a regular user of NJ Bizzmall products . I define my Marketing budget in the start of the year, Which helps me to define my Marketing and communication activity in a systematic manner . We are sending the NJ news letter, MCS through email and whatt’s app and a website with which we communicate with our clients on a regular basis. We also send the annual review report when we review their financial plan.
Q : How much importance do you give to Insurance in your advisory practice?
Answer : In Client wealth Creation journey , I suggest my clients to do Wealth protection first. Insurance is a part of our financial plan and is implemented at the time of onboarding our clients. We also look at the protection they have at the time of their portfolio review.
Q : How do you educate and convince your clients for mutual funds, especially the first time investors?
Answer : We don’t sell any products to them we understand their needs and speak to them about the various asset classes. We explain to them about the importance of Financial planning. Which include investments, risk management(Insurance) and taxation. Finally we come to equity and debt in mutual funds and how we manage the risk and do asset allocation with the help of MARS.
Q : Your experience with NJ's technology initiatives in terms of various Desks for Clients & Partners?
Answer : I am a big fan of NJ platform, as it helps me focus on my client’s needs and it is very easy to do my business and serve my clients. I would like to highlight few feature like:
1. PIT (Partner Initiative Transaction )
2. Inter AMC Switch
3. NJ Tools & Utility
4. AIS best way to Explain MARS .
5. Client Desk
Q : What advantages do you feel NJ E-Wealth offers to both Clients and Partners?
Answer : Nj E-Wealth was a big game changer for us as we were able to serve more clients with less man power thereby reducing the cost. Our productivity went up three times in a couple of years.
Q : 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?
Answer : We plan and set targets for our business at the bigining of every financial year with the help our branch manager and the Nj partner desk. We regularly monitor our progress on the partner desk. We regularly check the number of families we are serving and look if they are able to achieve goals. We also look into our AUM and the SIP book that we are holding.
Q : How much importance do you give to Asset Allocation & Risk Profile while offering solutions to clients' needs ?
Answer : To help our clients have the best asset allocation, we are using MARS and have moved our clients investments to MARS. Risk profiling is done at the time of onboarding and we also do it at the time of portfolio review. Now we have 25 % of AUM is in MARS in future most of our clients will be having MARS for their proper Assets Allocation. Without asset allocation and risk profiling, never onboard a client and now with the help of AIS, this has become quite easy and system driven now.
Q : Winning the trust of a Client is not an easy task. How do you think you can win the trust of Clients?
Answer : Winning the Trust of client is not an easy Task . With the regular interaction and ethical way of working will really help Advisor to win Trust . We have to focus on the clients interest only when we meet or interact with them and should not focus on selling any product.
Q: What suggestion / advice you would like to give to new Partners who have not yet established themselves into the business?
Answer : This is a huge opportunity to serve the people and society. We need to focus on retail clients who are staying close to your office and residence and need to speak to all your contacts regularly. We should not reject or judge any one from our side. An investor may not invest much now but his references will be very good and he might invest a huge amount in a few years down the line. Clients generally start small to test the waters once the gain in confidence and knowledge they will give us their complete wallet share. When your clients are happy with you they will make you rich very soon so we have to be persistent and be patient.
Q : Can you please share your short term and long term targets for your business.
Answer : As an advisor my main object is towards my client’s needs and goals. At the same time we need to sustain our cash flow to support our staff and their families. We need to set goals for our business we have planned to cross an AUM 0f 50 Crores by end of 2020 at present we are at 44 crores and plan to reach 100 crores by end of 2022. At present we have an SIP book of 51 lakhs we plan to cross one crore SIP book by end of 2022.
Q : Have you acquainted yourself with the current lock-down situation due to pandemic COVID-19? What are your experience for business continuity its growth? Did you find it difficult?
Answer : Initially we found it very difficult but with technology and NJ Platform we are able to serve our clients without any disturbances.
Q : Share your thoughts on NJ Digital Talks? Whether you and your clients are benefited from it or not. Also, NJ Management has announced other initiative to help partners and clients, share your thoughts on it.
Answer : At the present situation NJ Digital talks is very useful and beneficial to us(Partners) and our clients to convey the right information they need in these challenging times. Since investors are unable to focus on the long term picture these talks from experts will give them a lot of confidence.
