Mr. Abhishek Dubey, Head - Strategic Business Development Unit

Abhishek Dubey is the Head of Strategic Business Development Unit and part of NJ since last 10 years. Abhishek has played a key role in building the policy, process & system structures at NJ. He is the Chief Policy & Communications officer and also responsible for publications and the front-end - websites & on-line desks at NJ.

One of the primary roles of the Partners is rendering guidance for financial well-being and portfolio management expertise to the clients. This involves a good understanding of (a) the client – his needs, expectations and risk profile and (b) the portfolio – the existing portfolio insights for better decision making.

However, the actual practice, approach or the process followed by Partners differs vividly from one person to another. While there can be no one universally correct method to render financial guidance and expertise to clients, we can also agree that a ready template will definitely help us in the process. Keeping this in mind, NJ has recently launched two very exciting solutions for Partners. These solutions are aimed at strengthening the ability to the Partners to perform their role & responsibilities with greater knowledge and efficiency. Let us look at these solutions one by one.

1. AUTOMATED INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS (AIS)

The AIS is a tool to make an investment decision in the manner it ought to be taken, ie., the right way.

So what is a right about this way or decision-making process?

Well the guided AIS process is a step by step method with takes into consideration all the important elements of investment decision making. These key elements are (a) investment objective (b) time horizon (c) mode of investment (d) asset allocation strategy (e) risk profile of the investor and lastly (f) risk-return trade-off based on historical data.

As we can see, the process is very scientific, structured on pre-decided rules and the output is generated by a smart algorithm. The AIS makes use of actual historical data to throw scenarios for chosen asset allocation /strategy & period. Needless to say, the choice of a portfolio made here is one which is seconded by the system.

The final choice is not made by the system but by the investor looking at the risk-profile trade-offs and in line with his risk appetite. There is enough room for flexibility and the Partner may even change the portfolio, although it is not something which we recommend.

Why are we promoting this as an ideal template for decision making?

Simply put, it is a well-thought-out, researched and probably the right method for providing investment solutions to clients. It is also a hassle-free, simple, easy process. Many Partners who wonder what portfolio to recommend to clients will surely find this much helpful. It also brings a certain level of consistency in what you are recommending to investors. Many Partners struggling with designing the investment advisory process (for themselves or their team) can now skip the entire effort and follow the AIS.

Needless to say, it helps identify the risk appetite of investors and match suitable products. AIS helps investors understand the risk-return trade-off he is making, especially the risk he is taking. Over time, this will dramatically reduce the chances of any conflicts or investor shocks in case of bad markets. This transparent process has disclosures of all the important information to investors. The end result - investors who are adequately aware and comfortable with the risks they are taking and the returns they will get. Sticky assets + satisfied investors!

For those of you who are still unfamiliar with the solution, let me share the process in brief.

AIS Process: The process of AIS is very simple and the interface design is also easy to understand and follow. In brief, the following is the brief flow of the entire process.

[Step 1] Investment Objective – Build Wealth or Save Taxes >> [Step 2] Investment Choices – Horizon, Mode & Amount >> [Step 3] Asset Allocation strategy – Dynamic or Fixed Asset Allocation >> [Step 4] Portfolio Choice – from the listed options based on risk-return trade-off >> [Step 5] Finalisation + Order Request – through PIT mode >> [Step 6] Authorisation – by client on desk /email.

Click Here To Download Presentation

2. MF PORTFOLIO REVIEW

The MF Portfolio Review is an easy tool for review of the client's portfolio and using this for decision making.

What are the current challenges faced by Partners?

Portfolio Review with Client is something that may evoke a sense of anxiety and worry in some Partners. What reports to take? What should be the points of discussion? What are the portfolio insights that I can share? There are many such questions raised by Partners which need answers. Worryingly, some Partners may not even raise these important questions for a client's portfolio review.

Then comes the arduous task of making the report for Clients. Again taking out multiple reports, formatting the reports, taking out insights from it, etc takes a lot of valuable time and effort from you. If the meeting is at a short notice, then probably you end us at the client's door with only the valuation report on hand – something which is already accessible to the Client.

How does the MF Portfolio Review help me?

How about getting a complete portfolio review report on click of a button? Interesting you would say.

The MF Portfolio Review is like a consolidated statement or report you can share and discuss with your clients. The information presented is mostly in a summarised format and either not available or not easily accessible from the existing desks.

The scope of the report is very wide. It gives an idea of the asset allocation, product level exposure, the live investment plans like SIP/SWP/STP, and MF sub-type wise exposure of the portfolio. It also helps us understand the AMC exposure, the scheme count in the portfolio. For evaluation of the schemes, it also gives us the holding % and the market performance of the scheme /quartile ranking. The report also helps us to know the client's investment behaviour (like SIPs & net investments) in the past few years. It gives us an update on his actual portfolio returns since inception. The report also covers the financial goals for the clients and suggestion investment option to fill the gap in the goals.

Needless to say, the report is very well organised and comprehensive for review or even reporting to the clients. In future, we have plans to incorporate even more features and widen the product scope to make it even more comprehensive.

Key Features:

• Full report @ click of a button

• Customisable report with choice of contact information and reports to show

• Insightful information helpful for decision making and new business

Key Benefits:

• Saves considerable time and effort – at least 2 hours for every client to generate a similar report

• Standardises report template /format – helps you to strengthen your practice and your reporting standards. Also helps greatly if you are handling a team who look after clients.

• Client satisfaction & retention – clients get proper insightful information, presented with disclosures

• Decision-making – info presented in such a way that decision making on the portfolio becomes very easy. It is also helpful to show the right picture to investors beyond just a valuation report. It also generates possibilities for additional business.

CRM – Contacts:

In addition to the above solutions, we have also launched a small new feature in the CRM solution offered to Partners. The new feature/tool allows Partners to sync their Mobile Contacts from Partner Desk – Mobile App into CRM. The synced contacts can then be imported as Leads in CRM. Needless to say, you have full control on whom you want to import as leads from your Contacts. The 'Contacts' information is very confidential and secure, accessible only to you.

The reason we are mentioning this new feature is that it is directly related to the 'Customer Acquisition' goal that you have for yourself. Since now it becomes very easy to add leads (from contacts) into CRM, we hope to see a substantial rise in the count of Leads you have in your CRM system. Once in CRM, you can keep a track of all tasks /meetings /followups and conversion status on your leads. Furthermore, you can also make full use of the communication tools available at your disposal to send emails to the leads.

Mr. Abhishek Dubey, Head - Strategic Business Development Unit

Abhishek Dubey is the Head of Strategic Business Development Unit and part of NJ since last 10 years. Abhishek has played a key role in building the policy, process & system structures at NJ. He is the Chief Policy & Communications officer and also responsible for publications and the front-end - websites & on-line desks at NJ.

The importance of new customer acquisitions or additions can never be overstated. For any business, new customers provide the momentum, the business opportunities necessary for growth. No one today questions the need for adding new customers but there are some really interesting and specific advantages for doing so. In this article we will explore these reasons and also go in depth into one such reason...

Need to add new Clients:

• Scale: With growing influence of technology on all aspects of business, there is now more room to accommodate larger number of clients within the existing manpower and infrastructure. With efficient and optimum adoption of technology, your existing resources may be underutilised and thus there is need for increasing your clientele.

• Business Opportunities: The existing clients may not be offering great avenues or opportunity for cross-selling and up-selling of your financial products. You may have reached a saturation level with many of old customers and hence it would be necessary for you to find customers who would provide newer opportunities for sales.

• Replacement / Sustainability: It is not wise and reasonable to believe that your customers are and will be under your control and will be loyal to you forever. With increasing awareness, growing competition it is likely that some of your clients will shift to other advisors and platforms. Having a part of your business focus steady on new customer acquisition will make sure that your business is protected from this risk of loosing clientele.

• Profitability: With today's business challenges of lower product margins on one side and increasing business expenses on the other, it has become imperative that we focus on increasing scale and volume to maintain profitability of the business. Technology can help you manage scale and volume today unlike in past. Hence, it has become a critical need today for business to acquire new customer and keep adding new customers steadily.

The SIP Picture:

Let us now delve more on one specific benefit of adding new customers. As we already well aware, SIP is at the heart of our business and increasing SIP book has been the key focus of our plans. We did a small study on our top performing NJ Partners on SIP and there are some interesting facts that come to light. The universe had covered top Partners who did net SIP sales of over 10 Lakhs in the FY 2018-19.

• Customer Acquisition: The top performing Partners on Net SIP do every other activity normally done by almost all good partners but what them makes a part / separate from others is their focus on customer acquisition. On an average, these top Partners had nearly 20% of live investors today newly acquired in the last year itself. In other words, the growth of live investors was nearly 24% in last year.

• New Partners: Interestingly within this group, over 20% of Partners had clientele of less than 300 investors and for them, the client acquisition average was nearly 35%. This shows that even new Partners who had focussed on client acquisition, gained not only in clientele but it also boosted their SIP business tremendously.

• New SIP count: An interesting picture also emerges when we see the new SIPs added. On an average, 1.45 new SIP is added by a newly acquired investor in last year. Compared to this, an existing old investor only added on an average 0.68 SIP count last year. Simply put, the new investor is twice likely or can given twice the number of SIPs compared to an existing / old investor.

As a universe, thus we can see that the 20% newly added investors contributed to 34% of the new SIPs added. And the rest of the old investors added the remaining 66% of the new SIPs added during the year. We can thus safely conclude that one third of the fresh SIP business is driven by new customers.

Conclusion:

The conclusion based on our small study is very clear and is also supportive of the understanding of the business we run.

New Clients = New SIP = Better Business performance.

It is very evident that increase in investors helps bring in new SIP easily. Thus, Partners finding it difficult to increase their Live SIP figures should perhaps focus on increasing their clientele and acquire new customers. Success and growth of your SIP book is directly proportional to your client acquisition efforts.

Client Acquisition Methods:

Now that we have clearly discussed the need for Client acquisition and also evidenced its benefit in terms of business success, let us now discuss a bit on how we can go about acquiring new clients...

• Branding & Marketing: There can be no divergent view on the fact that focus on branding and marketing is crucial for business success, especially for those who are new to business and/or trying to focus on growth. At NJ, we provide our Partners with the best platform for this purpose through BizMall. The kind of solutions on offer really would meet any requirement or need you be expected to have. Just, to highlight we would like you to explore these solutions...

• BizMall products that help in active /on ground /physical promotion like – Flyers, Danglers, etc.

• Mobile Communication Solution (MCS) – digital or mobile communication resources like images and Short videos delivered with your branding with good ideas /stories

• Digital Marketing Service (DMS): A solution wherein NJ supports you for client acquisition through social media platforms by using in-house expertise

• Webnest: Your virtual or online presence through a comprehensive and content rich website

• Client Meets / Investor Awareness Programmes conducted by sales teams.

• Natural Market: For New Partners, the importance of natural market cannot be underestimated. The idea is to draw a list of all your friends and relatives, without any prejudice and record them. A natural market of at least 50 or 100 just prospects should be ready with each new Partner. Even old Partners who haven't really worked on natural market should focus on it.

After defining the natural market, the idea is to properly work on it first, by announcing / introducing yourself and your business. Next by keeping them posted with your ideas and services on a regular basis. Share your MCS, newsletter and such other branding/marketing resources with them. You may also seek appointments and meet them one to one to share your ideas on how you can help them in their financial well-being.

• Reference: While branding and marketing is more of a direct client acquisition activity, gathering reference and approaching prospects through your existing clientele is another very effective method. Always remember that your client is not your only client – his family and friends are also your future clients.

Reference can be asked politely if you believe you have a good relationship with any client and have served him well. Most happy customers will also be more willing and may give your references without you even asking for same. This is were your service and advice quality will speak for yourself. Partners who have reached some scale in their business can choose reference as a key client acquisition method and work towards creating a proper strategy to work /leverage same.

• FLIP: Mr. Ankur Marfatia recently talked about FLIP or Financial Literacy Internship Programme. This programme can be one strategy of client acquisition and growth which is suited to big established partners. We would request you to kindly read more on FLIP on E-Saathi.

Growth Strategy:

The next question after why and how on client acquisition is who? Who should do the client acquisition? Is it you as a Partner who should engage directly in client acquisition activities? Or should you add new sales employees or trainees / free-lancers to support you in client acquisition/service?

New client acquisition may not be easy and may also prove to be time consuming. While new Partners may have to go about acquiring client themselves, the relatively established and old Partners, should take the next step and act as supervisors or leaders instead of being doers themselves forever. Preparing a strong team of doers under you and making appropriate usage of technology + digital / marketing support will perhaps be the best approach to client acquisition. The combination of technology + team to acquire new clients and service your clients should be the future of your business – your path to the next scale of business.

We can today see the dawn of a new age of business, with new challenges and changed environment. To succeed in this new world, we perhaps have to question few of our old, traditional thinking. We have to think ahead and adopt our business practices very quickly. We have to start thinking like entrepreneurs too. Fortunately, we are perhaps best placed in the industry and are more empowered than anyone else to make this transition and strike success. The odds are in our favour, but we have to play the game to win it...

All the best for your success in this new financial year !!

Mr. Nikhil Shah, D.G.M. - Loan Portfolio – NJ Group

Mr. Nikhil has over 24 years of corporate experience in diverse areas of product development, marketing and distribution . He also has prior experience in reviving sick units and was a visiting faculty to management institutes. Nikhil joined NJ three and half years back and is responsible for developing the loan business at NJ. Nikhil is a BE in Industrial Engineering and is an MBA in Marketing.

ES: What is LAS ?

Nikhil: LAS stands for Loan Against Securities Client can meet short to medium-term finance requirements without liquidating his investments. It helps clients for the long term wealth creation and stops booking profit or lose in an unplanned manner.

Client gets instant loan against his investments by pledging the securities.

ES: What are the salient features of Term loan LAS?

Nikhil: NJ has recently launched LAS term loan.

Client can get loan of Rs. 25,000 to 25 lakh. Available in 6, 12, 18, 24 & 36 months EMI (Equated Monthly Instalments). EMI includes principal plus interest. At the end of the tenure the loan is fully paid.

The Loan agreement and Pledge request form is E-signed. There are no physical documents required at the time of application. Client has to sign the pre-filled mandate and submit it at NJ branch. The fund is disbursed with in 48 hours after submission.

ES: Why LAS term loan gaining popularity?

Nikhil: The minimum loan available is Rs. 25000/-. Small investors can full fill his short term needs easily.

Term loans are preferred by Salaried employees and professionals who has regular income and needs money for the immediate requirements.

In term loans, the interest paid by client is much lesser as interest is charged on reducing balance.

e.g. if client is taking loan of Rs. 1 lac for the 24 months tenure.

He is paying EMI of Rs. 4707/-. The rate of interest is 12% but the end of the tenure he is paying only Rs. 12,968/- interest over the period of 2 years.

ES: Who are eligible to apply for NJ LAS ?

Nikhil: Currently all individuals who are residents of India, hold approved securities, are CKYC compliant and are not minors will be eligible to apply for NJ Capital's LAS Term Loan.

In the coming phase(s), the product may be extended to a broader category of clients, such as non-individuals (corporates, trusts, partnerships, LLPs, societies, etc.).

ES: How can one apply for a LAS from NJ Capital?

Nikhil: Find below the proces.

1. Client can apply online for a loan through his/her E-wealth account.

2. The loan application can be submitted from NJ E-wealth using “Apply For Loan” Module.
   Path: NJ E-wealth Account >> Loans >> LAS Term Loan >> Apply for Loan

3. The loan sanction is instant and the client will be directed to e-sign, i.e. online execution of Loan Agreement, Loan Term Sheet and Pledge Request Form for the pledged securities.

4. Once the Agreement is executed, the client shall have to print, fill, sign and submit a physical copy of the bank mandate form to his/her Partner and/or nearest NJ Branch.

5. Loan amount will be disbursed to the registered bank account (on e-wealth) within two (2) days of the submission of duly filled in Mandate Form to NJ Capital.

ES: Which securities shall be accepted as collateral against NJ Capital LAS term loan and what are the margins to be maintained for these securities?

Nikhil: At present, units of open-ended mutual funds – equity funds, debt funds, hybrid funds; equity shares of listed companies (BSE 500) and units of ELSS mutual funds after their lock-in period ends, are approved for availing NJ Capital LAS product.

ES: Shall corporate bonds, perpetual bonds and units of close-ended mutual funds be accepted as collateral against NJ Capital LAS term loan?

Nikhil: At present, the LAS product is NOT being offered against corporate bonds, perpetual bonds and units of close-ended mutual funds.

ES: What are the future developments in LAS Term Loan?

Nikhil: E-mandate will be launched soon. Client can e-sign the mandate. We wish to disburse fund within 24 hours if mandate is e-signed.

ES: From where i can get the presentation and FAQs on LAS term Loan?

Nikhil: Everything related to NJ LAS Term Loan is available on Partner desk and NJ Assist. Also you can download from these links: FAQ, Presentation.

Mr.Ankur Marfatia, Sr. Deputy General Manager, NJ Group

Mr.Ankur Marfatia has over 22 years of work experience. He has worked in different capacities with various Leading Corporates of India handling key positions. He has accomplished Major Infrastructure Projects across South Gujarat and was instrumental in setting up the Natural Gas Distribution System for Vehicles in various cities of Gujarat. His forte is to work with people at various levels and ensure successful and timely execution of Projects.

Mr.Ankur Marfatia is working with NJ since the last one year and is expanding the NJ India Invest Pvt. Ltd's reach to C Tier towns by setting up Partner Channel Networks which are an extension of NJ Branch office catering to the Semi Urban and Rural India.

He is also spearheading the Financial Literacy Internship Programme - “FLIP” which is aimed at College Students to make them employable at NJ Partner's office.

ES: What is FLIP ?

Ankur: FLIP i.e Financial Literacy Internship Programme is designed for First Year and Second Year B.Comm and BBA Students. The Financial Literacy Programme is designed to make the students employable at NJ Partner's office as Interns after completion of Training and clearing the “FLIP” Exams undertaken by NJ Wealth.

ES: What type of Colleges are Identified to Initiate Financial Literacy Internship Programme ?

Ankur: Preferably “B” and “C” tier Commerce and BBA colleges are identified wherein the Students from lower income groups are studying , thus giving them an opportunity to work as Interns and earn a fixed Stipend amount.

ES: What is the Course Content of FLIP ?

Ankur: The following Topics are covered in the four day FLIP training with two hours per day :

• Savings & Investment

• Basics of Equity

• Mutual Fund Basics

• Goal Achievement Programme & Systematic Investment Plan

• Insurance Products, Its purpose & Need

ES: How can FLIP support NJ Partners?

Ankur: The Major objectives of FLIP for the NJ Partners are :

• Support Partners to Grow their business by Helping them in Recruitment of Interns

• Overcome limitations of Partners for recruitment of trained manpower

• Increase the feet on Street for Partners for marketing , sales and spreading awareness in sections of society where the reach is limited

• Generate employment for ensuring future growth in business

ES: What is expected from the NJ Partners during the FLIP Programme ?

Ankur: The selected NJ Partners have to involve themselves during the entire duration of FLIP and thereafter as well. The following is desired from the NJ Partners who are identified to avail interns from the FLIP :

• Partner/s should be willing to spare time for conducting training sessions at Colleges

• Partners to Issue Appointment Letters immediately to Interns identified by NJ Representative - It shall be by random selection only

• The area of residence of Interns and Partner's office location shall be considered for alloting Interns

• Each selected Partner should be willing to appoint Minimum 5 Interns (assuming that out of 5 , only 1 Intern shall become an Employee at the Partner's office)

• Partner/s should be willing to invest time & money during the Internship period of the students at his office

• Partners have to follow up regularly with Interns and give feedback to keep the Interns motivated

ES: What are the Benefits of FLIP to NJ Partners “

Ankur: The following are some of the major benefits to NJ Partners who are associated with FLIP :

• Partners can get Options of students as Interns prior to finalising them as employees

• Understand capabilities of Students and mould them easily in the way we desire

• Very Low Expense considering the amount to be paid to Interns

• Can be removed after three months of Internship if not found suitable whereas in case of direct employment , the cost involved is huge for wrong selection of employee

• Increase Client base & hence Business, by adding feet on street

ES: What is the duration of the Internship Programme and what is the Process?

Ankur: Upon Clearing the FLIP Examinations, the Student is eligible to become an Intern at NJ Partner''''s office. The Partner has to issue an Internship appointment Letter to the Student with the mention of the Stipend amount.The The duration and details of the Internship Programme shall be considered as follows :

• Duration of 3 months.During the Internship duration the Students shall be working for 3 to 4 hours/day at their convenient time and shall report their daily activities to the Partner and shall only visit the Partner's office if there is a requirement

• The Internship duration shall be for 3 months which shall be extended for 3 more months (i.e upon successful completion of first three months

• Upon successful completion of 6 months of Internship , the student can be promoted to a Senior Intern for a further period of 6 months to an year

• Upon completion of term as a Senior Intern , the student shall be eligible as a permanent employee at Partner's office if he/she is found suitable by the Partner

• The Partner has to pay a Stipend to the students during their entire duration of Internship

ES: Which cities of India do we have plans to roll out FLIP ?

Ankur: In phase 1 , we have identified Mumbai , Ahmedabad , Pune , Rajkot , Surat & Baroda , though it shall be rolled out nationwide soon.

ES: Which Partners shall be eligible to be considered as a Part of the FLIP Programme ?

Ankur: Initially we have identified Platinum and Plus Partners to be eligible to conduct FLIP training sessions and recruit students as Interns.

ES: What is the flow of activities for FLIP ?

Ankur: Enrollment >> Training >> Examination >> Certification >> Placement