“A new year is like a blank book. The pen is in your hands. It is your chance to write a beautiful story for yourself.”

New year is the time to make new beginnings. Try to make it more awesome than the last year. 52 new weeks of opportunities are lying ahead in your way, make your mark. Plan now to exploit the opportunities and give wings to your business. You have to develop a Plan of Action for the 365 days, and you must include the following points in your blueprint:

• Set Definite Targets: A year must begin with setting newer and higher goals. You must know what you are working for. Setting goals will help you track your performance in relation to the targets, find reasons for deviations and help you get back on track. It is not just important to set targets, but to set clear and exact targets. “I will work very hard this year”, “I will take my business to newer heights this year”, “I will add more clients this year”, these are good ideas and you must base your targets on these notions. However, it does not give a clear picture of what exactly you should achieve. A target can be “I will reach an AUM of Rs 100 crores by the end of this year” or “I will add 100 more clients this year”, these are definite targets. So if by June, you are able to add 40 more clients, you know that you need 60 more clients to meet your target.

• Social Media: If you have not been using Social Media to promote your business till now, start now. Social Media Platform has the biggest audience, it's cheap, effective and is the best way to endorse yourself. There are different portals like Facebook, Pin Interest, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, etc. If your target audience is corporate professionals, go via Linkedin. Almost everyone use facebook and Whatspp. You can share videos, banners, form social groups, have a facebook page and communicate about your products and services effectively.

• Go Digital: The present era demands a quick solution to all problems. So, if you have been using physical means of getting clients on board, filling forms, meeting clients for every petty thing, and if your office desk has a big pile of papers and files, start cleaning the mess. Take a New Year's resolution that you will get all your clients on E-Wealth Platform, and no more physical forms filling. This will reduce a lot of redundancy, save time and will leave you with more time and space, to expand your business.

• Connect with your Clients: It is time for making new beginnings, it is time you must connect with your clients and review their financial plans. They'll have newer goals, new investment requirements. Check if their tax saving investments are on track, since only three months are left. Now is the time to align their investments with their financial plan. You must also remind your clients that with an increase in their income, they must increase their investments.

• Try something new: Find out newer ways of conducting business and tackling problems. For this you have to go back to the previous years, recollect the problems you faced, how they were solved or not solved, gauge how can you do things better this year. Try new techniques of handling clients who have proved to be difficult over the years.

• Work Hard: Working Hard is the Mantra for Success. There are no shortcuts, you have to toil to reach your big goals.

“The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you finally achieve it”

So, start making a plan of action keeping the above points in mind. Put in your heart and soul. We wish you best for all your endeavours. Have a Happy and a Prosperous New Year!

You must have heard the famous quote “failing to plan is planning to fail” by Alan Lakein. This stands very true for our financial advisory business where planning is key to achieve great heights of business in days to come. But we already know all this and have often been told to plan. But do we plan? The answer for a majority of IFAs in the industry will be a big NO.

Why we do not plan?
So what stops us from planning our business? The most apparent excuses for not planning or challenges in planning can be as below...

• I do not know how to plan / what format to use.

• Recording different plans over time is cumbersome

• Tracking achievement on ongoing basis is very difficult

• The entire exercise is time consuming

• I am not serious about my business!

Planning Advantages:
The importance of formal planning can never be underestimated. A vigorous and detailed planning programme helps managers to be future oriented. It gives the managers some purpose and direction. A sound blueprint for plans with specific objective and action statements has numerous advantages for any advisory practice. Given below are few advantages that can be highlighted in favour of planning:

• Enables you to work towards your vision and objectives of business

• Helps you build a road-map for activities, infrastructure, processes, etc.

• Helps you minimise uncertainty in your business and clients Facilities better coordination, time management and controlling business

• Helps keep you and your team motivated in the right direction

• Pushes you to improvise, innovate, be competitive and perform better

• Helps save time, energy and expenses by avoiding mistakes & idleness

• Helps identify strengths and weaknesses over time

Partner Business Planning :
Considering the Importance of Business Planning - an unique utility is developed by Team NJ which is available to use for all partners and can be accessible from CRM.
Partner Desk > Client Services > CRM >Partner Business Planning
Hereby we recommend our partners to use this utility extensively.

Key features:

1. Past Business MIS: You can get ready business MIS at one page for a period of last 5 years. Data points include AUM, Gross & Net Sales, SIP figures, Client details. Very interestingly, it also gives details of your total earnings in Upfront/Trail/Rap.

2. Partner/P-Emp Level / Group Level / Lead Level: The beauty of the planning tool is that you can use to plan not only at a global level for your business but also at each individual group level by using different parameters for any custom period. Recently added Lead level Planning Module helps you to keep track of the Client Acquisition / E-Wealth Account Opening for NJ CRM Leads.

3. Custom Periods: Planning can be done for different time periods (non overlapping) as preferred by you by selecting a starting month and an ending month. Thus you can plan say on a monthly basis or quarterly or as you may feel comfortable.

4. Client filtering: While planning at Group level, you may filter clients using multiple parameters. This will enable you to better understand your customers and find right opportunities.

5. Lead Filter : Leads can be filtered by selecting “Source On Lead” or “Tag On lead”.

6. Custom Parameters: The planning tool offers multiple parameters both at the Partner level planning and Group level planning for you to choose from. To maintain simplicity and practicality, we have kept common parameters across both levels so that you may extend Partner level planning to the Group level. Currently the parameters available are as follows: Equity & Total, Equity & Total Net Sales, Fresh SIPs, Client & TADA Acquisition and MARS amount. In Lead Level only one Business Parameter : “E-Wealth Acquisition” available for which planning can be done.

7. Auto Achievement: The planning tool will automatically calculate achievement against the defined targets both at the Partner level & Group level. This will enable you to measure your progress and your performance against your targets on an ongoing basis. In lead planning, achievement is counted if E-wealth account is open for any planned lead (By matching the registered mobile number). Here, user also have flexibility to manage the achievement manually mapping the EW against planned lead. Mapped EWA will be calculated in achievement.

8. Lead-EWA MIS : A Lead-EW MIS keeps you updated on how many leads, E-Wealth Account are mapped by system or user.

Planning Tips:

1. Better to select shorter periods such as monthly or quarterly for planning. If you have a long term plan, you can break the same into multiple smaller plans.

2. Use Group level planning to support your Partner lever targets. To make your plans fool-proof, ensure that you take into consideration success ratio /conversion ratio for Group level planning meaning that your Group level targets would naturally be higher.

3. Use smart /intelligent Group filtering conditions for identifying clients for planning targets. For example, you may select Groups with AUM of over Rs.25 lakhs and with SIP book of less than 10,000 to plan new SIPs.

4. Get the help /guidance from your NJ Team to planner practical, achievable and also challenging targets for your business backed by proper activity level planning. All minutes of the meeting can be recorded for future reference.

Now with the Partner Business Planning tool, planning can be a simple, easy, manageable and methodological. The tool is dynamic enough to plan either for a bigger picture at year end or for a very detailed level for every month. It is good enough for those who want to get into detail of each family to plan for smaller periods while being easy and fun enough for those who do not want to go into any detail at the same time.

It is now up to you how you want to shape your business and where you want to see yourself. So let's now take the first steps to Aim Higher, Plan Better and Execute Decisively. The results will follow undoubtedly.

Find Tool related screenshots here.

Let me ask you a simple question. What is the key to success as a financial advisor?
Is it hard work, intelligence, marketing or networking? Of course all of these things do help one as a financial advisor. But does any of it stand the test of time or is it really powerful enough to succeed? There are many advisors who really work hard, are intelligent or have very good connections; but they may not be very successful and vice versa. Agreed? So what can be that one common characteristic likely to be found in all successful advisors?

The answer is Trust. Trust is the foundation of the advisor-client relationship. Every successful advisor cherishes this quality in himself and often, this is the most prized asset for him. If you master the ability to earn the trust and confidence of your clients, you will surely fast track your way to success. In this piece we will talk about why trust should be your priority and how we can start building trust for ourselves...

Why Trust?
We may ask ourselves, why trust is so important? Why do I need to work on it? After all, trust might seem like a small thing compared to all the other concepts you must grasp to be successful in both business and your career. Well, trust may be a intangible emotion but it is often the driving force behind your investor's behaviour. Just like any relationship, trust is a bond, a glue that 'connects' your client to you. Here are just a few of the benefits you gain when your clients trust you more:

Your clients will...

• Respect you
• Share more information
• Seek your advice
• Feel more willing to accept your advice
• Refer you to family, friends
• Forgive your mistakes
• Adjust to your working style
• Remain royal and stick with you

The Qualities of a Trusted Advisor:
With the importance of trust now established, the next question is how we can develop trust? Well there are no short-cuts or defined exercises for this. To trully create trust, we should begin with ourselves and our characteristics that define us. Every action, interaction, whether direct or indirect, can be one step towards creating or breaking trust. So before we answer the question, let us look at the traits that a trusted advisor often exhibits...

A trusted advisor...

• Understands his clients and their situations
• Does not panic or get over-emotional but shows a rational, balanced behaviour
• Never forces anything
• Respects his clients and is loving even when he criticizes clients
• Values the long term relationship with the client more than the current issues
• Has the skills, confidence and commitment for working towards client's well-being
• Shares his views without fear and counters patiently with clients if they do not agree
• Acts and carries himself like an honorable, honest, dignified and real person
• Remembers everything that the clients says, even without notes
• Keeps the commitments and the responsibilities undertaken
• Helps clients learn and grow as investors
• Trusts the clients as well

As we can see, building trust is not an activity or process but a holistic change in how we see and value our customers. If we have to condense all the above into few qualities/skills, we may very well come up with the following...

• The ability to earn trust:
  Trust is not a gift what will be given automatically to you. It is to be earned by displaying bahaviour and actions for the client's well-being, irrespective of the client may initially think. It is also about creating your own trust-worthiness, even if you have made mistakes.
• The ability to provide real solutions:
  Some may underestimate the part of being smart and skilled as an advisor to be trusted. The fact is, in an open, competitive market, you have to have the required knowledge, tools and skills and use them as evidence of your superior advisory services. You should be able enough to provide client the solutions that he needs. Remember, apart from 'earning' trust, we should be also 'deserving' trust to be make it work.
• The ability to build relationships:
  The art of building relationships is one key skill to learn as an advisor. There are many things that can help build relationships but the traits of being empathetic, honest, understanding, committed and interested are the primary building blocks for any effort.

Hold The Hand:
There is one beautiful short story on trust.

Once a father and his little daughter came to a river crossing. The father was scared and so he asked his little daughter, “Dear, please hold my hand so that you do not fall in to the river.”
The little girl said, 'No dad. You hold my hand.”
“What is the difference?” asked the puzzled father.
“There is a big difference,” replied, the little girl.
“If I hold my hand and if something happens to me, chances are that I might let your hand go. But if you are holding my hand, I know that, no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.”

Be it any relationship, the essence of that relationship is not the 'bind' or reasons to be together but the 'bond' that itself keeps you together. The bond is more valuable than the bind.

Consider yourself as the father and the little girl as your customer. Now, instead of asking your client to hold your hand, you should have a bond whereby the customer himself would want you to hold his hand. Because, holding hand is not just about taking care of someone, it is also about having the trust and the love for that person. True satisfaction, contentment and joy, comes only when you hold the hand, followed by success.

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During the market surge, they say:

- The markets are running, everybody is making money, I want to too.

- I want to invest for 5-6 months, I'll make quick money and exit when the markets start falling.

When the markets are pulling back, they say:

- My investments are falling, my money is vanishing, what have you done?

- You want me to invest when everybody else is withdrawing, I have already lost enough money, I don't want to invest more.

Often over our career, we witness such situations with our clients which leave us in a fix. We don't know whether to counter them and place ourselves in the detrimental spot, or give the client some space and let them follow their impulse. The latter is adverse for our practice, because the fundamental principle behind advising is “Protecting Client Interests”, which is the reason the profession exists.

The simplest solution to save yourself of the dilemma, and most importantly, help the investor stick to the basics is empowering them with investing wisdom, acquainting them with the basics.

Show the flipside first: Do not wait for the client to lose money, the flipside too should be presented at the start. Explain to them the risks associated with their investments. Like you shared the superior returns generated by Mutual Funds in the past, to make them believe in the product, it becomes equally important to familiarize them with the possible repercussions. Show to your clients the performance of the product during bearish markets also. Give a clear picture by showing the extravagant breakthrough received, followed by the steep blows faced by certain sectors like the IT Bubble bloom of the late 90's, followed by a smash in the face in the early 2000's.

Explain the concept of long term investing: You don't want to scare your clients with an unpleasant history, so you have to bring out the silver lining, which is: There is risk, but this risk can be calculated and controlled. The risk in Equity Mutual Funds is due to market volatility, which is short term in nature, certain events or news or a negative market sentiment can cause ripples, but over the long term this volatility gets neutralized, the ripples fade away, and the investments emerge to be stronger and bolder than ever. You have facts and data to substantiate your contention, markets have remained bearish in the past, as a result mutual funds have fallen too, but if you look at the long term data, they have rendered extraordinary gains to the investor, after proving for the bear market losses.

Risk Capacity: Many times people either underestimate or overestimate their risk taking capacity. It's important to gauge the client's Risk tolerance level, and ensure that his investment decisions fit into that level. There is a reason when the markets are rising and people are investing, but he isn't, it's because his risk profile doesn't allow him to, or this is the right time to invest in Equity, but his goal is a year away, so he should stay away. The investor should be acquainted with his Risk Tolerance level, so that his investment decisions are within his risk dimensions.

Set Reasonable Expectations: The best way to meet, rather exceed expectations is to trim them. Although, historically equity mutual funds have given superior returns, greater than 15% on an average, over long periods, greater than 10 years. But as they say, play it safe, you must tell your clients to expect around 13% return. The idea behind this conservative approach is when you overcommit, higher expectations are set, and when you are not able to perform to that level, it results in dissatisfaction. But when you keep a margin and the client's portfolio performs beyond his expectations, it yields contentment.

So, the bottomline is, for an investor to get impacted and react to a stimulus is natural, but if he is enlightened with the basics beforehand, the reaction won't be acute. Once the investors know how stuff works, it will help them take rational decisions during extreme situations, the knowledge will give you room to be able to convey your ideology of doing things right, during such situations.