Marketing is at the core of business development and growth activities of all businesses. However, effective marketing is not just extensive, rather it's about targeting right. A premium watch manufacturer won't target college students, a funky jeans manufacturer would rather; a baby nutrition cereal manufacturer will put hoardings in and around hospitals, put ads on parenting blogs.

What are these businesses doing? They are Target Marketing.

Target Marketing lets your time, efforts and money in the right direction, towards the right set of people. Focus leads to better results at lower cost.

The benefits of target marketing can be extended to financial advisory too. So, who would be the target customers for our financial products? As a matter of fact, almost everyone, of all financial standings, people of all ages, are our target customers. So, how do you arrive at this particular set of people, around whom you can concentrate your efforts and time.

The answer is pretty simple, people who are like you. What would be a better target segment for you than your Natural Market after all?

What is a Natural Market?

Natural Market is the set of people where you are a natural perfect fit. People with whom you share some common traits, your friends, family, college mates, people from your community, hometown, people speaking your native language. These people could be your natural market, there are similarities in your needs, opinions, outlook, goals and hence you'll be able to relate with these people better.

One of the most successful marketing techniques for advisors is targeting their Natural Market.

For a financial advisor, understanding the client's perspective is a critical part, and one of the biggest advantages you get in your Natural Market is you understand the clients' perspective better because of the common ground you share with them. Since you will be able to connect with these people better, they will place greater trust in you and the conversion ratio will be higher.

Targeting the natural market can be a good start for a new financial advisor. It is better than cold calling random people whom you know nothing about. Since you would know a lot of people from your Natural Market, people are likely to give you a patient ear, plus there are greater chances of getting referrals.

Financial advisors try to target a niche segment, a segment which looks attractive to them, so that their efforts can be concentrated around a limited number of people. Your Natural Market is your best Niche, because you'll able to relate to this niche like none other.

Identifying your Natural Market

By definition, Natural Market is the set of people with whom you share a common ground, as also stated above. On this basis, you may have identified your natural market as the people from your own hometown and community, who have had a similar upbringing as yours, faced similar challenges, and may have similar needs. But with time you realize that this is not your natural market, rather you are connecting with new parents, because you are also a father/mother of a one year old, and you share similar goals and preferences with these clients. So, Natural Market is about finding the Right Fit, people whom you truly connect with.

There are a lot of people who feel they don't have a Natural Market. So, there is no such thing as

'No Natural Market'. If it's not the same religion, community, profession, then it could be shared interests, it could be gender, hobbies, it could be goals, it could be financial position, it could be anything. If you feel you don't have one, then you shall choose a segment, find some common traits and chisel yourself to fit into it.

Your Natural Market isn't necessarily in the place you belong to or are settled in for a long period of time. It's because natural market isn't constant, it keeps on evolving as you mature, meet new people, make new friends, develop new interests, preferences, etc. Maybe with time, you'd realize that your natural market has rotated 180°, because now you are a different person altogether. There are people who have lived their entire lives in big cities and then suddenly they leave their corporate jobs to move to the countryside or the hills in search of peace, culture and quality of life. It's because as years unfold, our preferences and priorities change, and the countryside or the hill becomes our new natural habitat. Every financial advisor has a new natural market every few years.

To conclude, your Natural Market could be an excellent target segment for you, since you connect with these people naturally. People will be more receptive and be able to trust you because they see you as one of their kind, they believe you'll be able to understand their needs and problems better.

{s}
[[script type="text/javascript"]]
$(document).ready(function(){
new DiscussionBoard("divDiscussionBoard", "1198", "http://www.njwebnest.in/esaathi/index.php/discussion").load();
});
[[/script]]
{/s}

Do you know how will your business look like in the future? How much are you going to earn in the near term and few years down the line?

The idea behind assessing your future income is, it gives you a perspective of your future, how much are going to earn in the future and and how much more do you need to make, to live a comfortable life until your last breath.

For a salaried individual, calculating the expected future income is pretty easy, one can simply extrapolate his/her current salary by an average annual growth rate, taking into account a bonus raise during promotions and job switch. But for a businessman estimating the future income is tricky. Your income will not grow in a straight line over the years. This inconsistency in income is because you don't get a fixed profit every month, your income pattern largely depends on your capability and the efforts you put into your business.

For a financial advisor, estimating the future AUM is a hard equation to solve, since the AUM is market linked, but future sales are largely predictable. You can aim and plan for new clients, retain existing clients, new SIPs, etc. Your future growth is pretty much in your own hands, what you earn depends on how much do you want to earn.

Having said that, to forecast your future income, the first and the most important thing to do is to have a clear vision. Meaning, visualize that how do you want your business to look like in the next five years, ten years and ahead. And pen your vision down, in terms of the AUM or the number of clients, etc., that you want to achieve, over the years.

Once you have visualized how big you want to become, the next thing to do is break down your vision into goals.

Macro Level Planning: Break your vision into broad long term goals. Set your long term targets like the total sales and the Equity sales you want to achieve, the number of E-Wealth accounts, the number of clients you want to acquire, the number of SIP's, MARS sales, PMS sales, etc., you want to do, in the next 5 years, 10 years, 2 years, or 1 year.

Micro Level Planning: Once you are through with the broad goal setting, the next step is micro level planning. As the name suggests, this is the stage where you are going to dissect your macro goals into parts. Meaning the step by step process about how are you going to achieve your macro goals. So, if it is about SIP sales, how are you going to achieve that target of Rs 20 Lakh of new SIP book in the next 2 years. So, the micro target could be getting 8 new SIPs of Rs 10,000 each month, you can do this by identifying the people from your existing client base who need and can do new SIPs, or targeting new investors. Your micro level goals will serve as the detailed plan of action you must follow to achieve your macro goals and your vision.

Review: Lastly, and most importantly, the above exercise becomes futile if you do not monitor the progress of your goals. You must always be in touch with your macro and micro goals, be aware of your progress compared to the targets set, analyze the factors behind the disparity, if any, and take steps to be in alignment.

NJ's Partner Planning Utility is a tool available on your Partner Desk, which can aid you in the entire Goal setting and Review process. You can enter your macro and micro goals, there is provision for assigning micro goals client wise also, and you can easily monitor your progress both in percentage as well as in absolute terms. The tool can prove to be useful in your goal management and overall business development.

Apart from goal management, there is a lot more that you can do to grow and actualize your vision, like working on client satisfaction, improving service standards, constantly upgrading your knowledge, ensuring minimum client attrition, keeping an eye on opportunities and not letting them go, employee satisfaction etc., thereby ensuring your business' and personal growth.

So, if you want to know how much you are going to earn in the future, define that number, and work towards it!

{s}
[[script type="text/javascript"]]
$(document).ready(function(){
new DiscussionBoard("divDiscussionBoard", "1192", "http://www.njwebnest.in/esaathi/index.php/discussion").load();
});
[[/script]]
{/s}

The Indian equity markets witnessed a lot of commotion lately. Both major Indian indices, the Sensex and Nifty are being erratic, sliding downwards for the past few weeks. The Sensex was trading at just below 39,000 at the beginning of September, after a month it's down more than 4,000 points, trading at less than 35,000.

Naturally, investors are worried because their investments are falling in value. Their anxiety is further augmented by a negative sentiment around, triggered by media reports and opinions of family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and possibly everybody in the vicinity as falling markets is the hot topic currently.

So, amidst their shrinking investments and societal pressure, how do you explain to the poor investor, that there is absolutely no reason to be worried about, things are going perfectly as per the financial plan.

And this is not uncommon that you are encountering terrified investors, over your career everytime there is volatility, there is media and peer pressure, the investors are worried, they want to redeem their investments to cut further losses, they might even blame you for their loss.

With markets slumping, this scenario is a test of time for you as a financial advisor. One of the most crucial roles of an advisor is handholding the client in turbulent times. So this piece concentrates on how you can pacify your clients and not let them take a decision out of fear of loosing money.

1. Volatility doesn't mean Loss. One thing that you need to make your investor understand is, volatility doesn't translate into losses unless he sells his investment at a low price. The risk arising out of volatility in prices, is limited to the time being, the risk subsides as the investment period increases to long term. Say for instance, the investor invested in a fund when the NAV was Rs 100, after the upsurge it went upto Rs 140, post the market crash it went down to Rs. 90, so you must convey to the investor that this fall in NAV is not a permanent phenomenon, it can upto Rs 100 or Rs 120 in the coming days, and there is also a possibility that it can do down further to Rs 80 or Rs 70. Sentiment and external factors can influence the NAV, but temporarily, over the long term, the NAV will grow because of the underlying companies' potential.

2. Data: Statements won't work until you back them up with numbers. So, have your historical facts and charts handy, show to the terrified investors the historical numbers of global equity, Indian Equity history, and explain to them that it's not the first time markets are volatile, they have always been this way. Highlight the times when markets were going bonkers, there have been periods worse than this, there were wars, global economic slowdowns, scams, natural disasters, political instability, and all these factors pulled Equities down, but eventually everything fell in the right place. Over long periods of time, equities have overpowered all hurdles to emerge as the most rewarding asset class. Ask them to consider any 10 year period from the birth of Indian Equity, investors belief in their investment didn't go in vain.

3. Volatility is an opportunity to invest. Ask your investors one thing, 'What do you do when there is a 50% discount sale at the mall?' You have to do the same here, volatility presents an opportunity to gain, in the form of low purchase prices. You are getting many quality stocks in your Mutual Fund at a lower NAV, which will boost your profit margin from the investment over the long term.

4. They invested for their goals which are still far away: Remind the investors who are considering

disposing their investments to avoid further losses, about their goals, which is why they invested in the fund. Points 1 and 2 above will explain that NAV fluctuations are temporary, and bringing their attention to their goals will support the need to refrain from taking a decision hastily.

5. Prepare the investor for volatility shocks. The first thing to do when you have a client onboard is acquaint him/her with the risks associated due to volatility, which is nothing but a summary of the points above. This activity will mentally prepare them for such days, in most cases the investor won't panic because he sort of expected the downturn. And showing the flip side also exhibits your credibility, since you are not presenting only the rosy picture to the investor, rather you are being ethical and helping the investor take an informed decision after counting in all the risks.

For an investor, ignoring the noise is easier said than done, because the idea of losing money is frightening, accompanied with negative statements being bombarded from all sides can make him lose his mind. It is your responsibility as his advisor to calm the panic stricken investor, explain the reasons, show the way forward and and ask him to stick to his financial plan.

{s}
[[script type="text/javascript"]]
$(document).ready(function(){
new DiscussionBoard("divDiscussionBoard", "1190", "http://www.njwebnest.in/esaathi/index.php/discussion").load();
});
[[/script]]
{/s}