You go to a reputed store for your routine requirements because of the trustworthiness of the store-owner, you are sure you'll get quality products and won't be ripped off. A company would never ditch an employee who is committed to his work, who doesn't take surprise sick leaves on Mondays or on tough days when workload is high, who is always there when needed. Your wife would never let go off a maid who shows up even when you have guests coming over. You appreciate when your flight or train is on time, thus ensuring you won't be late for your important commitments.

We seek people who stand true to their commitment in various facets of our lives. The same logic extends to our business, and the degree of influence is higher since we are a service industry, where attributes of the service provider form a vital element of the Equation. Our clients are looking for reliable advisors. Just type in dependable financial advisors in your internet search bar, it will fetch a number of forums and articles talking about how to find a reliable and trustworthy financial advisor. Or just search for qualities of a Financial Advisor, Dependability will occupy a pivotal position on the list. This means, just as we seek trust and reliability at various stages in our lives, as also seen in the examples above, our clients are seeking the same virtues in their financial advisors also.

So let's focus on how can you gain the client's trust by being a Dependable Financial Advisor. It's Simple, Work in the interest of your client and always stand true to your words.

Clients look for advisors whose primary concern is not just selling the product, rather serving their needs. They want someone whose intentions are making money for the client than themselves. Remember when you keep the client's good at the top, your good will follow.

The latter part, being faithful at times transmits various challenges. There are are changes in policies and rules from time to time, things may not go as desired, there can be dead ends, meaning you can not always fulfill your commitments. So, how do you keep your word? How do you manage your clients' expectations?

Show the probable Flip Side: It's easy to share the good part, bragging the past success of the product being offered. However, many advisors fail to communicate the flip side of the coin, which many times leads to breach of trust and hampers their dependability score. So, communicate the odds to help the client take an informed decision, it demonstrates your genuine intent, plus it leaves the client prepared for the risks, and helps you face the client with greater confidence during hard times.

Responsiveness: Another factor which often alleviates the trust in a client-partner relationship is lack of receptivity. Delay in response or No response from the Partner's end often leaves the client frustrated and he/she feels that the advisor cannot be depended upon. Hence it's vital that you always give a heads up as soon as you can and consistently stand up to your commitment of superior service.

Be Accountable: The road is not Vanilla always. Hence when things aren't going in the right direction, be responsible enough to communicate the same to the client in time. Sit down and look for a solution rather than going underground or putting the blame on someone else's shoulders. When you are there with the client during difficult times, it means you have stood the test of time and emerged as a Dependable financial advisor.

So, the bottomline is keep your intentions right, be true to your clients, let not the grip become loose in rough times. Dependability is the basic and uncompromisable quality for success in our business, in fact the simplest and the most effective, and if you really want to survive the immense competition and be a successful advisor, you gotta be Dependable.

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Success has different meanings for different individuals. For a teacher, becoming a principal one day is success; For an amateur photographer owning a studio is success; For a class X student, scoring 90% is success, for one of his classmates 65% is success; for a mother of two raising kind and modest human beings is success.

Success is a subjective term, it can be quantity or quality, it can be financial or moral, it can be tangible or intangible, it is simply “our estimation” of “our capabilities”. It is us who define as well as conclude our success. For a financial advisor too, there may be parameters determining his/her success, and amongst them, one universal measure of success is “Assets under Management”. So, for the purpose of this passage, we'll take AUM, the strongest parameter in financial advisory practice, for defining Success.

So what's your definition of success?

Rs 10 Cr AUM?

Rs 100 Cr AUM?

Or Rs 1,000 Cr AUM?

The definition of success for any business comprises the following crucial elements:

1. The long term Vision of the business

2. The breakdown of the Vision into short term and medium term targets

And 3. The pace at which the business is heading towards the Vision, measured by the advancement made in respect of the short term and medium term targets.

So, how should a financial advisor go about defining his success and work towards achieving his success?

The first thing to do in this direction is identifying your Vision. How big do you want to become? Our success will depend upon the horizon of our thoughts and the perimeter of our strength to engineer the thoughts into reality.

So, what is Vision?

Vision is the picture of your business that you would want to see over the years. Vision is a very long term goal, and the short and medium term targets are set based on the Vision. Your vision will give you a clear view of the ultimate destination, so that you do not lose direction midway.

Based on your vision, devise a broad strategy for your business and then a step by step action plan to fulfill the vision. It is important that your vision is communicated throughout your organization, it runs in the blood of your employees and the words and actions of everyone in your organization are in sync with the vision. To effectuate this, it's important that you pen down your vision statement and communicate it extensively among your people, so that everybody is clear about what you are aspiring for.

Revisit the vision: Vision is not something that you set and forget. As your business grows, your vision must also evolve so that it does not lose relevance over time. So, when you start your advisory practice, your vision could be becoming the biggest financial distributor of your city, if you tread at a good pace in the direction of the vision, after ten years, may be your vision should be amended to becoming the biggest financial distributor of your state, or country.

Set Bigger, Realistic targets: The key ingredient in the recipe to success is not doing what is convenient, rather it depends on how much you can stretch yourself. So, if you want to become big, you must dream big, and then break your big dream into small targets and strive to achieve those targets.

Always set your sales targets a certain percentage above your existing capacity. However, do not go too overboard, do not set targets which are unachievable, it will only work to demoralize you and your team.

Monitor your progress towards the targets: Once you set your targets and start working in that direction, it's extremely important to check your progress. The review should be done regularly, like weekly or monthly, and then devise a necessary action plan to get back on track. On your Partner Desk, there is a tool, Partner Planning Utility, which can aid you in monitoring your progress. When you regularly meet your targets, you are gradually moving towards your Vision, towards your Success.

So, for every financial advisor, however big or small he/she may be, the advisors should know at all times that how far they are from their Success Point. It's essential to have a vision in mind, and then leaving no stone unturned in the Mission to achieve the Vision, is the open secret to Success.

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“Think objectively, keep a sense of humor, make the business fun for you and everyone else” - J. Willard Marriott

Humour, quite an undermined, but one of the most powerful elements of running a successful advisory business. The beauty is the power of humour lies in assertion than aggression, in fact it is the most powerful sword to put your point across and make things happen.

Today, many businesses have realized the potential and the value that humour can add, and have inculcated witty bits in their marketing strategies and advertisement campaigns, because the millennial generation is more casual than ever. Say for instance, the recent Swiggy Gulabjamun Ad featuring a senior citizen couple, the Swiggy delivery guy comes and the old uncle quickly sneaks in a single gulab jamun, without having the old aunty notice. If you remember the ad, then you know the kind of impact it made.

Since financial advisory thrives upon the human element between the advisor and the client, the heightened significance of humour in the relationship cannot be denied.

Having a sense of humour helps you connect with people better, a casual approach lightens the mood. Talking about products and business only makes the environment too formal, and the client may even wince away and go into a preventive mode. A humouristic line is an amazing way to break the ice, and bring the client out of his shell, and that ways you can get him talking.

Your funny vibe helps you get along with people and let people trust you. Especially in sensitive situations like falling markets and shrinking investment values, a tense atmosphere won't help, it may be hampered by the thoughts that have clouted the client's mind. So, the first thing to do is to tone down the negative aura. However, here you must note that your sense of humour is alleviating the customer's pain. The idea is to empathize with the clients, calm them down, help them overcome their fears and look for solutions. In no event should you be joking about the customer's money or losses.

Or there may be some uncomfortable topics, like life insurance and the consequences of not having one. But you know, your sense of humour can help you defeat the most difficult challenges. Remember the policybazaar term insurance ad, where a young widow goes to a crystal ball gazer to talk to her husband's spirit, and asks the dead husband about the term insurance papers. On being told that he forgot to take the insurance, the woman scolds the dead husband's spirit that how would she now take care of the house, pay for the EMI's, and kid's school fee. This Ad took a humorous path to convey a very serious message, which we need to learn and apply in our life. Striking the right chord as well as keep it light. Start with a funny line and then proceed to the seriousness of the topic.

Not just your clients, a funny and lively person is loved and respected by all, it'll help you build a pleasant rapport with your employees. Nobody would want to work for a bossy boss, a fun work culture is appreciated and increases the efficiency of people, your sense of humour can make you a leader in true sense.

Until now, we talked about the value that our sense of humour adds in our lives. Coming to the application.

> So, Firstly, you don't have to be a stand up comedian to tickle someone's nerve, rather a well placed statement, at the most appropriate time can sail you through.

> Secondly, If you can laugh at yourself, you've got it. it's called the art of self deprecating. Humour, which is not at the expense of others, but your own, depicts your confidence and humility and will increase your likeability.

> And Thirdly, your thought process matter. Thoughts sculpt the personality, so positive and pleasant thinking can also help in bringing out entertaining statements.

Having a sense of humour is a competitive advantage that you can have over your peers. However, an uncontrolled sense of humour can be costly in business. Humour can at times backfire, there is a thin line that separates humour and hurt. You don't know how your lightheartedness is being perceived. You might be offending the listener, the client may feel he is not being taken seriously, or otherwise he may not take you seriously. So, look for signals, proceed only when you sense a positive vibe, a spirit of appreciation. Build a connection with the client, look for common topics, and maintain distance from politics and religion. The crux is use humour judiciously, Humour is a gamechanger if used right.

To conclude, look for opportunities to laugh with people, and spread happiness. Life becomes easy when you use your sense of humour, lot of money and even more laughter, what else do you need in life. So, take your work seriously, and nothing else, because life is too short to be serious.

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We have often talked about Digitization and Social Media in our previous articles, and this one focuses on how “WhatsApp”, a small element of the above, can effectively be used for our business' growth.

Whatsapp was launched in 2009 as a “texting” app, and nobody knew back then that it would soon take the shape of a divine messenger working towards the well-being of millions of small and large businessmen across the globe. For many small business owners, Whatsapp is the savior as it's their sole business platform, and financial advisory too is following the norm, for good. Most financial advisors use social media platforms like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and WhatsApp for promoting and expanding their businesses.

WhatsApp because of it's unique characteristics serves as a terrific platform for connecting with your clients. WhatsApp is a two way communication tool. So when you post something in a WhatsApp group, you get immediate responses from the clients. There is an element of personal touch, which you do not get in sms' or e-mails. And most importantly, most of your clients are on WhatsApp, so why not approach them within their comfort zone. In the following paragraphs, we have shared insights on how financial advisors can make the best use of this incredible tool for the prosperity of their business.

Replace redundant calls with WhatsApp messages: Many people do not prefer receiving calls for petty things, or you may be annoying them by calling at a time when they are occupied with something important. WhatsApp messages serve as a great replacement to such unwanted calls. If you want to follow up with the client for something trivial like a missing document or a picture or address details etc., you should take the convenient route; WhatsApp him. It will convey your message without really disturbing the client.

Don't sell Products; share Knowledge in Groups: WhatsApp provides a very effective platform for sharing knowledge. Although when you'll see so many clients at one place, you will crave to sell, but control your emotions, share ideas and insights catering to the welfare of the participants instead. Talk about wealth creation, about how the macro economic factors can impact various investments in the current and future scenarios, or about goal based investing, etc. You can also share general information like government policies, health tips, etc. Sharing knowledge will help you in building your image of a trustworthy and a well informed financial advisor. And though such information sharing isn't directly a sales pitch, yet you will get business queries as a complimentary gift.

Classify your clients: A very effective marketing strategy that WhatsApp enables you to implement very effectively is Customer Segmentation. You can classify your clients on the basis of certain common characteristics and put those clients into one WhatsApp group and then share content according to their profile. So, you can put your younger clients into one WhatsApp group, older ones into another, new investors into one and the mature ones into another, and likewise. So, by doing this, all people belonging to a particular group are homogeneous in many respects and they will get only the know-how that is ideal as well as sought by them.

Don't spam: Even though WhatsApp provides an opportunity to connect with a mass, and you can send pictures, videos and other promotional material to a large number of people in little time, yet it doesn't mean that you start pestering random people with your messages. No one likes spam, and it doesn't leave a very good impression too. There are better ways of reaching new people, and Whatsapp spam is definitely not one of them.

So, to conclude WhatsApp is an economical and equally effective tool which can help you in connecting with people, in building your brand and growing your business. Follow the above tips, use it smartly to get the maximum out of the App.

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