17th July 2012

Winners think differently and act differently - that's a phrase we've heard often enough. That's a philosophy that DNS Wealth has truly embraced and lived by - which has helped it become the leader in the state of Odisha - with an enviable client base of over 4000 clients and a mutual fund AuM in excess of Rs. 250 crores - all from a relatively small city of Rourkela. But, its not just the past successes that makes DNS Wealth a great story to track and emulate - it is the new initiative - and the philosophy behind this initiative that is truly noteworthy. Read on to understand how to grow and win by making your enemy your best friend !

WF : How and when did Devkinandan Consultants start its journey in financial advisory services? How has the business evolved over the years ?

Vikash : The journey started on 21st Jan. 1991 by Sanjay Agarwal, my uncle, with a firm known as DNS Financial Services. In 2008, firm was converted to a pvt. Ltd. company co. named as Devkinandan Consultants Pvt. Ltd. In 2012, we have formed a new entity named as DNS Wealth, which is taking care of our entire mutual fund business.

I belong to a family which has a well established & strong business background into different fields. We always have been taught in our family to be ethical & don't hamper your goodwill for growing your business.

Sanjayji and Rupeshji grew this business in its initial years. I joined the firm 6 years ago. I have always been curious to know why the prices of shares are fluctuating. I had a passion for Equity Markets & now that my passion has been converted to my profession. My focus in the firm has been on research, on goal based selling and on creating processes to drive future growth.

Initially, we used to sell FDs & funds of Kothari Pioneer (now Franklin Templeton). As the financial markets developed, we also started selling various financial products like Mutual Funds, Insurance, Equity, Commodity, Fixed & Postal Deposits, PPF etc. Today we are dealing with each & every financial products available in the industry.

Today, we are the market leader in Odisha. We have over 4000 clients today and our mutual fund AuM must be over Rs. 250 crores, of which around Rs.200 crores will be in equity funds. AuM is however not something we track very closely as we believe that too much focus on AuM is what leads to most of the ills in the business.

(L-R) Rupesh, Sanjay and Vikash Agarwal of DNS Wealth proudly display the 6 Wealth Forum Advisor Awards they bagged in 2010 in the Eastern Region-Non metros category and their CNBC award. DNS Wealth retained its winning touch in 2011 as well, winning the Wealth Forum Advisor Award for maximum growth in investor folios in the Eastern region - non metros category.

WF : What would you say are the biggest reasons for the huge retail success of your firm? What were some of the things your firm did differently to succeed in such a big way in a small market like Rourkela?

Vikash : There are many factors which helped in growing our business. Our Office timings are from 8.30 AM to 11.00 PM from Monday to Friday. By offering flexible opening hours, we have been able to differentiate ourselves and attract customers with varying lifestyles.

People like to say - "we sell solutions, not products". But this is a concept we have adopted whole-heartedly - and it has produced great results for our customers as well as for us. Let me give you one small example. In insurance, we generally advice only term insurance as most others are not investor-friendly. In our market, like in most others, there are many insurance agents who promote endowment plans. We conduct focus group meetings for prospective clients and ask them to list out what they think are the benefits of endowment plans. Then we go on to demonstrate how a combination of PPF and term plans gives them better benefits on all counts - safety, security, protection, returns and liquidity. They get convinced about our solutions approach and come to us for all their financial needs.

We are very passionate about conducting workshops and seminars for investors. Spread awareness is our mantra - colleges, schools, clubs, commercial organisations - we don't leave any stone unturned. We have conducted numerous workshops over the years - even now, we do at least 3 to 4 workshops every month in and around Rourkela and neighbouring towns.

We reassure customers with a reliable service and product offer and we continuously improve the process, based on customer feedback. We regularly seek feedback from our clients in surveys to understand what we are doing well and what we need to do better. We created customer loyalty schemes to encourage repeat business and built up a positive brand image among our client base.

WF : What are some of the ways in which you have professionalised the service at your firm since the time you joined, 6 years ago?

Vikash : We embarked on a mission to treat each customer as an individual. For example, music retailer iTunes tracks the purchases of individual clients and provides a customized webpage designed to introduce a client to new buying opportunities that appeal to his/her personal taste. It is innovations like this that we get inspired from, and try to replicate in our own business.

One approach is to compare our offer with competitors' by sorting product attributes into three categories: basic, differentiated, and exceptional. Then we consider how to develop new advantages and strengthen existing ones to make our product exceptional.

We find out what it is that our customers value most, currently lack, and will pay for-and develop this as our USP. This may be the product's benefits to them, its price, or the service they receive.

WF : What prompted you to launch the Jago Investor initiative and what are the contours of this program?

Vikash : For some time now, we have been disturbed with media reports on so many complaints that investors have on a variety of investments and variety of intermediaries. Every such media report is read by so many more prospective investors, and that does further damage to the credibility of financial products. Being the leader in the financial advisory business in Odisha, we strongly felt that we need to take a lead in making a difference - in bringing about a change. It is our way of giving back to society, which has been so kind to us over the years.

The central thought behind Jago Investor is that a well informed investor is a confident investor. A confident investor is a brand ambassador for the financial products he buys. In Odisha, we are very far away from that ideal situation. Financial literacy is very low. Knowledge of products, services, features, risks, rights, obligations, costs, penalties etc is very low. When knowledge is low, people are more gullible to mis-selling tricks. That does a lot of damage to the whole business.

To break away from this situation, and to help create well informed investors, we have made a small beginning.

We have set up a helpline which any investor can reach us on - for any problems or queries that he may have on any financial product. If someone has a grievance on a product they have, we guide them on how to use existing grievance redressal mechanisms and guide them on their rights. If somebody wants to double check any product features with us before making a purchase, we give them all the information they need to help them make a proper, informed decision. We do not offer our own services at all when answering these calls - it is purely as a social service so that investors know that for any help they want on any financial product that they already own or are planning to buy, they can approach us for unbiased guidance.

Going forward, all our education seminars will be branded Jago Investor programs. We want investors in our city and our state to know that they have somebody who will hold their hand whenever they need it. Giving this support, we strongly believe, will make them confident and well informed investors.

We have only just started offering these services - and are now getting between 80 to 100 calls each day. Currently, between us three partners, we are handling the helpline. But going forward, if call volumes grow, we will set up a 1 or 2 member unit, equip them with all the information, and have them handle the helpline, under our guidance.

WF : This is truly a path-breaking initiative, and one that will surely help a number of investors who need this critical hand-holding. In what way do you see such initiatives drive business momentum, in addition to offering very valuable support to investors?

Vikash : We want to embrace one philosophy from the Surf ads that we are seeing recently. For years, Surf detergent would portray "daag" - dirt as the enemy and show how it can fight the enemy. You were sub-consciously trained to avoid "daag" - because then you needed the super powers of Surf to banish the enemy called "daag". Automatically, people become very cautious about staining their clothes.

Now, Surf has adopted a completely different strategy - of making the enemy your friend. So we now have a very effective campaign which says "Daag acchhe hain" - dirt is good. Don't get afraid of dirt on your clothes - go out and enjoy yourself, be yourself - because you have Surf which can easily deal with the dirt on your clothes which comes as a consequence of you having fun. Consumers are being asked to no longer treat dirt as the big enemy to be avoided at all costs.

This is a very important philosophy which we must all adopt in our business - make the enemy your friend. In our business, lack of financial literacy is our biggest enemy. That's why people are scared about buying financial products. Our products now have a "daag" in them, at least in the minds of the investors - and every media report about investor grievances makes this "daag" a bigger enemy - which has to be avoided at all costs.

The moment we make the enemy our friend, we are able to tell investors - don't worry about the complexities of financial products - we are here to demystify them for you. Go ahead and enjoy the fruits of wealth creation, knowing that you have somebody who can deal with issues that may come up in the journey. If we all adopt the philosophy behind "daag acchhe hain" and make investors feel comfortable with the "daag", we will have many, many more investors in financial products than we have ever seen before in this country. Frankly, if we all adopt this philosophy and do our bit to banish financial illiteracy in our own markets, we will expand the market so much that we don't need any more discussions on entry load, exit load and all that. There will be enough volumes for all of us. We just need to embrace the philosophy : "Daag acchhe hain!".