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Jugalbandi is what builds BIG businesses
Experienced salespersons know that sales conversions are much higher when a product is vigorously promoted above the line (TV, radio, hoardings, press), below the line (on ground local events, brochures, pamphlets) and through the line (integrating ATL and BTL with web marketing, social media marketing). ATL, BTL and TTL marketing give salespersons the much required fire power to move in for closures, as awareness has already been created, curiosity has already been aroused.
Equally, seasoned marketing professionals understand that all their ATL, BTL and TTL efforts to create an interest in their product, depend critically for business impact on the fulfilment aspect - on salespersons contacting target consumers during these high decibel periods and converting curiosity or interest into a purchase decision.
It is this jugalbandi between marketing and sales that builds businesses. It is this jugalbandi - on the 7th of every month - for the next 12 months, starting today, that can spur faster growth for every retail distributor - big or small - and thus for the mutual fund industry.
Reliance MF launches today a BIG year-long investor education initiative, where it will celebrate the 7th of every month for the next 12 months as National Mutual Fund Day. There is a lot of fire power being packed into this sustained awareness building initiative - which retail focused distributors can and should harness to acquire new customers and deepen wallet share from existing customers.
Mutual Fund Day
Through a year-long tie up with CNBC Network 18, the 7th of every month will witness significant coverage across Network 18's TV channels which include: CNBC TV 18, CNBC Awaaz, IBN 7, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla, ETV UP/ Uttarakhand, ETV Rajasthan. ETV MP/ Chhattisgarh, ETV Bihar/ Jharkhand, ETV Haryana/ Himachal. Radio coverage includes Fever FM 104, Friends FM, Radio Mirchi (98.3), Red FM, My FM (94.3), Radio City (91.1), Radio Nasha, Hello FM and Radio Indigo. MoneyControl will lead the web based promotional activities, and extensive social media activity will complement the web presence.
On 7th of each month, in all the 150 locations where RMF has branches, there is a plan to host branch led on-ground events, where retail distributors can bring their clients and prospects for awareness building sessions. This will be done every month, over the next 12 months - on the 7th of every month.
The focus of all the ATL, BTL and TTL activities will be to build awareness of mutual funds as an integral part of the savings habits of Indians, to promote financial planning and to promote a regular savings habit.
The BIG opportunity
I believe this represents a huge business building opportunity for retail distributors on two counts:
Increase wallet share from existing clients Acquire new clients
Wallet share
A lot has been discussed in the past of using investor awareness initiatives to acquire new clients. Check out these numbers that RMF has shared (which are extrapolated from its own customer base) - which scream out to you the immense potential for increasing wallet share from existing clients:
Look at your own retail customer databases and do some data-mining if you haven't done so already to get your own corresponding numbers for these three data points. Every investor of yours who has invested only in an equity fund is surely one to whom you can sell liquid funds and short term funds. Use the IAP calendar that RMF is rolling out to identify sessions that focus on liquid and debt funds, and invite such clients to these events. Follow this up with calls, visits, mails - and work on converting them from pure equity fund investors to multi asset class investors.
Similarly, look at how many of your clients have made only a single investment through you. Invite them to IAPs that focus on financial planning and regular investing, and then maintain a regular follow up to convert them from casual investors to committed investors.
New investors
RMF has shared these numbers on penetration levels of all key MF products, by benchmarking each category appropriately - the numbers speak eloquently of the vast potential that yet lies untapped.
Make the most of this BIG opportunity
When you know that the 7th of every month is going to be a high decibel day about mutual funds, you should intelligently dovetail your sales efforts to harness the full potential of the curiosity and interest that will be generated about mutual funds in your respective cities and towns. And when you know that large scale IAPs are being held on 7th of every month, you should make the effort to bring as many clients and prospects as you can to these events - especially if you are not already hosting your own independent IAPs.
If you conduct your own independent IAPs, think of the benefit of scheduling these events on the 7th of every month - by the time your clients and prospects come into your IAP sessions, chances are they would have caught at least some of the action from TV, radio, newspapers, hoardings, web marketing and social media outreach. Always good for prospects to come into a session when they have already seen some buzz around what you are going to speak about.
If you are planning direct mailing campaigns and other outreach efforts, think of the benefit of scheduling these to hit your clients and prospects on the 7th of every month. When a mass scale awareness building initiative succeeds in arousing either curiosity or interest in some prospects, and your communication lands up on the same day promising fulfilment, will there not be higher propensity from these prospects to pick up a phone and call you?
For every retail distributor - small or big, this can be a great business building opportunity - one that will be available every month for the next 12 months - on the 7th of each month.Fixing the day of the month for 12 months in advance is a masterstroke - one which can be intelligently harnessed by resourceful distributors to maximize their business development. There's a lot of marketing firepower around mutual funds that RMF is unleashing - harness it by doing your bit in the jugalbandi between marketing and sales, increase the MF industry's footprint and rapidly scale up your own businesses.
Content is created by Wealth Forum and must not be construed as an opinion by Reliance Mutual Fund.
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