Over your career as a financial advisor, you must have had answered to tons of and different sorts of questions. You must have observed that people ask a lot of questions when it's about 'money', and it's such a sensitive subject that it'll bring an introvert of the highest order to talking. These questions not only come up from your clients but from friends, acquaintances and even strangers. After all, they too are your prospective clients. Your profession is such that your presence is seductive, a relative's relative would barge in out of nowhere at a wedding, and a meteor would be thrown at you directly from the Milky Way. You'd be thinking aloud, “Bhai let me at least finish my gulabjamun, before asking for setting your finances right in 5 minutes”. People expect an advisor to be a financial guru, a powerhouse of financial information, and having an instant solution to all their investment hurdles.

We are prepared for such situations and questions from our clients, there are the same conventional questions; where should I invest for my retirement planning? Why should I invest in Mutual Funds, what's wrong with my FD investment? Why a modern insurance over a traditional insurance? The answers to these questions is your expertise, you have heard and responded to them time and again, there are definite facts and figures to support your contentions which are often enough to convince the client. However, sometimes the questions carry a surprise element, or something which you don't have an answer to. These fall under the category of 'difficult questions', and the motive of writing this passage is to acquaint you with these probable 'difficult questions' that you might face.

Here are a few questions which can put you in a dilemma, so be aware and prepare yourself for any pleasant or otherwise surprises.

Q What if you or the distributor or the fund disappear? Many clients are skeptical about the sustenance of the financial advisor or the distributor, etc. They have doubts about what if the advisor or the distributor close down the business unanticipatedly or what if they die. Whose doors will they knock for their money? The answer to this question lies the strength of the MF structure, the strict regulatory framework and an unblemished history. So, acquaint yourself with the structure and regulations and be ready to shove them at the client, when needed.

Q Share Market is a Satta. My so and so lost lakhs of Rupees in the market? How will I make money? May be the so and so was naive, he/she didn't invest in Equity Mutual Funds but in direct Equity, was mislead, fell prey to market sentiment, anything could have have happened, and the loss has struck terror in your client's mind. Familiarize yourself with the background, which when sculpted and presented well, will be the answer to the question.

Q You said the fund has generated 20% return on an average historically, why did I get 12% only? That 20% was historical, and history may or may not repeat itself. But if the investment is given enough time, it is capable of surpassing history.

Q How do the markets look like? Do you see they'll continue to upsurge or will take a U-turn? Or which one is a better stock A or B? You are not God, but you can't tell that to the inquisitor blatantly. The art here is to convey the oblivion in the most diplomatic manner.

Q On what basis do you decide I should invest in this product?

A whole lot of research, hard work, experience and continuous learning goes into ascertaining the wisdom to be able to determine what's right for the investor. On the basis of the virtues mentioned and conviction in the quality of the product you offer, you'd select the best option for the investor.

Q Technicals of a new product.

It can be a blessing if you know the answer, will give strength to your case, contrarily it may also lead to raised eyebrows if you don't have the answers. So, whenever a new investment product enters into the market, brush up your knowledge with the whereabouts of the product, even thought it isn't in your basket.

So, the above were some of the tough questions, among many, that your clients may ask. When you face a complicated question, make sure you:

> Clarify the question, so that you understand what the client is trying to ask, before you jump on to a fancy and elaborate response. May be the client doesn't intend to be tough on you, it's just his choice of words that may have worked the other way round.

> Use Examples, Once you know the question isn't a routine simple one, you need to go out of the box to convince the questioner. For this you have to support the basics with examples, facts, figures, data, etc. Examples and numbers work like magic to expose the eminence of the universal truth.

> In case you don't know the answer, don't hoax, tell them you will find out and get back to them.

> Use disclaimers, Most importantly use disclaimers, so that your contention doesn't backfire at you later. When you mention that equity generates superb returns, don't forget to mention the long term clause. Inform clients about the unpredictability, the potential loss that volatility can cause in short term investing.

The bottomline is, clients will be and should be asking you questions, some of them will be tough. So don’t be scared, rather prepare yourself with appropriate answers, which lies in the fundamentals of investing and the product, only the presentation required is different.

Client Segmentation has remained a popular approach to targeting customers. Client Segmentation means dividing the customer base into groups, because a group of people share certain unique characteristics which are commonly shared by all in the segment, so the marketing strategy can be aligned in accordance with those unique characteristics. Customers are segmented on the basis of various parameters like their age, income, education, nature of employment, community they belong to, etc. And one such segment, gaining popularity among financial advisors is the Corporate sector. Corporate Employees has become an attractive client base for advisors because of numerous factors like higher disposable incomes, a regular monthly income, annual bonuses, lesser reluctance in terms of preference for traditional investment options, etc. Many financial advisors want to develop their niche in the sector because of the above factors and also because of a huge customer base clustered at one place.

In this passage, we will share with you some tips on how you can go about targeting people working in corporates:

> Entry: Getting the first or the initial few clients in a company is the challenging part. If you have an acquaintance working in a company, he/she can escort you through the organization's portals. Or may be you have to look for someone, a friend or a relative, who has an acquaintance or a friend working in a particular company, can help you permeate.

> Social Media: You can also use social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn to approach employees of a particular company. You might have some mutual friends on Facebook who can introduce you to your target. There are groups on LinkedIn which may have most employees of a company in the group, you can contact people from these groups.

> Seek Referrals: Once the introductory part is over, then referrals are the gamechanger. You must ask your clients to introduce you to their other colleagues and that's how you can expand your client network within a company. It is very important that you maintain utmost service standards, even if the clients have small portfolios. Your work will speak for you and will help you get more and more investors from the organization. If you ignore a small investor, a negative word of mouth can shatter your desire to embark on the company altogether.

> Partner with the Company: Organizations nowadays care for and work for their employees' welfare. You'll see companies running gyms, yoga classes, dance sessions, soft skills trainings, etc., to constantly upgrade their employees' merit and lifestyle. These companies are likely to welcome an opportunity which can impart financial security and mental peace to their employees. You can also research for companies having employee friendly policies and approach the HR head or top management of such companies and communicate your intention to advise their employees on their finances. But you must remember that your positioning matters here, you should be perceived as a financial expert who will transmit financial awareness among the employees and is here to bring about financial security in their employees' life and not as someone who has come to “sell” Financial Products to their employees.

> Conduct Presentations, Seminars: Talk to companies' HR's for conducting awareness sessions for employees like you can give presentations on topics like “Planning for Retirement”, or “Investing in Mutual Funds can be started with an amount as small as Rs 1,000 a month”, or “Creating an Emergency Fund”, and other personal finance topics, which are going to encourage more and more people to participate.

At the end of the presentation, don't forget to:

- Solicit for questions and feedback, if someone asks a question it means you have touched the right nerve. You can talk to these people personally after the presentation and discuss their query and the solution that you may have for them.

- Hand out your visiting cards

- Talk about the products and services offered by you.

- Follow up with the participants. You can share industry updates or personal finance insights with the participants through WhatsApp messages or E-mails, subject to the participants' interest. It is essential that you seek permission from the employees before sending mails or messages.

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Inactive Clientele is a hitch in almost all advisors smooth business paths. After a long uphill battle, we acquire a client, who initially is very excited to work with us, but after one or two investments, the excitement fades away and the client goes into a silent zone. We try to get the client back into action, but most times to no avail, and eventually that client becomes a part of our dormant account records. So, the sum and substance is, all your hardwork and efforts were in vain and you are back to square one, on the lookout for new clients. Here, what we do not realize is, the time, money and efforts that go into acquiring a new client is much more than servicing an existing one. Advisors are very excited to acquire new clients, but give up too soon on the inactive ones.

Inactive clients, in fact, are similar to new clients, they are to be re-incarnated from the state of passivity to a state of activity. The thin line of difference between the two, lies in the fact that you do not have to struggle with getting the latter on board and work a little lesser in re-establishing a relationship of trust. Hence an inactive client should be perceived as an opportunity and not as wastage of efforts.

So, how to go about getting the lost ones back on track:

Communication is the Key, You should be keeping in touch with all your clients at all times, it can substitute for a lot of hard work in the future. It is human tendency to choose the latter between Effort and Ease, so we connect with the clients who give us regular business and give up on others. We need to put in consistent efforts to get fruitful results, we need to connect with our inactive clients too, you can keep them in the loop through WhatsApp, Sms' or e mails. You can invite them for investor meets, for client conference calls, etc., irrespective of the fact they are your “inactive clients”. Never let him feel they are not important, because when they are in constant touch, they can sense the honour you bestow upon them even though they are not investing, so even if they are not investing in the near future, they will, a little far into the future. Constant connect can help you identify many hidden business opportunities.

The best way to stay in contact with your inactive clients is by keeping yourself organized. Keep a record of your inactive clients, set reminders to connect with them at fixed frequencies. Send them birthday and anniversary greetings. Because when it is about the active ones, you will tend to be in touch for business purposes, but for the inactive ones, you need to put in extra organizational efforts.

There is an anecdote about a financial advisor from Cochin, pretty successful in his business, about an inactive client of his. So, this client made an investment through the advisor and period. The advisor called the client two-three times, the client did not respond nor did he ever call back, so he assumed that the client is not interested, and he gave up. After a year, the advisor bumped into that client in a super mart, and found out that because of a mishap in his family, the client could not respond to the call, and now because of lack of contact he has a different financial advisor.

Moral of the story: Do not give up too easily. A client may be temporarily inactive, and probably only you have converted his status into permanently inactive.

Find out the reason for inactivity. There may be multiple reasons for investors to stop investing. So you need to detect the exact disease before trying to cure it.

The investor's investment's value might have declined in the initial months of his investment, and may be he booked losses too in the fear of losing more money, and this loss made his approach skeptical towards any further investments. So, you as his advisor need to wash his fear away, you must educate and explain to him the reasons for his loss. You can also create a paper trail and show him if he had believed and held on to his investment, he would have made humungous money.

Another reason could be the investor was dissatisfied from your services, and found a new advisor. So you need to work real hard and to get him back, and even if you don't get him back, you will at least get to know where you need to work so that another client doesn't leave you in the future.

Like the above, there can be many reasons for his stagnation. But once you know the logic behind his sedentary investment style, you'd be able to cater to him more effectively by targeting the root cause.

Another way to retrieve your dormant investors is through introduction of new products to them. Maybe the investor could not select an investment product from the limited set of offerings you had two years back. But now, since you have added many new products in your basket like bonds, MARS, PMS, etc., some of the new products may be suitable for the investor and may attract him to resume investing. So, you need to constantly introduce your investors to your upgraded basket of products.

Lastly, hit the right nerve. Nobody wants to pay taxes. Send an ELSS flyer or a message two-three months before the March 31 deadline. The idea of saving taxes can instill energy into the laziest of the lot.

So, the bottomline is “Laziness fuels more laziness and activity fuels more activity”.

Inactive clients are an excellent business opportunity, how soon and how well you unleash it, depends on your patience and persistence.