“Sitting in the last row at an industry conference watching my peers being felicitated with awards for achieving mutual fund sales targets made me feel worthless,” says Rajesh Kumar Sodhani, founder of Sodhani Investments. A newcomer in mutual fund advisory, Rajesh made a commitment to the event organizer in the feedback form that he will become the top distributor in Rajasthan.
He worked hard towards achieving his commitment. In four years since he started distributing mutual funds in 2014, Rajesh has built assets under advisory, or AUA, of Rs 120 crore with a systematic investment plan book of two crore per month. On his 50th birthday on September 26, 2020, his aim is to build an AUA of Rs 500 crore. That’s not all. He is building an office space of 11,000 square feet on a piece of land, which he claims could be the biggest office owned by any individual financial adviser in India.
Early life
Rajesh studied chartered accountancy but dropped out as his broking business kept him occupied. He did not appear for the examination as he was making a killing as a stock broker, earning 10,000 per day. His father used to work at a sugar mill in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. After his father’s retirement, his family moved to Jaipur in 2001. “We had two options - Jaipur and Mumbai. I was not comfortable with Mumbai’s fast-paced life, so we moved to Jaipur,” recalls Rajesh.
After winding up his stock broking business in Moradabad, Rajesh took up cement agency in Jaipur. His business was doing well. One day, he came across a newspaper advertisement by an insurance firm which urged people to take up insurance agency. He consulted his family member about this opportunity and was told that selling insurance is not easy. Rajesh took this as a challenge and rang up the number given in the advertisement. He passed the insurance examination by scoring 98 out of 100 marks and hit the ground running. Armed with agency license, he sold ten policies in ten days.
Parallelly, he pursued his cement distribution business too. “I achieved the target given by the cement manufacturer and won a ten-day trip to Nepal. During this time, I could not sell insurance policies. When I returned from the trip and met the branch manager of the insurance firm, he showed me an email written by him to his colleague saying that Tiger has gone to Nepal and business will pick up once he is back. This was an encouragement for me and I sold 127 policies in just 15 days,” recalls Rajesh.
His insurance book kept growing which helped him win top honours of Million Dollar Round Table ten times, Court of Table once and Top of Table twice.
Turning point
Graduating to financial planning was a major turning point in his career. In 2011, pursuing Certified Personal Financial Advisor course gravitated him to goal based financial planning. Realizing endowment policies were not good for his clients, he started recommending term plans, mediclaim, personal accident policies and mutual funds. Rajesh believes that starting a conversation about solving goals helps him connect with prospects and ensures faster conversion. His firm collects two crore worth personal accident and mediclaim premium every year, which is growing 10% annually.
Marketing
Rajesh gets most of his clients through investor awareness programmes, or IAPs. He conducts 48 to 60 IAPs a year with a focus group of 40 and boasts client conversion rate of 80%. He also holds bigger events which are addressed by top mutual fund honchos. These events attract a gathering of over 500 people.
Rajesh believes in investing in his business. He has spent five lakh rupees for advertising his firm on FM Radio in Jaipur. His advertisements are currently being aired for six months. “It doesn’t help get clients, but it builds my brand,” observes Rajesh.
Besides IAPs, he also gets clients through social media. Of his 17-member team, two employees are dedicated to social media marketing. They spread awareness about financial planning over emails, WhatsApp broadcasts and Facebook. His firm gets 25 clients every month through these activities. Recently, Rajesh has started writing about personal finance on a regional news website which is helping him reach out to a wider audience.
Rajesh makes sure he meets with two prospects every day. When he is travelling, he strikes up a conversation about financial planning with acquaintances. “I travel ten days in one month and have to take a cab to the airport. I have 70 cab drivers as my clients and I have sold them Rs 500 per month SIP and personal accident policies. Also, I have converted 250 co-passengers as my clients in flights,” says Rajesh. Most of his 10,000 clients are retail. Providing seamless customer service by investing in technology and processes has helped his firm grow and earn client trust.
As one of the largest distributors in Rajasthan, he chairs Financial Advisers Association Rajasthan which acts a common voice of IFAs in the region. “We learn from each other in this association. There is constant sharing of information and best practices among the members. Our members have seen 70% AUA growth in the last one year,” says Rajesh.
Rajesh says that mutual fund penetration, especially in smaller towns, is abysmally low and there is a huge scope for distributors to tap first-time mutual fund investors. A motivated person, Rajesh writes his targets on a piece of paper which constantly challenges him to achieve his company’s goals.
How he caught our eye: One of the largest distributors in Rajasthan managing mutual fund assets worth Rs 120 crore. Has over 10,000 retail clients.
Personal: Married to Priya and has three children Ritika, Aastha and Vansh. During weekends, he likes to watch movies with his wife.
