JagoAdvisor Ebook

JAGOADVISOR
EBOOK
Helping Financial Advisors in growing their practice
www.jagoadvisor.com
Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Content of this Ebook
1. 8 Killer Myths that Financial Planners Believe in and its killing their Business
2. 6 ways to Build Successful Practice
3. Interesting Journey of a Financial Planner - Bread, Butter, Jam & Cheese
4. 35 Tools which can help Financial Advisors to grow their Business
5. How to TALK about your FEES to Potential Clients
6. 3 levels of services --- Which one are you providing to your clients ?
7. give your prospects (just) a taste !
8. 10 Inspiring ways to become a True Financial Planner
9. Who you are as an advisor- Farmer or Hunter ?
10. 5 strong reasons why financial planners should write a blog
About JagoAdvisor
Hi Advisor, This Jagoadvisor is an initiative from us, Manish Chauhan and Nandish Desai, who also run
a successful blog on personal finance www.jagoinvestor.com and have their own financial advisory
practice.
From years, we can see, that financial advisors and planners are struggling in their practice & looking
for various ways to grow their practice. Hence we decided to share our experience and whatever
knowledge we have about this advisory practice. We hope we all grow and learn together.
Nandish Desai Manish Chauhan

[email protected] [email protected]

8 Killer Myths that Financial Planners
believe
Today, I want to talk about some of the myths, which most financial planners believe in ! . These
myths are destroying their business and stopping them from growing their advisory practice. Lets
talk about them one by one.
Myth 1# --- Teaching clients about elements of Financial Planning will kill my business
Some time back when Manish had put a goal calculator on our website www.jagoinvestor.com.
One of the planner asked him --- If you will teach your readers how to plan for the financial goals,
how will they come to you for financial planning ? They can do it themselves .
I could only laugh on this !
Clients
the case , people would have searched for formulas
on Google and could have done most of the things on their own. In reality, clients come to a
financial planner mostly for 2 things (Find a full survey on what clients wants from financial
planners) . First is because they want to be very sure of what they are doing , so they want a
strong second opinion from an expert and the other reason is because they trust you will offer a
unbiased advice to him, which he might not find himself . Obviously the analysis
and calculations are the part of the whole process , but the the primary thing he is looking
for.
Myth 2# - MORE clients will make me a successful financial planner
Just because you have more clients, It does not mean you will become a successful planner. Your
success depends on the contribution you make in investors community. It matters how many
lives have you impacted. It depends on how well you serve investors who choose to do business
with you. Spend some time and articulate your definition of success practice . It has
to inspire you to do good work with people. Build your inner circle and continue to cater their
needs. This business is not about just having more clients, but it is about having good clients who
wants to refer you to other people and want to work with you on an ongoing basis.
At the end, you might end up having MORE clients, but just having more clients does not mean
anything. A lot of planners might brag about having 1,000 clients, but most of them look at

planner as a plain agent who helped them in transaction, not as a life changing planner whom
they can fall back upon.
Myth 3# - Lower fees attracts lots of clients
If you throw peanuts, only monkeys will come
The only thing that attracts investors to a financial planner is value addition. Investors want to
know what value you are going to add to their current financial life. Your fees should just be equal
to the value you add, not less , not more. If you are not able to charge even a small fee, it means its
time to question your value addition! . When business goes down, the first thought that can strike
you is May be I need to lower my fees
to fill your value bucket and again start to have conversation with your potential clients.
We are aware of a financial planner, who initially spent a lot of money on his website and created
catchy video and content to attract clients, but later when things didnt work and clients didnt
come, he started offering services for a lower fees and eventually started to make free financial
plans for people (may be because he wanted to earn by commissions). Quality clients dont come
for FREE things, they come for High Quality service. One of our financial coaching clients once told
us, that he feels 25,000 is a small fees for the kind of work we do with our clients (on phone)
Lowering fees or giving something for nothing is preparing to get out of any business. When you
lower your fees, business becomes a nightmare. You can always provide some gift coupons or
feebees to your prospects, but at the end it should not be a lower fees.
Myth 4# --- I should just focus on getting more clients
offer. The more you focus on the business opportunities the more you are able to grow or expand.
I and Manish, get on a one hour call every week to discuss what more we can do in our business?
What kind of products and services we can offer to investors? . We discuss opportunities that we
can explore keeping in view our strengths and weaknesses. In our Jagoinvestor Model --- We saw 1
day personal finance workshop as an opportunity (No , we dont do SIP and Term plan kind of
basic things in that, we do really amazing things there) and we designed and delivered
workshops in Pune and Bangalore (will be doing more in future) .
Choose to step into the unknown as that is where great opportunities reside. Just dont get
hooked to one thing called Financial Planning . Think of many other things which can come out
of you.

Myth 5# --- If I can complete CFP, I can really own my advisory business
Our financial planning profession has two sides to it, the hard part and the soft part. Completing
CFP is soft part. Building website, printing your visiting cards, designing your logo or forming a
company, attending various workshops and programs are soft part of this business. One can really
complete them without much issue, you can always hire someone, pay the money , put some
time and complete these soft parts ! . The CFP course or any other kind of curriculum always talks
about the soft part (that too incomplete). This is where the game begins.
The hard part of the business is where you are going to face real challenges. You have to
demonstrate your skills out in the world for people to trust you. You have to devote time in selling
your services, talk to people, show them the value of what you can do for them, as sales is the
hard part of your business without which --- you wont achieve success. thats the hard truth.
After a few interactions with people, you will suddenly realize that Putting CFP on your visiting
card is not helping you much . By the way we are not against CFP(It is a wonderful program to
participate). CFP can only be the small and minute part of the game, not the GAME itself! . Get this
very clearly! . If you want to increase your income, you cannot escape the hard part of your
business. (Like it or not). Without mastering the hard part of this profession you cannot reach
greater heights.
Myth 6# --- I just have to get popular to become successful
Stop putting your efforts in just getting your name out in the world. A lot of financial planners
want to become popular, they want to get featured in some column of newspaper or want to
appear in media (they than share it on facebook and take the pride, as if they have won the
world). This should not be your focus. Your focus has to be on the investors, you are working
with!. Really put your best effort in serving investors. We are not saying appear on media
and newspapers, it definitely adds to visibility and spreading of your name, but make it as
your primary focus.
If you have something special in you, it will surely reach to people. Instead of chasing fame, give
your best to what is in front of you. The fame will come on its own. Manish never intended to
write book ever, but his work through Jagoinvestor website got his first book assignment, the
CNBC guys asked him if he would like to do a personal finance book.

Myth 7# --- People are not ready to pay
Whoever says that People are not ready to pay --- is meeting and talking to wrong set of people.
Everyone is not going to do business with you. Not everyone is looking for financial planning
service . Some will say YES and some will say NO to your offerings. If more people chose not to do
business with you that does not mean People are not ready to pay . Soubhagya Kumar , A
Financial Planner confirms that fees can be charged from people , here is what he says
approach in mind, thus get hesitated asking for fee. I run Fee-Only model, I proudly ask
fee. I always go by acquiring quality clients instead piling up number of clients and this
what USP of my business.
If you are not able to charge fees, all it means is you are not able to show them the value in your
service and they will reap back some benefits from you, and hence, you need to sharpen your
Asking skills. Clients are not ready to pay is just a story you tell to yourself, when you face a few
consecutive rejections. When someone say NO, simply move to the next person as NO stands for
NEXT OPPORTUNITY
Myth 8# I am entitled to have a successful practice
Because you are a nice person, you are a go-giver, you are good with technology, you are good at
networking, you have a great blog, you appear on tv, you write in newspaper, you prepare great
financial plans or you are a CFP certificant, does not mean you are entitled to build a successful
practice. Yes, all these things are element for helping you build you practice, but you need to
constantly engage and innovate with your process of client creation. You have to sit with an
investor and help him resolve his concerns in the area of money. You have to find out ways to add
value to investors financial life and help people in growing their wealth. Nothing guarantees you
success in this profession. You have to keep working on your strategy and keep learning dynamics
of our profession.
Conclusion
These 8 myths are nothing but your belief system that gets in your way to build your practice.
Really take out some time and make a list of all such non-supportive thoughts that you carry in
m your life. Hope being on this blog is a learning
experience for you, if you have any specific questions feel free to write me on
nandish@jagoinvestor,com or leave a comment and we will help you build your practice.

6 ways to Build Successful Practice
Our profession is amazing. We (wherever I use the word we read it as I and manish) do not have
office( we operate from our residence) yet people are generous enough to trust us and have
become our clients. All we have is a laptop, mobile, Internet connection and passion to help
investors live an amazing financial life.
It has been around 3+ years since we have been into advisory business. Over these years all that
we have learn t or observed about practice building is what we are going to share on this blog.
We are not experts we are students of advisory business who would like to contribute and get
contributed through this blog. We want more and more people to join advisory business and
want each one to become successful.
The one question that we keep getting from people is
How to get more clients and how to grow practice?
Well this blog is dedicated to give you strength as an advisor ( not by selling but by giving) and
help you build your practice (value based practice)
- If you want to grow your practice start to focus on the

number of quality conversations you are having with people in a week or month.

Take a pause and check how many dedicated conversations you had last week or month. No paid
client ever got created outside of a conversation. If you really want to thrive your practice as an
advisor schedule more and more conversations. Sit or get on call with one investor at a time and
really listen to what challenges they are facing in their financial life. I was talking with one of my
friend(advisor) who said somewhere he limits his conversation when 2-3 people choose to
bec
your client when.
Admit We are in a scary profession - Yes most investors are scared of the word agent, advisor,
planner, analyst, financial coach and consultant. Anyone would want our help but most prospects
are afraid of us. Every investor somewhere wants to sit with someone and wants to discuss about
his finances but somewhere they are scared. The most important thing you need to do is make
investors feel comfortable. Ask them What picture do they hold about our profession? . When
they are sharing listen to them keenly.This is where you create intimacy. You will amazed to see
what kind of crazy thoughts people carry about our profession.
Really Take care of your business - The rule is simple, You must take care of your business if you
want your business to take care of you. Really ask yourself each day Did I gave my best to my
business today or not? Business is a tree which needs to be sourced by your effort and passion.
You may be a full time or a part time advisor but you will have to give your full time commitment
to your business. Commitment can never be full time or part time. Commitment is doing all that is
required to build a successful practice.
- Never ever take any business action just to get

clients. All those people who try to educate people to get clients generally fail. All those who do
excess social media to get clients fail as an advisor. Build your circle, your community one person
at a time. Really share valuable stuff with all the people you meet. Give people a wow experience.
Your intention of writing blog or facebook or any medium has to be pure. Why do you share good
stuff with your family members not to get something from them the same applies while you
might choose to d
about listing of financial goals in datasheet
What others are doing or charging --- This is crazy, but true most advisors are interested in
knowing what other (so called BIG or successful ) planners are doing. When you do this you lose
your own creativity and style. You start to doubt your own capabilities and start to believe You
e that others know .

I am not saying stop learning but we (I and manish) never ever looked at what other experienced
planners are doing or tried to replicate them. Because they are doing their stuff, it has got created
from their experience. Most advisors even set their fees after looking at what others are charging.
This is damaging your practice make sure you build your own stuff, let your creative juices flow
and get in touch with your own magic.
There are no ready-made PAID clients - Get this straight that there are no ready-made paid
clients BUT you CREATE them. You may have the most popular blog or thousands of social media
connections you will never ever get ready-made paid clients. You will have to CREATE your clients.
One client at a time, one conversation at a time. Put your time and effort each day in creating your
paid clients. Craft your products and services that help you create paid clients. No matter how
attractive your website or visiting card is you will never ever get a ready-made PAID client.
Finally you have to put your hand on your heart and tell the truth about where you are in your
advisory business. The world may perceive you as highly successful but only YOU who can tell the
truth about how you are doing in your business. Just look at your bank balance if you want to
know how you are doing in your business.

Interesting Journey of a Financial Planner -
Bread, Butter, Jam & Cheese
r
profession with some other profession. When someone decides to become an actor he has to face
rejection, humiliation and gets zero support from the world. In face of everything the actor
continues to pursue his/her dream. Some are able to get their first break in a few months and
some get it after a few years of struggle. Boman Irani the famous actor served as a waiter at Taj
and he also sold wafers for 10 years before he got all the fame.
All those actors who crossed the river of struggle did two things, first --- They did not believe in
thoughts like or I am not a good actor and second, they chose to
stick to their dream. Listen to their story and they will tell you how they achieved in life was the
sequence as Bread, Butter, Jam and Cheese.
Financial Planning Profession
The profession of financial planning ed to it. You will have to undergo

what every actor, author, painter or an entrepreneur has to go through.
It takes whatever it takes to establish as a financial planner. Initially when you go and talk to
your potential client, you think you have given your best during the presentation, but still they
will decide to go with some other advisor or planner. You are clueless why the person did not
choose to do business with you? When such incidents happen, you have to accept that you are
crossing your river of struggle and all such experiences are bound to happen. No escape.

Lets look at how a financial planner or an actor crosses his river of struggle
Bread Phase
The person visits CFP education provider. The student counselor shows huge potential that this
profession carries.They talk about millions of potential clients and only few thousand CFP;s in
India and how of planners are required. The education also shows reports on how Financial
Planner is rated as the top profession in various countries etc etc . The student joins the
program and after a few trials (He has no idea why he failed and why he cleared modules at times)
person comes out of financial planning school and enters the real world , the way an actor
comes out of acting school.
This newly born planner is unable to enroll investors to trust his/her work. This is planners Bread
Phase, he will have thoughts like Doing job is better or Am I into a wrong profession or what
or I would like to go and hit that student counselor who showed rosy picture about this
profession . Income is low and struggle is at its peak. They wonder how the hell other planner are
doing good and they are not.
Butter Phase
Here you are little better placed. You realize your struggle has taught you more than your CFP
program itself and you are able to create little space for yourself in this profession. The way an
actor gets smaller roles to perform in a big movie, you start to get small opportunities to help a
few investors. It can be helping someone pick some mutual funds or helping someone get their
PPF account online. You help them with the passion that you carry in your eyes and they start to
trust you. From here the river of struggle takes a turn to move into a different direction. Some
results start to happen, you see a light of hope in this profession.
Jam Phase
In this phase, You are now an established financial planner and the world knows that you are
good at what you do. You are full with clients and people want to meet you. You want to work
with many people but time becomes your biggest limitation, you are like an actor who is now
having dates problem. Your advice
you want to increase your scale, the way an actor looks for creative satisfaction (He starts to
experiment with his image). You start to experience your river of struggle was actually your river
of opportunities.

Cheese Phase
Many actors may have experienced cheese phase, but according to me no financial planner has
ose who appear on TV or write
blogs or have authored books or who preach you in workshops and seminars have crossed
cheese phase. They have NOT .
They might have tasted some cheese but that does not mean they have crossed Cheese Phase.
Give it a try, may be you will be the first one to cross cheese phase as a financial planner. Cheese
phase is not struggle free, here you take-up challenges and want to leave legacy for the next
generation.
I decided to write this article because I love my profession and I love those who have chosen to be
a part of it. My message is simple, no profession is struggle proof. You will be incomplete without
getting wet in the river of struggle so dive in it fully. If you are right now experiencing struggle it
means you are moving in the right direction. Your struggle will teach you what the best book in
the world or the most expensive seminar wont teach you.
Here is how a fish motivates another fish in the movie Finding Nemo
 Dory asks --- When life gets you down do you wanna know what you have gotta do?
 Marlin replies ---
 Dory says - Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming,
swimming. What do we do? We swim
As a financial planner just keep swimming (keep having conversations) as that is what will lead
you to desired success. We are all in the same river, and we have to keep supporting each other.
I once told my advisor friend, Mumbai local train

during peak hours. Initially yo
to sit. Look at this world as one big local train and your job is to find that little space to begin your
journey as a financial planner.
Give a hard look at your professional life and look at where you are in your business ? Look at
what is your struggle trying to teach you? Make this blog your companion to build your practice.
if you have specific questions ask in the comments section or mail me
on [email protected]. Your comments bring life to this blog so feel free to share your
experiences and struggles.

35 Tools which can help Financial
Advisors to grow their Business
Financial Advisors and Financial Planners seem to struggle a lot in the area of technology and
how to use various tools to increase their productivity and hence grow their practice. There are
some tools and technologies which are must have and are useful on a regular basis, however
some tools can be used occasionally depends on the situation and requirement.
In this long article, I would like to mention and explain some of the best tools you can use in your
practice . These are tools which are not directly related to your practice, but at each level you can
use these tools and improve your practice and productivity overall. Take this post as your
introduction to the world of tools and technology.
Lets look at them one by one ...

1. Gmail
One of the top technologies which any one used is an email service. You have to connect with
clients, connect with prospects and various other activities require an email conversation. So its
extremely important to have a strong email service. I have found Gmail as the strongest email
service among all having excellent features and full of amazing things you can do with it. Hence I
strongly recommend using a gmail service.
In-case you are using your own domain email like [email protected] , Its possible to
integrate it with GMail , so that on the back-end you use GMail, but it appears as if you are
communicating with your business email id. Some of the best things which I thing Google has is
Canned Responses, Filtering, Auto Response, labels, built in chat, huge space, video chat, and host
of other services like Google docs, Google calender etc. I can not imagine someone using any
other services other than GMail.
2. WordPress
Blogging is one of the amazing and must have activities, that a financial advisor should engage in.
There are various blogging Platforms, but I strongly recommend using WordPress (self hosted) for
your blogging needs. WordPress gives a strong back-end with all the capabilities like create
articles, pages, comments and anything you can imagine. If you choose top 100 blogs in world,
almost 85 of them are using wordpress. There are tons of themes (background design) and
literally thousands of plugins you can use (for different kind of functionalities, like Adding
Related posts at the end of an article). Its FREE and with some basic understanding and lot of will
power, you can set it up on your own. If you do not want to set it up, you can always hire some
one to set it up for you for a small cost.
3. Blogger
Blogger.in is a blogging platform which is FREE and easy to use. For someone who wants to start a
free blog, can always create a blog on blogger.com . It will have .blogspot.in at the end of the
name. For example, you can create a blog called myblog.blogspot.in for Free and start blogging.
This can be done in few minutes and requires no setup . All the articles and comments sits on
google servers and you get basic controls.
So this should be opted only if you are just a starter and do not want to spend money on the blog.
With an additional cost of as low as Rs 500 ($10), you can take your own domain name (website
name like abcblog.com or myfinblog.in) and use the same blogger platform under it.

So once you set it up, you will have your own blog called myblog.in instead of
myblog.blogspot.in , however underneath it will be same technology of blogger. You can always
migrate to non-blogspot version later when you want. I think its a great combination to have a
blogger platform with your own website name (without .blogspot.in).
When you choose a custom domain name with google , you will also get the email service free
with it, so you can have a customized email like [email protected] . All in $10 per year . Pretty
cheap haan !
4. Aweber.com
Aweber is one of the top email marketing tools used by top companies and bloggers (we also use
it at jagoinvestor and this blog). A financial advisor might need to collect a lot of Name, Email and
other data like city , Income etc etc and keep on sending them emails on regular basis. Aweber
can do that for you. You can create various kind of forms and lists for various purpose like one list
for Clients and other list for non clients and another list for your corporate clients and then send
them various kind of personalized
You can also track each email sent and how many people opened the email and how many
people clicked at which mail and you can conclude many things out of that. The cost you pay is
Just to give you an example, if you want to get this blog articles updates on your email, you
can register your details on this form, which is created on aweber by us
5. Mailchimp.com
MailChimp is another popular Email Marketing Solution used worldwide. Its extremely good and
comes with all the standard features. It has almost all the features as mention above for
aweber.com. However one advantage in mailchimp is that its Free for upto 2,000 emails, after
which you will have to pay. But better compare it with aweber on long term pricing.
FREE Pricing for upto 2,000 emails. The Free thing comes with
limited features which will allow you to do limited things (which is fine) and you know once you
are IN, and start using it, and have built a email list, you will not want to leave it and will be
persuaded to pay and upgrade your account to paid account, its just like Get a feel, use it, taste
it and then you are bound to upgrade.

6. Skype
Skype is a well known FREE tool for making Free calls over voice. You can download Skype on
your computer, create a Login and then just make a call over Internet to anyone who also have a
skype Id. The calls you make through Skype are totally Free and the voice quality is just like you
are talking over phone. All you need is a headphone and a good Internet connection. If you are
talking to someone on regular basis, which can be your team member or some client, Its a great
cost effective way for communicating. Your Skype Id, is just like your other contact point and
some one can add you to his list.
Another reason why you might want to use skype is that its also comes with features like
recording the call on skype or video conferencing . So you can see the person on other side and
the communication quality will be high. You can also have a conference call with more than 1
person. If you have some topic to discuss among 5 people, All of them can connect over skype
and talk on the issue.
7. Google Docs
I wanted to mention Google Docs separately, because Google docs itself is such a powerful thing
for advisors. You have google forms, Google spreadsheets, Google documents
, Google presentations in it. Instead of sitting on your computer , these things will be online in
your gmail account, thats all . The best part of these Google docs technologies is that you can
create as many as your want, totally free, they are easy to use and you can also have collaboration
with other team members. Like When I and Nandish have to do any brainstorming activity, we get
on a skype call and create a google docs spreadsheets, with two columns called
and and then we keep discussing things and put our points in respective columns.
Both can see each other activities.
Another way we use it is when a new prospect fills up an appointment form, the mail about it
comes to Me and Nandish in real time (you can put the notification option to any number of email
this tutorial by
me on how to use google docs in detail. You can also create various kind of forms for conducting
surveys , collecting your website visitors information etc. I think this is something which an
advisor should have at any cost.
8. Dropbox
Dropbox is an FREE amazing service which acts like your virtual folder, where you can keep all the
documents, files, photos and important information.

Once you create a dropbox account, you get a free space upto a limit and you can upload any
kind of document there, So that if you need any thing when you are not around your computer,
you can access it directly from dropbox. It also comes with a application, which once installed on
your computer will create a folder called Dropbox, and what ever you put in that folder will
automatically be uploaded to your dropbox account.
Hence you can always keep those things in that folder which you feel might be needed in future
from other places. You can also create a Link for each document and file and give that link to
someone for access. For Example, when Nandish and Partha recorded their conversation about
How Financial Advisors can find their Niche , I uploaded to our dropbox account and the mp3
file was loaded there, We will publish that talk in few days.
Dropbox is FREE and easy to setup. A Financial Advisor can always create different folders in his
Dropbox account and then can access it later, All these folders will be private to him, unless he
chooses to make it Public.
9. Google Calender
Google Calender is a nice service which a financial advisor can use to schedule and remember his
important tasks and calls with clients and prospects. The best part is that one can schedule a call
and get an email and sms reminder . If you have a prospect whom you have to call at 5 pm on
some date, you can put a reminder and you will get a sms reminder on your phone about the call,
this way you will never forget your tasks and promises . Also if you have some regular task to be
done each week, you can put a reminder on repeat mode and it will keep reminding you each
week or each day , as you set it up.
10. TeamViewer
TeamViewer is a powerful FREE software which can be used by Financial Advisors for varius things
like desktop sharing with clients, online meetings with clients and prospects, web conferencing
and file transfer between computers. You can display your product , procedure on your computer
and the prospect or a client can view it online on his computer, you can always be on a phone or a
skype call to describe him whats happening.
There is no need for the other side to install it, you can just run things on your side and give them
a meeting id , which is generated on the fly and the other side can just visit the teamviewer
website and enter the meeting id and start viewing what ever you are presenting.

One great feature of this, it also have an option of remote access, which means you can access the
other side computer and move the mouse, click on things and show some kind of demo if that is
required. Its a must have tool which financial advisors can use to interact with their clients,
making presentations to some new client remotely . No need to travel all the way to client place
physically, at least for few things which can be handled online.
11. Google Apps
Google Apps is the collection of all the google technologies which are available for business use
under a domainname. When you signup for google apps, it means instead of a @gmail.com
account, you will have a custom domain name account like @yourwebsite.com . You can either
integrate your existing domain name with google apps, or buy a fresh custom domain name
through google apps. You can also have other users emails with same domain name and you all
will login to gmail . In short, in the backend you are using gmail technologies for your business.
You have a website www.yourwebsite.com , you have your emails [email protected] ,
[email protected] etc etc , and you have google docs, calender, etc etc also. You can
create a free account for basic use , as well as a business paid account with more power and
limits. Look at this to understand more
12. Ayojak.com
Ayojak.com is a Indian startup which helps you to create events, let people book tickets for it and
pay for it online. As an advisor if you are creating any kind of event like a paid seminar , paid
event, paid workshop or anything which needs people to book it and make payment, you can just
create the event in ayojak and give people the link to it or integrate it on your website. The
commission you pay to ayojak.com for each payment is same as what you pay to any payment
gateway. But the best part is that taking payments and booking for the event becomes very easy
and you can focus on other important tasks. When we did our workshops in Pune and Bangalore,
we used Ayojak to take payments from our participants, who made payments and we got a
lumpsum from ayojak later.
Note that you can also create Free events at Ayojak, which just provides people facility of booking
for event without making any event. So if you have any Free workshop coming up , you can create
an event and registrations can happen through it without you following up with people on who
registered and who cancelled for event. Explore more on that yourself.

13. Bufferapp.com
Popularly known as Buffer , its an amazing tool which can improve your social media activities. We
all want to update our facebook , twitter , linkedin accounts with status updates at a regular
interval, but when we are into some important work we cant do it on regular basis, so this tool can
help you define your time points like 10 am, 11 am , 1 pm, 3 pm, 7 pm and 9pm (you can decide
this timings) before hand for each of your social media accounts like facebook, twitter etc , and at
the start of each day you can schedule the updates on auto pilot mode, then on each time points
things will start getting updated on its own. This way you have to be present online to
update things and there will be a good gap between your two updates.
If you come across any good thing, you can just add it to the buffer and it will get added to the
pool and when the new time slot arrives, it will be updated. Make sure you do not over spam
things and only update things which provide value to your social media contacts.
14. Facebook Pages and Groups
Facebook now has 1 billion people, and mostly all your existing clients, and all your potential
future clients are already on facebook. As an advisor you should also have a facebook page or a
facebook group, where you keep on doing some kind of financially literacy updates or just ask
your clients to be part of your facebook group and any important update or announcement you
can make there. Like if you have 50 clients, all of them can be added to your facebook group, and
when some updates are there like tax slab changes, PPF interest rate changes etc etc, you can just
update all of them in one go.
Apart from this, if you have a blog or website and you keep on writing articles, you can setup up
connection between your blog and these facebook pages and update things on regular basis.
15. Excel
MS Excel is one of those tools which every financial planner and advisor is connected to. Its like
the bread and butter for most of the people. I can assure you that Excel can be rated as one of the
top in the world for all that it offers. Trust me, in all probabilities, you know just 1% of
what excel can do in reality. Excel is an amazing tool which can be used in different amazing ways.
A lot of people ask me how do I create those nice images and graphs and tables, which is that
software ? Its Excel ! .
Excel is used for creating financial plans and and doing all kind of calculations . But its just tip of
the iceberg. Excel can do all those things in a much powerful and easy manner. All you need to do

is, learn excel in greater detail and some advanced things. You can do all your research in excel,
you can crate your financial plan template and different kind of calculators in excel and also
import things in PDF format (Create plan in excel and import in PDF format to give to clients) . I
personally use Excel in very very very detail .
16. ActiveCollab
This is something we use at Jagoinvestor . This is a project management tool, where you can
create projects for your clients . For each project you have discussion tab, checklist area and file
and documents section . For each client, we define a set of action items which will be completed
and as it gets complete, we keep marking it as complete which also sends an email to client so
that he can see the progress of this project.
You can also set it up in a way that you can give a client a login/password and he can anytime
login and check his project status. Its a paid product and required some technical knowledge to
set up . But we find it an excellent tool which fits in our requirement. Its very nice for an online
model.
17. Camatasia
This is an amazing , outstanding video editing software which we use personally. You can record
your screen and do all kind of editings to a video. You can record a video tutorial running on your
computer screen, and then edit it , cut some parts, join two videos and add different kind of
awesome things into it. Its a Paid tool, but is extremely useful for someone who wants to do a lot
of things which it offers. I strongly recommend it to someone who is working too much on audio
and video. Just visit its website and see what all features it has. Financial Advisors can create video
articles, can record the presentations and put it on their websites.
18. Camstudia.org
Camstudio is another Video and Audio Recording and Editing Software, which is totally FREE . You
can download it and start using it. You can record your screen with a running presentation, and
create a demo of your software of service flow. You can also explain your financial plan and record
it with voice to give a life demo of your financial plan sample. You can also get a video and edit it
parts, cut it from between or join other
Its not as advanced and full of features like Camtasia, but will do a great job for starters.

19. Insightly
Insightly is a Freemium (Free and paid versions both) Project management tool which can be
used to create and track clients progress and their overall conversations and status. You can
create templates and create a full new client project on the fly. You can track all the projects, all
the clients, all the leads and various other things at one single place. Insightly also integrates with
google apps.
20. Yammer
Just like you have twitter for public status update and private conversation, you have Yammer at a
private level. Any company which has few employees can use Yammer for internal
communication. All the employees, can download Yammer application, create an account and
then start updating their actions and whats going on every few hours into it. This way, all others
will get update on whats happening around, comment back.
Like an employee can update status like Hey, Does anyone know this client Mahesh phone
number, I need it urgently , and someone can just reply to it, all the people in organisation who
are using Yammer can see it. Two people can also have a private status updates like twitter has.
The best use of Yammer happens, when there are more than 4-5 people atleast, they all sit at
various different locations and the overall work demands short conversations and updates, else
the tool can just be a pain and might distract employees. This tool requires the emails to be from
a customer domain, like [email protected] , [email protected] , where xyz.com is the
company email.
21. GotoMeeting
GotoMeeting is a webinar and virtual meetings solution. Its a paid Product which comes with trial
option. If you want to talk to a big group or want to offer some webinar or service online, you can
take their paid services and arrange for meeting and webinars . This is a high quality product with
superior technology.
22. Woorank
Woorank is a Free online tool which can analyse your website

improvement on your website. It checks a website on different parameters and then also gives
you the action items which you need to complete to fix that area. In this era, where online
presence is of such an importance, its very important to make sure that your website and blogs
are at best and rank best in different parameters . You can check your website and how much it
scores and then talk to your website manager (the company who manages it) to fix those areas.
23. Evernote
you are doing and have to do in future . You can also save files and documents along with
comments for them. You can always make a check list of things you need to do for a particular
client or a potential client. Its a Free tool and it also gives the ability of collaboration with other
team members.
24. Jing
Jing is a Free tool which can be used for screen capture. At times you have something
to capture on screen and put it as an image on your website or just use the screenshot for some
purpose. We can always use print-screen button and just paste it in email . But always Jing is a
more professional and full of features . Just download and try it.
25. Polldaddy
There might be times when you need to take a poll and send the link to hundreds and thousands
of people or just run a large survey. I have been using Polldaddy from a long time and I personally
find it really excellent. You can create unlimited number polls and also survey with some limit
(more in premium version) , you can also get basic reports and charts with results. Another good
website for survey and poll issurveymonkey, but I personally feel Google forms are an amazing
way to take polls and surveys.
26. WeTrasnfer
At times when you want to send very very large files to someone, what do you do ? You can use
wetransfer to transfer very large files to someone, as large as 100 MB or 1 GB . You can upload it
on this website and it will ask you the email id of the person whom you want to send this. Then it
will send the link to the other party which can download it. The link expires automatically after
few weeks.
27. Followupthen
Followupthen is a nice tool where you can set up reminders, and it will send you emails reminding
about the task, the way you can use it is , if you want to do some task after 90 days, then you can
just put a reminder on this website and it will send you an email before some days or hours as you
set it to remind you about it.

28. Ifttt.com
This is an amazing free tool, which can help you achieve a lot of automation . It works on If this ,
then that model. You can set up the triggers explaining , what should happen in case of an event.
Let me share you an example, you can tell this website, that whenever a new article comes on
your website, it should post it automatically on facebook and twitter and also send an email to
you. Then you can tell this website that your facebook status should be updated when you send it
an email ! . So you can control a lot of things through email. There are tons of things you can
integrate with ifttt.com . Its a master place for automation.
29. Slideshare.net
This is a website where you can upload your presentations and access them from anywhere. I
would say if you have some nice presentations on personal finance, you should create a
marketing page explaining about your website and mission and add it on those presentations last
page and then upload them all on slideshare . You can also embed it on your website.
30. Easel.ly
This is a free online tool which you can use to create some nice Infographics . Infographics are
those large , very attractive pages or images which explain some topic or some survey results . For
example, instead of writing an article on Budget 2013, you can create an infographic on
the highlights of budget and put in on your website.
Other Useful Tools & Softwares for Financial Advisors

Mprofit Advisors --- Mprofit Advisor is a desktop portfolio tracking software which can help you
maintain and track various financial products and details at one place. You can also create various
kind of reports and send to clients . The overall product is a value for money where for a small
price, you can manage huge number of clients.
Perfios Advisors --- Perfios Advisor is another useful thing for advisors where they can create
clients logins or add any existing client account with their account and then keep a record of the
updates happening, The client can either give his advisors read access to their account or just
handover to client on all powers. This will totally be online and for each client you need to pay.
iFast Financials --- iFast is an execution platform, where you can execute your clients transactions.
This can be done by client, by you , or by permission of client . You can earn the commissions
which are by default of preset by you and agreeable with the client.

Invest Plus- Invest Plus can be useful to advisor, they can maintain their client portfolio, including
accounting to balancesheet. Even if client is using Invest Plus, then Advisor can monitor his
financial data and can provide him wise advise as per portfolio performance, charts and reports
given by Invest Plus software.
FundsIndia Advisor - FundsIndia Advisor is a platform using which you can impanel and then
service any of your clients . FundsIndia will do all the paperwork and required documentation and
all you need to do is register a client with them. For any commissions and earnings , it will be
shared between you and them. Note that this is a great tool for delegation and focus on your
main job as a financial advisor.
Are you Ready ?
I hope you learned a lot about some good tools and what they can do for you as a financial
advisors. While not all tools and technology will be helpful for you on daily basis, being aware
about them will surely help you . You atleast know now what all exists and when they can be
used. I would say technology is one area where you need to invest more time and learn it. There
are no shortcuts to it. If you do not get better in technology you will surely lag behind others and
will not be able to give that extra touch to your advisory.

How to TALK about your FEES to Potential
Clients
How much you should charge for your services and what are the parameters to consider while
setting your fees?. The key thing we will focus on is How to TALK which is mentioned in the
subject line of this article.
We (I and manish) have noticed that some weird process happens in our inner world (in our
mind), when we have to talk about fees. It is one of the most complex thing to handle. One of
my advisor friend once told me I can handle everything, but not the fee conversation with
prospects . draw.
Do you have a Arbitrary Fees ?

Most financial planners and advisors set their fees arbitrarily. When I got into this financial
advisory profession, I had no idea how much I should charge? I went to a FPSB program in
Mumbai and the only question, I asked to all speakers was How much do you charge? , for which

I never got a clear answer or something like Well , It depends! . I was new to this profession, the
number that came to my mind was Rs. 5000 and that was set as fees, for my services. My journey
started with that number. Let me share with you some points about fees conversation today.
1. Only Communicate value and not Fees

--- start
the conversation with, how you can add value to their financial life. By having you in their
financial life, what difference it is going to make and what changes they can expect. Give them
the before and after scenario changes. If you have 5 steps involved in your process, talk about
value that each step is going to create in their financial world. When I talk to any potential client, I
do not use word fees , I use the word FINANCIAL COMMITMENT . Generate commitment in your
potential clients world. If you generate commitment they will do everything required to become
your client.
But you will ask, what if someone asks you directly --- what is your fees? .
hurry up. Tell your potential client - I will surely tell you about my fees, but before that can we
have a conversation, so that I can find out, what your actual needs are? I will be able to figure out
what value, I can add to your financial life. I know fees is important, but to serve people, I first have
conversation with them and than discuss fees. .
What is fees? - Fee is the sum charge of service that you provide. We invite you to remove the
word fee with cost.
What is Cost? - Cost is the monetary value attached with something, that you create for
someone. To get anything new in life, it comes with a cost, whether it is a painting or a financial
plan or an LCD.

2. Move your conversation from affordability to possibility
affordability conversation. They came to have a
conversation with you, because they saw some possibility in your work and services. When
someone drops an inquiry on our website --- I ask them What made them d .
they pay only for their dreams! , they pay for the possibility!. The more you keep the possibility
conversation alive, the less you will have to talk about fees. The more they can see that you are
the right person and can help them design the kind of financial life they want, fees will not get in
your way.
To give you a small example, when someone comes up with I need to ask my spouse before
making a commitment , it is a clear indication, that the person is still in affordability mode. In such
situation help your potential client to stand in possibility.
3. It is not about You, it is about Them

Where does the decision happen? Is it in your world or in clients world. The final decision always
happens in the clients world! . So the conversation you have with your potential client has to be
about them and not about YOU. Every conversation has to create impact in your potential clients
financial life. Get them in touch with the cost they are paying, because of not having a financial
expert in their life, show them the impact it is having on their wealth and how much they could
have saved if they have a financial planner or advisor. Help them to get in touch with their
inaction and personal finance mistakes. Ask uncomfortable questions, which clearly shows them
what a disaster they have been till date.
The more they see the cost that they are paying, the faster they would like to become your client.
Let me give you an example - If you find someone having too many junk financial products, just
help that person see the huge cost he is paying and the low returns he is getting, that way the
prospect can clearly see the COST he is paying in his financial life and how he is going away from
the wealth that he wants to create.
4. Bring balance where there is imbalance

Your only job every day is to find someone, who is experiencing imbalance in the area of money.
Sit with that person and help that person gain balance. The more you help people in getting
balance, it creates opportunity for fair exchange. Let fees be an outcome and not a barrier for
having people experience your work. It is wise to receive and give wisely. Every day continue to
keep asking yourself --- How can I give others, what they would love while simultaneously
receiving what I would love? . Remember --- when service is rendered payment becomes due

5. Create Agreements
It is all about creating agreements. Value is nothing but agreement. Every advertisement that you
watch on TV, is trying to create an agreement with you. Someone says, Bournvita is good for kids
mental development and someone says, a 10 rupee soap is made out of sandal wood oil. No sale
happens outside of an agreement. You win the moment you are able to create an agreement. You
can sell sand at the price of GOLD, if you can create agreements. I am not asking you to con
people, all I am asking you to do is focus on creating agreements. When you are able to create
strong agreements, fees conversation is taken care of. When I say create Agreements , make sure
you check that whatever you are saying to your prospect client, he is understanding that and is in
agreement to that.
 Ask him things like --- Would you like to create a financial life, which you always dreamt
off ? , They will obviously say Yes . Thats an agreement .
 Ask them Do you want to avoid living a financial life, which you have led from last 5 yrs?
Lets change that, what do you think? And the potential client will say --- Yes, I really dont
want to my future to be like my past . Thats an agreement between you and him.
 Ask them Do you see that after this whole exercise, your financial life will be very
different, simple and more robust ? Can you see that, do you want it to happen . And the
client in all probabilities will say Yes, Yes --- Yes , thats what I need, what Can I start?
Can you see how creating agreements de-focuses the fees conversation!
6. Become a Messenger
The first thing you need to do is spend some time and design the message that you want to
communicate with every investor. Once your message gets on paper, become a messenger and
continue to communicate your message with people you meet. By message I mean your story.
You have to keep communicating your story with the world. Go on an outrageous rampage to
tell your story. Look at what story is supporting your value. At the end of the day you are not
selling your services you are selling YOU and the potential buyer is interested in BUYING YOU.
If I have to share our example, our books, blogs and each product and services gives one simple
message --- How to make personal finance simple for the common man . We focus on that and
share with everyone on how we are on that mission and how it is an easy thing and we will make
sure it happens in their life too. We will be there for them! . We keep communicating this to the
world.

I have talked to almost 500+ people till date on Fees ! and this is what I have observed from my
experience is that --- It is not about fees, it is about the relationship you share with money. It is
about asking questions, that builds safety and trust in the other person. You got to first believe
that you are worth to receive BIG cheques. If you think I am just a financial planner you are
demeaning your self-worth. You are making hard for money to enter your life. Look at yourself as
a millionaire maker, who helps people produce wealth. First look at your self as a powerful person,
see yourself as a true transformer who can really make a difference in people life. If you really
else, It will be tough for you in this profession. So its not about Fees, Its about you.
What you can do in this case is --- Practice speaking your fees . I am not joking ! . Look into mirror
and check how comfortable you are with your fees. If you experience loss of power while
speaking your fees, it means you need to strengthen your relationship with money.
Conclusion
At the end, Fees is just a number and nothing else, when you communicate value, you get friendly
with your fee/number. Look at what kind of meanings you have attached around fee
conversation. If they are supportive --- go ahead, but if they are non-supportive just flush them
out. Your potential client wants you to talk about money, they expect you to talk about money so

3 levels of services --- Which one are you
providing to your clients ?
Today I am going to talk about various kind of services level which can be provided to clients by a
professional . There are various kind of services which are on offer, but all of them will lie into 3
levels we will talk today. There are mutual funds agents, life insurance and health insurance
agents, then there are financial planners, mutual fund advisor , portfolio manager and hundreds
of other categories out there. Its important to understand and define where do you lie and which
level of services are you going to provide. Here are the 3 levels I am talking about
1. Transactional Level
2. Advisor Level
3. Coach Level
Lets just cut down all the crap and different kind of certification and services names, anything
you do with an investor will be one of these.

1. Transactional Level of Service
This is a level where you help an investor in making a transaction or a service purchase. You help
him in buying the product, you fill out a form for him (which you should not) , you run to his home
and office to pick his cheque, his form, his documents so that the product can be purchased by
him or sold by you --- whatever you call it . Mutual fund agent, insurance agent, people opening
demat account, helping someone opening a bank account, picking PPF cheque, picking a cheque
for insurance premium etc etc comes under this category.
You can not ask for a fees for this kind of service, as there is a commission paid on most of these
services and anywhere there is no culture of paying fees for this type of work. This level of service
has a lot of people and this is crowded. Honestly speaking, investors will always look at these
people as just a temporary service provider and will not value their service much. I am not arguing
if this is good or bad level, but it has its own challenges and positives. The service provider here
needs to have a good amount of logistics and manpower .
I personally would say that people at this level should not use term like financial advisor or
financial planner at all , as its kind of a lie to themselves and even investors. If you are at this level,
moving to second level can increase your income , but it would not be that easy, as moving to
second level itself has lots of challenges.
2. Advisory level of service

Most of the financial planners differentiate themselves as different from advisors, because
financial planners dont just advice of one particular aspect of investments, but they also plan for
e end of the day, a financial planner
also acts like an advisor only, may be for various parts of financial life. Then there are specific
advisors, who just take care of one aspect, like life insurance advisors who just advice on life
insurance , then there are health insurance experts, portfolio managers who take care of clients
equity portfolio, and CA also falls into this category because they can advice on taxation matters,
then there are lawyers who advice and guide on legal aspects, estate planning etc.
The focus point here is knowledge . Any person who has good amount of knowledge and
analytical ability will be able to analyse things and help a person make decision. From last few yrs,
from when financial planning word starting gaining popularity, we can see many advisors and
planners mushrooming in India, this space is now getting its due attention and at some level
there is lot of requirement of advisors . If you are anyways working at this level, and if you want
to grow to the next level and want to do some exciting work in the area of personal finance, you
should seriously look at the next level.

3. Mentoring/Coaching level of service
A lot of advisors and financial planners in the industry must be feeling, what the hell these guys at
jagoinvestor do exactly ? Today we are kind of opening up and sharing it with everyone.
This level exists, but no one has given its due thought on this level of service. This goes above
advisory level and even products and numbers. This level has some aspects which neither
investor community not advisor community has looked at and I would say most of the
people even think at that level .
This level of service focuses on the behavior and the attitude of a client towards his financial life. It
links every other part of life like career, relationship, upbringing from childhood, health and
various other things into financial life. Planners in US call it as Financial Life Planning and we at
jagoinvestor have developed our own model called as Financial Coaching . We talk about the
habits of a person and directly attack them. You are not an advisor here , you are a Coach . You
call Shit as Shit and you can give commands to client to even jump off the cliff and he has to
do it . It requires a very high level of personal bonding and faith between mentor/coach and a
client. Its not easy to establish, but obviously possible.
This level makes financial data, data-sheet, products , returns, risk etc very small in the
conversations. More than the date , we work on the person . We change him , we completely shift
his focus from small things to BIG things . Its like you purify the person in his thoughts , his way of
looking at things and his behavior his commitment etc etc. Over last 3 yrs, we have worked with
close to 120-150 people at this level (read some of our clients testimonials) and at this moment
we see any financial planner in India to work under this level so deep as we do at
Jagoinvestor at this moment.
In our experience, we have observed that almost all the investors are deeply interested at this
level of service , however its not easy to work at this level.
Working at this level requires lot of wisdom, powerful conversation skill and out of box
observational skill along with huge trust from clients on you.
Which Level are you working at ?

Now its your turn. You have to first identify that which level you are working on ? Having clarity of
this point is very critical because unless you are very sure and confident and also proud of your
level, you wont be able to plan your future strategies, you next 3-5-10 yrs plan . Nothing wrong in
any level, but you have to understand the payoff and the challenges of each level.

If you want to increase your conversions with prospects, stop selling the concept of financial
planning and start giving people a strong experience of your work (Not a taste, give a strong
experience). Really look at what experience you are leaving your potential clients with. In our
business we have tried several ways by which we could expand our client list, one of the way is
giving people a strong experience. If you want to expand your client list you will have to
give wow experience to all the people you get in touch with.
Stop Judging and start serving
Never judge people because you never know from where your next client is going to come. Stop
categorizing people, your inner voice will tell you This person will pay or this person will not .
When people are inspired by your work they move heavens and earth to become your client.
I recently received call from an old prospect; he said
My friend is right now on conference call from Hongkong, I could not be your client but I would
like you guys to help my friend with his finances .
I was amazed to see how one can generate referrals even from prospects.
Stop selling concept of financial planning, it is really an abstract concept in the world for many
investors. My relatives really are not able to understand what I exactly do. Because our work is

experiential, it happens between two individuals, words get exchanged and value is created
during the conversation. The value resides in the experience and not in the concept.
Here is a powerful story by Jay Abraham he talks about giving an experience to your
potential client
A farmer wanted to buy a pony (A small Horse) for his little daughter. There were two for sale in
his town. Both ponies were equal in all aspects. The first man told the farmer he wanted 5000 for
his pony --- take it or leave it.
The second man was selling his pony for 7500. But the second man told the farmer he wanted the
o try out the pony for a month before the farmer had to make any purchasing
hay to feed the pony. little girl

how to groom and care for the pony. He told the farmer the pony was kind and gentle, but to
have his daughter ride the pony each day to make certain they got along together.
take back the pony

and clean up the stall --- or ask, right then, to be paid the 7500. Which pony do you suppose the
farmer decided to purchase for his daughter?
When service is rendered, payment is due
There is an old saying When service is rendered, payment is due . Make a list of 5 people you
would like give an experience of working with you. Offer them to be with you for an hour (no
thought What if he/she will not become your client after you give the solution . Here you are
holding the pony with you and chances of losing business is more.
Action for you:
1. Find out your current conversion ratio

2. Design a one hour session for giving people an experience of your work
3. Share with us your experience with your next potential client
Share your actions, results and challenges on this blog we will be more than happy to help you
grow your practice.

10 Inspiring ways to Become a True
Financial Planner
If you are a personal finance professional, ask yourself - what is your True job as a financial
planner? .
blog). Your true job as financial planner is beyond gathering clients data or delivering financial
plan. Some of you will be amazed to know that we at Jagoinvestor have stopped giving financial
There are several ways by which you can add value to investors financial life. There is a world
beyond data, product or investment advice and financial plan . That is what I would like to touch
upon today.
Here are 10 inspiring ways for you to express yourself as a true planner
or advisor
1. Make them action takers
Make your clients realize that personal finance is not about knowing things, but it is about getting
into action. Teach your clients, that the only thing that will make a difference in their financial life
is taking action.

Design one or more action checklists for your clients and help them in completing them.
Remember --- the only reason why they have contacted you is to get into action. Most planner
spend more time on creating plans and less time with their clients. Start doing the reverse and see
the magic.
2. Make personal finance FUN for them
There is a lot of hype around the word money and personal finance out in the world. When
investors search things on google, they get drunk on information and most investors have huge
resistance for managing their finance. Your true job is to help them add FUN element to the
process of wealth creation. I tell our clients - -up on call if you are not going to have
FUN
down at times (We are into online model). I always have a lot of fun being on call with our clients
and also encourage clients in having fun.
3. Help them create New Relationship with money
Initially I and Manish used to think that creating a good financial plan is the most important thing
in financial planning profession. Now we see financial plan as just one part of the entire process.
The most important part of the planning process is to help someone discover their true
relationship with money. Really help them discover their relationship with money. Help them
discover how they are with and around money.
4. Ask Searching Questions
Searching questions are those questions, which make clients THINK DEEP. Most Investors are
looking for answers or solutions in their financial life, but your true job is to ask searching
questions to your clients. In my experience searching questions serves clients most. Searching
questions sometimes creates a sense of discomfort but after the conversation you will surely get
a thank you note from your client. Spend some time and design your searching questions, which
will help you serve your clients better. Searching questions causes
financial life. Your task is to shift the demand for the right answers to the search for right
questions.
5. Help them get in touch with reality
Most investors are not in touch with reality (Unfortunately even most planners are also not). Help
life.

When you are having conversation with your client, tell them you are not a magician who cannot
get them all that they want. Get bold and shatter their unreal world. For all that investors are
doing or not doing in their financial life, there is always some cost that they are paying. Help them
get in touch with the cost they are paying (e.g --- too many insurance policies). Help them to get in
touch with their resources, connect them with their true strengths as this will help them produce
wealth.
6. Help them to make and keep their promises
Personal finance is all about making and keeping promises. Help your clients realize the power of
making and keeping promises. Refuse to buy stories like I am busy or Some meeting came up .
Help them keep their promises as their broken promises are taking them away from wealth that
they want to experience in life.
7: Help them build their reading program
If you have read we have mentioned about reading program in it. Help your
clients build their reading program. Share with them what are you presently reading and what
kind of books will help them as an investor and person. I share my personal bibliography with
some of our clients who ask for it.
8. Help them get in touch with their Money Habits
Very few financial planners helps their clients in identifying their money habits. Investors financial
life does not change after having a financial plan, because their money habits are still the same.
Help your clients go deeper and help them get in touch with their supportive and non-
supportive money habits. This will add more value to the work, that you do with your clients.
9. Share your good and bad experiences with them
When I work with people, I share what is it that I do in my financial life. I share my blunders,
mistakes and breakthroughs. I also share about other clients experiences with people I work with.
Your true job as a planner is to help people realize that what they are dealing with, is not just
limited to them but others are also sailing in the same boat. This makes them comfortable with
you and open up.

10. Tell stories and examples
Be a good collector of stories and examples. It is an art to share the right story at the right time.
People always learn better with the help of stories and examples, they learn faster and
they experience Aha now I see moments while you work with them. I share a lot of stories with
people I work with. Even in we have used stories that inspires investors. Last year
we happened to meet Harsh Roongta, CEO of www.apnapaisa.com . He told Manish --- He loved
his book and he is going to use some of the stories in his interactions . While Manish was writing
his first book, we did a lot of research in putting the right stories in different chapters of his book
that inspires investors.
We have made a commitment to share all that we have learn t in our business. Feel free to ask
questions or put a mail to me on [email protected]. We want to help you build your
practice for that the only thing required is your participation. Some planners are hesitating to
participate, some said they will participate with a nickname. All this is not required. It is good to
do business, we are not doing anything illegal so feel free to participate.

Who you are as an advisor- Farmer or
Hunter ?
This Sunday morning I received call from an old friend of mine. After a few minutes on call, he
asked me whether I would like to join him for Dubai or Thailand trip.
I said --- I have seen both the places and would not like to visit them again
I knew that my friend is into network marketing business and this should be in a way related to
that. In past, he had explained his business idea with me, which I was not willing to join. He
wanted me to reconsider my decision about his offer. I once again declined his offer and asked
him not to call me from now on wards for this purpose.
minutes of his call. Invitation to Dubai was a carrot strategy which I sensed immediately on the
call. In any profession --- What matters at the end is your intention.
People love to do business with only those who carry clear intentions. Instead of what you say! ,
what really matters is what are your real intentions behind it. I would like to divide professionals
into two categories
 Hunters
 Farmers
You can identify and correlate yourself if you fall into the category of a Farmer or a Hunter ?

1. The Farmer
Who want to educate investors community with the help of educational blog , social media,
seminars, workshops, email newsletters and through one to one interactions. They want to help
investors in making right choices when it comes to wealth creation. They want to bring innovative
services to the market place that serves investors. Every morning, they leave their homes to
contribute and to serve people. They see investors as an opportunity to serve. They believe in
serving people and giving them the best they can. Investors look for them. Farming is seeding.
Farmers are go-givers. Here the focus is on what investor will get. Here service and value gets
created. They believe in building relationships. They are building a garden. Here the focus is never
on any attractive schemes (No Dubai and Thailand is required).
2. The Hunter
Hunting is an activity that involves tracking and chase. They look for people everywhere . They
want business to take place, some transaction to happen. They want to meet their targets no
matter what. Their primary religion is Profits. They see investors as a business target and not
someone who is holding hard earned money in his hand. They see commission in each investor.
They believe in pleasing people and getting something from them. Hunting is attacking. Hunters
are go-getters, They are street smart people. Here the focus is on what will I get. Here barter takes
place. They believe in doing cold-calling. They are moving with a net in their hands. Hunters
design schemes that attracts investors (Dubai and Thailand)
Here is the tablular distinction between Farmer and Hunter
Go giver Go getter
is always serving is always chasing
Believes in service Believes in schemes
Focus is on putting right seeds Focus is on satisfying his needs
Thinks short cut --- is a long cut Thinks short cut --- is a short cut
Belives in permission based marketing He is always attacking
Focus is on Relationships Focus is on Targets
People look for them They look for people
They innovate They copy other peoples ideas and concepts

The path of hunter appears easy but is always full of struggle. They are always in stress as they are
always in search of their next Hunt. The path of Farmer will initially have challenges and
breakdowns but over a period of time, will help in building thriving practice.
Farmer in your profession. Your client list will expand and your business will grow manyfold.
Wealth comes to only those, who respects others wealth.

5 strong reasons why financial planners
should write a blog
In this article , I am going to talk about 5 very strong and major reasons why a Fee based
financial advisor or planner should have a blog. I have interacted with dozens of financial planners
are not that great in technology. They understand most of the technical points and just
outsource it to some company or an agency. And thats one big reason why most of them do not
run a blog. Fair enough ! .
But gone are those days where you can just

wash off your hands with reasons. Today
Blogging is not just a fancy thing to have, its a
kind of requirement. Looking at my last 5 yrs of
blogging experience, I can assure you that
blogging can really turn around your whole
advisory practice. To give you a proof, let me
share with you that till date, all our paid clients
have been our blog readers only. So today
based on my experience, let me share with you
5 very strong reasons of having a blog.
1. To showcase your knowledge

The first big reason why a financial advisor or financial planner should have a blog is to show case
his knowledge about financial matters. While I personally would not rate knowledge as a very
some thing you can show case through a blog. You can write articles on various financial matters
and somewhere that potential client might be reading your articles and keeping an eye on you.
In the background, that potential client might be getting impressed by your knowledge and
might have made up a mind that he will hire you someday.
Also, if someone enquires with you about your service or you talk to someone offline, you can
always point that person to your blog or a specific piece of article which might be helpful to the
potential client. This is going to make him feel good and served . Just imagine he asks you
something on Nomination rules and you just point him to an article like this. This will contribute
to his decision of hiring or rejecting you.

2. To help Investors Community and Contribute
Another big reason why a financial advisor should have a blog is because he/she should
contribute to the financial literacy mission which is not an official mission per se in India, but kind
of a hidden requirement today. The level of financial literacy is so low in India, that financial
advisory profession can not grow without raising it and those who take lead in this will
get respect among investors community and second, they will also make their presence fel.
There are various blogs on personal finance these days and there respective communities really
love them for the knowledge they share with them. Because investors have received so much
from the blog writer, that when it comes to give back something, they will be their first choice.
In future, when investors feel that they would like to pay someone and get a paid advice, there is
a high probability that one of their top priorities are their blogger friend, who has educated them
so much. However, more than a tool to create clients look at the blog from contribution point of
view.
3. For updating existing clients knowledge

If you already have lots of clients, your blog articles can act as a contact point with them. Register
all of them for email updates and as and when you write articles, It will reach them on email from
your side, on regular basis. This way your existing clients will keep updating their knowledge and
they will also get a feeling of being connected with you. One big complain of clients from their
planners is that, after the initial financial planning work, there was less contact maintained by
planner or advisor. But with this arrangement of blog, you can fill that gap as, there will be an
email from you to them each week or twice a month on some topic. This way they will get a feel
that you are in constant touch with them and are a good financial planner
4. To keep Learning
I am amazed to hear from some financial planners that they keep following my blog
jagoinvestor to keep themselves updated on the latest news and finance related topics. When
you write a blog on regular basis, just imagine what happens in the background ? You choose a
topic to write on it, then search on that topic, refer to other articles and news items to find more
and finally write that article in your own words.
This takes a good amount of time and effort, but this will make sure you learn a lot of things in the
process. Additionally, when people comment on the article and ask questions related to it, you
then have to get back to them with answers, and at times, you might have to again search for it.

While this might look at a time consuming process, the results you get out of it in long term is
amazing, which is not possible to convey on this article. Once you keep doing it for few years, you
will realize what I am saying . I have personally written more than 500 detailed articles till date and
that has been the only base of my knowledge.
5. It create the constant inflow of potential clients

The big reason a lot of financial planners are frustrated in the profession is because its tough to
find a client on regular basis. After talking to 8-10 prospects, they are able to convert 1 person into
a paying client and that too takes a lot of effort and energy. They have to run around, take
rejections, spend time, energy & money to travel to clients place at times.
This is called PUSH model . Here, you are going to prospects. This is exactly how a mutual fund
or insurance agent also works.
We personally feed, that this PUSH model is not scalable and its tough to grow in future. Upto a
point a financial planner can create clients with this model, but there will be a day, where the
planner might get burned off with the whole process and might think --- Till when I will do this .
You really need a model, instead of a planner going to prospects, the reverse happens and
prospects directly come to the planner. This is called PULL model . In this prospects come to
planner, ask for their services and offerings. This is exactly what we have achieved in our practice.
In almost all the cases, the initial conversation happens from the prospect side and they show
their interest in hiring us. You can imagine what happens next, all our energy goes into clients
servicing and giving him the best experience, because almost NO energy goes in finding the
clients and persuading them to sign up with us . I will share in detail someday about our model.
Hence, start thinking in the direction of PULL model, instead of PUSH model. The sooner you do
that, the better it is from long term perspective.
Conclusion --- Blogging is not easy !

While reading this article, you might have imagined having a blog and writing awesome articles
and getting clients through it. You must have really seen in future. But let me give shake some of
your myth right now ! .
Blogging is easy, but blogging successfully for years with high quality is not easy! . Blogging is
much beyond writing articles. It takes a lot of patience and effort to run a successful blog, Its
altogether a FULL TIME JOB in itself. It takes years and years to build a strong community and gain
their respect and attention. Let me warn you, that if your intention of creating and running a blog
is only and only to get clients , just discard the idea itself and better do what you are doing right
now.

The integrity and intention with which you run the blog will really matter in long term, it will give
back the fruits only after 3-5 yrs of hardwork, but the returns would be awesome and beyond your
imagination. Just like an advisor tells their clients, to invest in equity for long term and not look for
short term gains and keep investing with descipline, the same way I want to tell all advisors that
blogging is same like equity investing. You have to make a start and with descipline and clean
mind, just continue it over years. It will pay off.
write blog to get clients, just concentrate on providing high quality information with clean
mind, you will get clients in long term.
The next question which will come in your mind is, how to create and run a blog ? What are the
technical requirements? I will surely come up with more articles on that in future. As of now see
what you can do about it ? Share in comments section, what are your challenges around blogging
? What are your challenges around technology . Share the kind of articles you want to read on
technology and incase I know about it, I will write on it.
Thanks for reading this Ebook . We are sure it must have

helped you in big way . Want More ?
Visit www.jagoadvisor.com

What other Planners/Advisors are Saying !
I liked the example of Fish, how true it is, our core Greetings from Malaysia. I am so glad to read this article
business activity is to meet as many prospective client as and knowing that someone has the same passion as mine. I
possible and share with them the work we do. I heard SRK am very passionate to help the unit trust, insurance , bank
in one of his interviews where he quoted ” If I don’t go out advisors, etc to transition their practice to become a trusted
and do my work (acting) even for a single day, I feel I have advisors. I got my self certified as ICF credential coach and
not brushed my teeth for that day”. have been since coaching these financial planners.
I always keep saying to myself and other’s whom I Currently there are only a few CFP with certified coach and
interact, don’t worry about the output, if your inputs are practice Financial Coaching in Malaysia. My company also
right your output has to be right. Many of them are really developed a coaching model called 4D engagement model
worried about what would be the output without giving a to coach the clients. Look forward to seeing you and learn
thought of what has really gone in the process. The more from you
journey so far has surely, not been a cakewalk, trying to
gain some more ground, will elaborate latter on this.
- Wee Hen, PlanPlus
- Rajiv Mulik
I really liked the myth #1, I completely agree that teaching Nandish, Very good points mentioned in this article. In fact
your client nowhere affects your business or you loose these are the ‘arteries and veins’ of financial planning
client. It is very much true clients are with us because they process. What actually many advisers do in the name of
want to hear from us and need value addition as well. financial planning is the structural part (not to talk of the
Myth#3, rightly said. Never charge low, rather charge a standardized solutions in the market), and devalue the
right fee. word and the service.
My charges are between 20k-40k pa (and it justifies my I feel that financial planning as a service, as it took birth in
work as well the services I deliver to clients) Myth#7, who the financial world and also as it is taught as CFP subject, is
said ppl are not ready to pay fee, it’s just you and I that quite a living thing. Now it is up to we planners how we
keeping product selling approach in mind, thus get actually serve clients.Thanks for reinforcing the values of
hesitated asking for fee. I run Fee-Only model, I proudly
financial advisory!
ask fee.
- Soubhagya Kumar Patra - Sukhvinder Sidhu
I really enjoyed reading this post. Because I could relate so much to your core expertise – unfolding money scripts in clients lives!! This is
precisely what life planning does and from there on nudges clients gently to identify their personal and financial goals in harmony with their
values and priorities, provide with a one pager action plan and facilitate them to implement it. Of course financial planning as a process is
used to meet these goals.
When this is done, we have seen that people have ‘bought’ into the financial plan and they get serious about implementing the
recommendations to achieve their goals. We become the ‘choice architects’ for clients. That is precisely our job as a financial planner. Read
more on the word ‘choice architect’ in the book – ‘Nudge’ by Richard Thaler. You will enjoy it. This book is awesome.
- Partha Iyenger

Networkfp
Sadique Neelgund is the Founder of Network FP which is an online publication and conducts professional
training programs & conferences for financial planners in India. Mainly you can find most of the CFP’s and
other kind of financial advisors here.
CafeMutual
Cafemutual is a meeting point for all mutual fund professionals. So whether you are a self-employed
independent financial advisor (IFA) or a hot-shot private banker with a big bank or a CEO of an AMC or a
back office girl, they have something for you.
IFAGalaxy
IFA GALAXY is a group of Independent Financial Advisors having online membership across India. The
Objective and Motto of IFA Galaxy is "Knowledge Sharing". It has been conducting regular Knowledge
Summits at various cities addressed by renowned Speakers covering variety of topics .
WealthForumEzine
Wealth Forum E-zine - the voice of India's wealth management industry - is India's FIRST EXCLUSIVE
magazine for the wealth management industry.
FAAIDA
Financial Advisors Association of India (FAAIDA) is a body for independent financial advisors (and those
in related roles) in the Indian financial market. Being an association run by advisors means FAAIDA can
constantly assess what is happening in the financial advising industry.
AskCircle
AskCircle is another group of people who represent financial advisors and they keep doing lot of
programs for advisors with the mission of helping them enhance their capabitlities.
FIFA
FIFA is the foundation of Independent Financial Advisors which is the group of financial advisors which
represents the advisor community.

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What are some of the myths that most financial planners believe according to the article?

What are some of the myths that most financial planners believe according to the article?

What are two things clients mostly come to a financial planner for according to the article?

What are two things clients mostly come to a financial planner for according to the article?

JAGOADVISOR

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

2. 6 ways to Build Successful Practice

3. Interesting Journey of a Financial Planner - Bread, Butter, Jam & Cheese

4. 35 Tools which can help Financial Advisors to grow their Business

5. How to TALK about your FEES to Potential Clients

7. give your prospects (just) a taste !

8. 10 Inspiring ways to become a True Financial Planner

9. Who you are as an advisor- Farmer or Hunter ?

10. 5 strong reasons why financial planners should write a blog

Nandish Desai Manish Chauhan

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

I could only laugh on this !

Myth 2# - MORE clients will make me a successful financial planner

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Myth 3# - Lower fees attracts lots of clients

If you throw peanuts, only monkeys will come

Myth 4# --- I should just focus on getting more clients

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Myth 6# --- I just have to get popular to become successful

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Myth 8# I am entitled to have a successful practice

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

The one question that we keep getting from people is

How to get more clients and how to grow practice?

- If you want to grow your practice start to focus on the

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

your client when.

- Never ever take any business action just to get

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Financial Planning Profession

The profession of financial planning ed to it. You will have to undergo

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

I once told my advisor friend, Mumbai local train

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Lets look at them one by one ...

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

11. Google Apps

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

14. Facebook Pages and Groups

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Woorank is a Free online tool which can analyse your website

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Other Useful Tools & Softwares for Financial Advisors

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com

Are you Ready ?

Helping Financial Advisors Grow Their Practice | www.jagoadvisor.com