| |
Success Stories |
Brijesh Dalmia
Dalmia Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata
|
| |
|
Starting off as a stock broker in Patna, Brijesh Dalmia established the largest primary market broking business in Bihar, before completely reinventing himself. He moved to Kolkata, became one of the early Certified Financial Planners in India and established a robust financial advisory business in Kolkata. Not satisfied with this achievement, he began turning his passion into a vibrant business opportunity. A trainer at heart, Brijesh set up a rapidly growing financial training business – which includes training CFP students and corporate training assignments – financial as well as motivational. He is the author of a number of books on financial planning and is a columnist in leading publications. |
|
|
Here’s the story of the multi-faceted Brijesh Dalmia, in his own words.
................................................................................................................
|
What prompted you to take up a career in financial services? What led you to move your base from Patna to Kolkata?
For me it was a default rather than an option. We were members of Patna stock exchange and my father and elder brother were actively involved in broking business. When I joined office in 1991, the obvious choice seemed to be financial services and I started with developing primary market business in Bihar. As they say, crisis is the best opportunity, in year 2000 after the infotech led crash in the stock market, things slowed down and so did my business. I was always thinking to move out for better prospects and bigger markets. The slowdown provided a fantastic opportunity. Rather, than waiting for markets to recover and business to improve, I decided to move to Kolkata to set up the base for good times to come.
Tell us your story - the early days, the early challenges, how you dealt with them, your growth path
As suggested earlier, I entered the financial services industry by a default. I had no previous background in finance and no road map for future to begin with. I was given a 100 sq feet chamber in the office. With a one man army, I started with distributing public issue forms to investors and mobilising funds for bond issues. Availability of application form was a big problem. Every month I used to travel to Kolkata to source application forms from merchant bankers and companies (sometime purchase them from printers / other agents), return the next day and distribute the forms to my sub brokers. It was tough initially but satisfying when result started coming. I built a channel of over 700 sub brokers in Bihar. Within a couple of years, we were among the top primary market mobilisers from Bihar. During the next 5 years we got underwriting offers from over 500 public issues and were regularly featuring in the Top 100 distributors for several public issues. Application forms were available in abundance and we became the leading primary market brokers in Patna / Bihar.
You are one of the first few professionals in the country to pass the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) examinations. What led you to become a CFP? How has this decision impacted your business as an investment advisor?
I was basically in the distribution business in Patna ( through 700 sub brokers ). When I shifted base to Kolkata, I started all of a fresh with direct clients. So, when I first heard about the CFP Course, I immediately enrolled for it as this would give me much needed knowledge on personal finance along with credibility in the eyes of my clients. I must admit that the biggest turnaround in my professional life came after I became a CFP. I could now see the future from the long term perspective and the ultimate benefit of the client took centre stage.
You have a unique business model - which encompasses investment advisory services as well as financial planning training. What prompted you to take up training and how has that aspect of your business model grown?
Training has always been a passion for me. After I completed CFP, my brother also enrolled and became a CFP. We then decided to take up the licence of Education Provider for CFP certification program in India from FPSB, India. It was a mix of passion and natural diversification of business which prompted us to take up the licence. We are very much satisfied with the growth of this business and in today’s market condition we are getting the benefit of diversification. We have developed our own course material which is widely appreciated.
You prospect for new clients using a financial planning model and at the same time, train others to become planners and fight in the same market! How do you balance out these two?
I deal with MNI’s & HNI’s. My entire model is based on reference where the conversion ratio is more than 50%. There is hardly any clash. I do not remember when was the last time I met a client who dealt with any of my friend or industry colleague. On rare occasions when it did happen, I did not proceed with the said client. Having said that, training and individual advisory business are two different division, market is huge and clients have choices. |
|
|
|
What, in your opinion, do clients look for when choosing an advisor?
I can summarise my entire experience in two words – integrity and competence. Clients seek highest display of integrity from their advisors and at the same time expects that he/she should be competent enough to handle the portfolio and have reasonable infrastructure to provide satisfactory service.
How important is it to be able to offer the widest range of investment options? Is there merit in being focussed on only mutual funds or does one have to offer insurance, PMS, direct equities, bonds and maybe even property? Is it important to aspire for 100% of wallet-share of your client? Is it an impossible aspiration?
In my opinion doing less but doing it best is the right thing. It is humanly impossible to provide great advice and service on the entire gamut of investment options. It may be a good idea to associate with other service providers having great domain knowledge on various products rather than doing all by ourself. Clients will appreciate this. Trying to get 100% wallet-share of client may be a good thought but it can ruin the relationship in the long term due to obvious lack of quality advice and service. I have known friends who marvel at doing best they are good at and outsourcing the rest.
You have seen market downturns like the present one earlier too. How do you deal with such downturns, how do you help clients deal with such downturns?
This is the fourth time I am witnessing such downturns in the market. Witnessing sharp erosion in the portfolio values of clients gives a lot of pain. I believe, these are testing times and will provide opportunities in future in form of increased client confidence. I have a very strong contact management system in place which assists me in keeping regular touch with my clients. Clients find a lot of comfort in the fact that I am with them in this hour of crisis. All said and done, these are difficult times and it takes a lot of effort to keep yourself cool and let this bad patch of time pass.
What are the key lessons for advisors and AMCs from this market meltdown?
The current situation reminds all of us that market forces are stronger than our convictions. Asset Allocation is the only way to combat such situations and greed will get beaten badly time and again.
How do you attract, motivate, train and retain your team?
We hire mostly on reference of existing employees. We do not have a formal training in place but we try to rotate responsibilities within office which takes care of training. We have a very low churning ratio. We trust our people, give them independence, celebrate their birthdays, and acknowledge their good work every time.
In an advisory business, where clients place their trust in you personally, how do you manage to scale up and grow without losing touch with your old clients?
There are two key requirements in an advisory business – personal advice and servicing. My team is geared very well to provide exemplary services to my clients. My role is limited to interacting with my clients and advising them. Execution and service is taken care of by my office. Clients who are comfortable with financial planning process do not need advise on a daily basis. As such I am able to handle many accounts with ease without losing touch with my clients. Clients also realise this and I have noticed that since many years, clients do not call me directly for execution and service. Instead, they call my front office for the same.
What are the key challenges that you have faced in trying to scale up your business and how have you tried to overcome these?
As the number of my clients grew over time, I was hard pressed for time. Managing my time and effective delegation were the most difficult challenges faced by me. I realised that my client’s deal with me for good advice. As far as service is concerned, my office can provide it. This forced me to improve my office infrastructure, hire more people and concentrate my own time in upgrading my knowledge and being in touch with my clients. This strategy has paid off very nicely and handsomely.
What are the biggest opportunities you see for financial advisors over the next 5 years?
Those advisors who have the tenacity to pass this time will gain tremendous confidence of their clients. By default these clients will grow over time resulting in more business to the advisor. The only thing an advisor needs to do is to provide quality service, remain in business and be loyal to his clients.
What is the secret of your success?
The word success has always been an illusion to me. However, my sincere and trustworthy employees should get all the credit. As far as I am concerned, I have simply carried the trust of my clients and they showered their loyalty to me. |
|
|
