Saturday School: Nipun

New training program to tap into current market potential

K S Rao, Head - Investor Education and Distributor Training, Birla Sun Life MF

6th July 2017

BSL MF's Nipun initiative continues to establish new benchmarks in distributor training and investor education. Hot on the heels of its successful Samriddhi education initiative in Shatabdi trains, it now proposes a dedicated education initiative for lakhs of railway employees, in which it will be happy to partner with distributors. There's a new training program called 5Es to tap into the current market potential and another one called Boot Camp for IFAs in small towns. Read on to get another inspiring update from the energetic and enthusiastic education missionary, K S Rao.

WF: We always look forward to an inspiring update from you on Birla Sun Life MF's investor education and distributor training initiatives. Can you first take us through the high profile initiative Samriddhi, involving the Union Railway Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu?

K S Rao: It is our pleasure to connect with our distributor-friends through multiple platforms and, particularly, Nipun. Our Samriddhi initiative - of spreading financial literacy in all the Shatabdi trains- received huge encouragement from Hon. Union Minister for Railways, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, who launched the 5th edition of this magazine on wheels. He was greatly appreciative of this unique concept of promoting financial literacy when passengers travel. The latest edition covers a feature that draws parallels between your train journey and your financial journey.

WF: How can the passengers reach out to you in case they have further queries?

K S Rao: They can through the digital engagement feature in Samriddhi. Passengers can avail of our missed call service and access all information they need about mutual funds. The current issue of Samriddhi will reach out to 10 lakh passengers in Shatabdi trains across the country.

In addition to passengers, a few lakh railway employees too have access to our education initiatives. We are looking at putting together a separate education module for this segment, and will be happy to work with our distribution partners across the country to deliver meaningful education programmes to railway employees.

WF: How is Nipun progressing and what are the new programs you have introduced within Nipun?

K S Rao: It has been three years since we launched Nipun, and I am happy to share that we have so far had 51,000 IFAs availing these training interventions. In terms of unique IFA count, over 31,000 IFAs have taken a total of over 1,100 programmes in these 3 years.

We created a new training module called 5Es to tap in to the current market potential. This programme is designed to help them build a scalable growth model on a firm footing. We propose to conduct 100+ sessions of this programme across the country over the next 2 quarters. The emphasis is on sharpening all aspects of practice management and customer engagement. We will also be sharing case studies of successful IFAs from across the country as part of this programme. These studies can inspire IFAs to do better in their areas of work.

The second programme we introduced is called Boot Camp meant to offer tips to re-boot your business. These are short intensive training programmes, typically for new recruits, to bring them up to speed with essentials. Nipun will be conducting these boot camps for IFAs in 80 emerging markets in India - these are locations where Birla Sun Life does not have branches, but has market representatives. These are typically small towns beyond the top 100. The IFAs will be familiarised on short, intensive training programmes on key products, ways to enhance their reach and steps to build a successful business model around fund distribution. Re-booting will also equip them with ideas to leverage the social media to expand their reach and provide them with practice insights to change the way they operate and successfully embrace more robust and scalable business models.

WF: You also have ambitious plans to take your well received CFGP programme to the next level….

K S Rao: Today, we have 6,000 IFAs who have acquired the Certified Financial Goal Planner (CFGP) certificate, many of whom are eagerly awaiting the next level in this programme. We are, therefore, launching CFGP - Level 2, which is open for all those who have cleared Level 1.

WF: So, Nipun has programs aimed at spurring business growth and also programs that aim at upskilling on financial planning.

K S Rao: Yes, our endeavour is to enable IFAs to succeed in their business as well as serve their clients better by honing their skills. Thanks to positive feedback received on Saturday School's estate planning series, we are now looking at adding a new training programme which will provide easy to use templates for basic estate planning. Our effort is to continuously evolve our training interventions, to ensure that we equip IFAs to evolve their practices to suit evolving customer needs.

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