Insights about Sales of financial products – Last few months & Way Ahead

In last eight months, stock markets witnessed both i.e bottom and top. It was just in March this year when markets were falling like a pack of cards and in the same year November month, it is touching the all time highs. Last eight months, remained the most difficult months for lots of professionals….some got out of businesses and many other made losses while few business saw a big upsurge. Let me summarize, the pointers about business development of financial products based upon my personal experience or feedback from our clients.

Insights for last 6 to 8 months.

1. We generated a good number of leads in Stock broking space and saw a huge upsurge in account opening especially with discount brokers with established and seamless eKYC process and Mobile app.
2. We saw a quite a good number of research plan leads however conversion post trial plan remained a challenge.
3. Till July, getting health Insurance leads was quite cost effective and even conversion ratio was good. Primary factor, that we feel, was the pandemic and extended deadline for tax saving for previous year.
4. Till August the demand for leads for Loans was very low. However, from September it is picking up at a much faster pace. Mostly, the focus remained on personal loans and home loans for affordable housing.
5. Financial Products where primarily surplus Investible funds are required like mutual funds, Life insurance endowment plans, PMS, AIF are not getting good conversion as good as before.
6. Term Insurance is a new way for taking insurance as leads coming well for low cost insurance products.
7. Leads in personal loans for salaried is grappling with issues of ‘no salary payment’ or ‘salary in cash’ with applicants. Even for business loans, the issue of availing the moratorium or reduced cash-flows were cited by our clients.

Though, the initial months of financial year remained subdued for several financial products, however demand is rapidly picking up since last 2 months.

Concept Selling

In last few months, we witnessed people coming out with various newer concept of financial products like comprehensive financial planning, succession planning, tax returns, etc. We also saw a large number of entrepreneurs using different sales methods like webinars. Couple of financial businesses approached us to start e-learning also. However, the most consistent phenomenon we could see is the “INCONSISTENCY”.

Grass is not always greener on the other side, one failure on a product and jumping to other product leads the business nowhere. A thoughtful approach and persistent efforts is the key to success.

Who remained the winner

We have witnessed that business with little longer term view on online and digital space remained the eventual winner. A consistent engagement and SEO helped them get more of organic and virgin leads, which definitely have a higher conversion ratio as compared to overnight campaigns. Entrepreneurs focusing on customer engagement from last couple of years with consistent efforts on improving process got hold of better quality of business. People only relying on paid leads and looking for immediate conversion could only got connected with business in higher competition areas or products.

Hope such insights will help you in better planning your Sales efforts in coming time. Do let us know, your views or experiences in comments to help us learn better.

Let us all pray and hope that this Diwali keep the momentum going for recovery both on pandemic and business front. Don’t forget to check out our starter plans in the deals & offers section.

Wish you a very happy diwali and a prosperous new year ahead.