August 7, 2020

The Reach for 100 Stars race has heated up. With a collection of Rs55 lakh, Ilesh Merchant, Group Head, from our Mumbai-Borivli branch is now on top of the leaderboard. When the contest was announced, Ilesh assumed leadership in promoting Star Portfolio in all Mumbai branches across clusters. The strategy worked in favour of clients and you can see the results. Come, let us hear his story in his own words.

Internal Communications Team (ICT): Congratulations! You are on top of the Reach for 100 Stars leaderboard.

Ilesh Merchant (IM): I am happy that we are able to sell a good product to our customers. It is a team work all the way.

ICT: How did you identify prospects for the contest?
IM: It was a simple case of cross-selling to clients. I drew up two lists for making the pitch. The first list was of those customers who have invested in our advisory products, Power Portfolio and Top Picks, and the second was of the customers with a portfolio of more than Rs.25 lakh.

ICT: How did you convince the customers? What was your pitch?
IM: The customers to whom I pitched Star Portfolio were already aware of the product as I had presented it to them at the time of its launch last year. Star Portfolio is a good product and has outperformed the stock market since inception. When the performance of a product is good, that is enough to sell it. I enjoy a good rapport with the clients which makes it easier for me to call them up whenever a new product is rolled out or needs to be promoted.

ICT: How did you overcome the account opening hurdle?
IM: I roped in all branch managers of the Mumbai branches across clusters to set up a local network wherein each branch manager would service the customers residing in his locality and nearby areas. Thus, I visit the customers in Borivli as I reside in Borivli west.

We make two visits to a client, the first time, to drop the subscription form and explain the process; and the second time, to collect the filled form and the cheques. Before visiting a client, we obtain all his details on WhatsApp and fill his form to make things easier for him. We send him the subscription form only for signature and attestation. When the clients realise that they do not need to visit us in the lockdown and that we need to meet them only for a brief period, to drop and collect documents, they agree to meet us.

The physical documents are then scanned by each branch resource working from home and the digital copies are sent to the Account Opening department so that the accounts can be opened without delay. We are storing all the physical documents in our branches to be sent to the Account Opening team as soon as the head office opens up.

I would like to thank Mustafa Pardiwala for giving me the opportunity to lead the initiative. I also want to thank Kalpesh Parekh, Branch Manager, Kandivli branch, as well as the other branch managers in Mumbai; Nita Koyande, Senior Executive - Operations from the Borivli branch; Kailash Subhash Jadhav, Relationship Manager, Thane branch; Prachi Patil, Manager – PMS from the Star Portfolio team; and Akhilesh Yadav from the Account Opening team at the head office for their wonderful support.