Investment advisory firms · Financial services
Be the adviser a sceptical investor picks because you do not sell products.
A cardiologist in Jayanagar has sat through three meetings with relationship managers, each ending with a form for a fund or a policy. The doctor puts a different question to you: what do you earn if I do nothing?
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
An investment advisory firm gives paid, independent advice on what to invest in and why, as a registered investment adviser charging a fee instead of earning commission. Marketing earns the trust of investors who have been sold to before. Sales turns a first conversation into a signed advisory agreement. GullySales writes the pages and the follow-up, and your compliance adviser checks each one.
The meeting turns on your answer. For an adviser who sells nothing this is the easy moment and the hard one, because the doctor has not paid for advice before and has no fee in mind.
Fee-only advice is a harder sell than a product, because there is nothing to hold at the end of the first meeting. The investor has to believe in a person, a process and a fee. A small practice can be one or two experienced people with a good name among a few families, and no set way to be found by the next ones.
Last updated 18 Oct 2026. Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. We describe restrictions in general terms, so check the current position with your own council or adviser before you publish anything.
How buyers decide
How investment advisory firms are chosen.
An investor may arrive after a bad experience or a suspicion. A mis-sold endowment policy, a portfolio full of the bank's own funds, or a friend who found out how much commission an adviser earned. The search is for a fee-only adviser or a SEBI registered investment adviser, followed by a few articles and a comparison of how openly each firm explains its fee.
A name passed on by a chartered accountant, a lawyer or a long-standing client is checked next: the firm's registration, its website, and whether the person writes or speaks in a way the investor can trust. A video, a long article or a talk at a professional association answers that last doubt better than an advertisement can.
The decision is whether to pay a fee for something that was previously handed over free of cost. The firm that explains what the fee covers, what the investor will receive, and what the firm will refuse to do, wins that conversation. The ones that talk about returns lose it, and may also break the rules.
The problem
What usually goes wrong for investment advisory firms.
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“Investors think advice is free because the bank gave it free”
They compare your fee with nothing. Advice came bundled with a product, and any commission sat inside it, out of sight.
“Our clients come from three families and nobody else”
The practice grew by word of mouth and has stopped growing. Introductions happen when a client mentions you, never because you asked.
“We cannot talk about performance, and that is what people ask first”
Rules limit what an adviser can say about past returns and claims. The website ends up vague, and a vague website loses to a distributor who says too much.
“Prospects vanish after the first meeting”
A meeting that ends with a promise to think it over gets only a polite message afterwards, and the message offers the investor nothing new.
“Our content is generic market commentary”
A page of notes on the Nifty and the budget looks like every other site and gives an investor no reason to hire us.
“Onboarding takes too many forms and too many emails”
Risk profile, agreement, KYC and the fee payment arrive in separate messages, and a client drops off at the third one.
What we do
What we do for investment advisory firms.
Everything included for investment advisory firms.
A plain page on how you are paid
A page that sets out your registration, how the fee is worked out, what the investor receives and what you do not do, with no mention of returns.
A library of articles written in your voice
Long explanations of the questions your clients ask, such as whether to switch from regular to direct plans, how to review an old portfolio or what to do with an ESOP, written to be accurate and free of tips.
A first-meeting structure and a follow-up note
A short agenda for the first conversation, a one-page summary sent afterwards, and two follow-up notes that each offer something useful.
An onboarding flow in one place
Risk profile, advisory agreement, KYC documents and fee payment on one linked path, with reminders for incomplete steps.
Referral routine for CAs and lawyers
A note explaining who you advise and who you do not, a short meeting plan and a record of introductions, kept separate from any payment, since SEBI rules on advisers' fees and conflicts limit referral payments.
Webinar and talk kit
A talk outline, slides, a registration page and a follow-up message for sessions at associations, residents' groups and employers.
Compliance-checked copy
Each page and post is written in general terms and passed to your compliance adviser before it goes live.
How the result is measured
- Enquiries by source
- First meetings held against enquiries
- Advisory agreements signed against first meetings
- Referrals received from CAs, lawyers and clients
- Onboarding steps completed against started
- Attendees converted to meetings after a talk
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
Every service, written for investment advisory firms
Each has its own page: what it involves for investment advisory firms, what you get, and what it is measured on.
- Lead generationFind the investors who want to pay for advice, not the ones who want a tip.
- SEOBe the page a sceptical investor finds when searching how advisers are paid.
- Social media marketingPost as a named adviser whose explanations a doctor or CA would forward.
- Content marketingPublish what your last clients asked and leave market commentary to others.
- Buyer personasDescribe the investor who was sold to before, then write for that person.
- CRMKeep every investor, referrer and talk attendee in one record you can find.
- Follow-up systemsSend the note that gives a thinking investor a reason to reply.
- WhatsApp marketingUse WhatsApp to confirm, remind and share, and keep advice for the agreement.
- Digital marketingJoin search, content, talks and follow-up into one path from doubt to agreement.
- WebsiteMake the website show who you are, how you are paid and what you refuse to do.
Worth a page and a campaign of their own
Portfolio review and second opinion · Fee-only investment advice with an advisory agreement · Asset allocation and rebalancing guidance · Advice for ESOP and employee stock holders · Advice for NRIs on Indian investments · Surplus cash advice for business owners · Goal-based investment advice for professionals · Investor education sessions and workshops
Priority campaigns
Campaigns for what investment advisory firms most want to sell.
Each one planned around when your buyers decide, and measured against the baseline.
Second-opinion campaign
A page and search ads for portfolio review, aimed at people who already have a distributor but are unsure about what they hold.
Fee-only explained series
A set of articles and short videos on regular against direct plans, what a fee covers and how commissions work, reviewed by you before release.
Professional association talks
Talks at medical, legal and CA associations and at residents' groups, with a registration page and a short follow-up for attendees.
ESOP and stock compensation campaign
Content and LinkedIn outreach for employees of listed and unlisted companies who hold stock and do not know how to treat it.
NRI family campaign
Pages and search ads for non-resident Indians looking after investments back home, with a clear explanation of how an adviser works across time zones.
Beyond search
Where we reach buyers of investment advisory firms, beyond Google.
Search matters, but it is rarely the only way this industry's buyers find a supplier.
Google Search
Searches for a fee-only adviser, a registered investment adviser or a portfolio review show the investor is ready to pay. The page must show registration and fee clearly.
LinkedIn
Where doctors, CAs and business owners read an adviser's views. Posts under your own name put a person in front of them, which a company page cannot.
YouTube
Investors watch an adviser talk before they call. Plain explanations beat market predictions.
CA, lawyer and client referral
A small practice leans on these introductions, so they need a record and a note to send, not memory.
Talks and webinars
A live session lets an investor judge you in an hour. The follow-up decides whether it counts.
Who it is for
This is written for these investment advisory firms.
- Individual SEBI registered investment advisers working with salaried professionals
- Fee-only advisory firms serving doctors, lawyers and other practising professionals
- Business owners and promoters with surplus cash looking for a second view
- NRI advisory practices handling Indian investments for families abroad
- Flat-fee practices and practices that charge on assets under advice
- Portfolio review and second-opinion specialists
- Employees holding ESOPs and stock compensation
- Small advisory firms that also run financial education workshops
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- You want a guaranteed Google ranking or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody honest can promise either.
- You need enquiries by next week and have nobody to answer them.
- You want posts and reach reported, not enquiries and orders.
How it works
How the work runs for investment advisory firms
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Look at how clients arrived
Your current clients are traced back to the introduction, talk or search that brought each one, to find what can be repeated.
- 2
Write down your approach in plain words
Your process, your fee and your limits are drafted as pages and a first-meeting note, and checked by your compliance adviser.
- 3
Publish the answers investors search for
Articles, a how-you-are-paid page and a Google Business Profile built around the questions of sceptical investors.
- 4
Run the talks and the referral routine
Association sessions, CA and lawyer outreach and a record of every introduction and every follow-up.
- 5
Check which conversations became agreements
Enquiries, first meetings and signed agreements by source, so effort moves to the channels that produce clients.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions investment advisory firms ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
What can an investment adviser say in marketing?
Can I tell a prospect my fee in the first meeting?
How is a fee-only firm different from a mutual fund distributor in marketing?
Can you use client stories?
Do we need a lot of content?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Part of Financial services. See the other industries in the sector.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.