Asset Management Sales and Distribution - Career Progression and Compensation

I work in LO and am somewhat aware of the distribution side of the business despite not working in it. Because of this, please take my word here with a grain of salt. I work in investments and have never spent a day working in a sales job.

I think it firstly matters what kind of distribution work you're doing, particularly who your clients will be. 

If your clients are institutional:

• You'll likely be starting with fairly senior sales people in a small team
• You will make more money with a better sales region and by putting in some good travel time
• You pathway to promotion (at all) is fairly nebulous, as you'll likely be reporting to the Head of Institutional Sales, who reports to Head of Institutional Distribution
• You can have tremendous upside if you're willing to put in the work

More likely, you'll be on the Retirement Plan Services side to start:

• This could be anything from dealing with phone calls from individuals, to marketing the company's funds, to rebalancing people's portfolios
• You're largely going to be dealing with clients directly and have to do a lot of tedious work
• It's where many of the most junior employees start and then move to other areas of distribution 

Lastly, you could be dealing either with Individuals or Intermediaries (which are similar-ish for distribution purposes (at least that's how they're organized where I work)):

• This could be anything from working with clients in a brokerage space, to dealing with commercial or retail bankers, to trying to convince wealth managers to buy your company's funds
• Usually these departments are fairly interlinked in Retirement Plan Services and thusly you'll more likely be focused on a sales or marketing related role
• You may have to travel to speak with bankers (or any employee of a broker-dealer), but there are roles that have considerable upside that do not require travel

You may have noticed that there is no Analyst -- > Associate -- > VP -- > MD pathway here. That's not how this part of the business really works. There's junior staff, their managers, and their managers. Continue until you get the Head of Global Distribution, who reports to the CEO. Usually, your goal will be to get a part of the sales division that can provide considerable upside, perform really well, and then become a manager of a slightly adjacent part of your job. Say you work in Institutional Sales: if a role in Institutional Client Services opens up where you can be a manger, that would be a smart next step, and from there, you can become the Head of Institutional, and so on. 

I know you are in a rotational program, so you'll likely get to see many of the areas I mention above. Pick the one where you can sell the best and where you can get the most upside personally. Happy to provide more details if you want. Good luck!