Is IB Glorified Sales?

Seems like in almost every M&A Transaction, banks are so incentivized to close the deal that they will do anything (juice the valuation, say any deal is good on their fairness opinion, etc.) in order to land deal fees. What is the value add?

4 Comments
 
Most Helpful

IB is 100% a sales role once you're a VP and above. That's all IB really is. The value-add that IB provides in M&A and capital markets is giving back time to the people paying you for your services. Every business owner could spend countless hours putting together marketing materials and emailing PE firms and strategics the decks themselves and choose whoever's bid they want to go with. However, business owners have way too much to do to keep their businesses running, so they outsource that work to bankers/brokers. The bankers then do all the work to make a transaction happen that their clients want and take a fee for doing it. 

If you take a step back and remove the "prestige" people associate with IB, it's no different than a real estate agent who doesn't "add value" outside of doing the work that you don't want to do to make a transaction happen for you. If you're working on the "sell-side" of transactions, your job is literally just to do whatever you can to make the sale. 

 

Corporis id ipsam est non est animi. Ut incidunt fugiat illum quibusdam molestias. Laborum voluptatibus maxime corrupti dolore assumenda libero.

Veritatis dolorum quis nisi enim sit qui dolor. Voluptas tempora quo error ipsum et. Incidunt sunt ut quo occaecati. Eaque eos in modi molestiae delectus.

Array

Career Advancement Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.9%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (53) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (15) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”