What do salespeople do in sales and trading, and is this role still relevant with the rise of automated trading?
I know many have asked this question, but I was wondering if it's like a glorified operations job. I heard that the salesperson is the middleman between clients and traders, and all they do is copy and paste trades as required. I also heard that they don’t have much respect from traders. I would like to ask what their day-to-day looks like, and since more salespeople have received return offers than traders in the past year, it got me wondering whether they will still have a place with the rise of automated trading. My questions are as follows:
1. How much do they make?
2. What is the career path?
3. Do they have more exit opportunities than traders, and what are they?
4. What are the pros and cons?
5. Do they travel or have client outings?
thanks
Bump
Someone in sales will be able to provide a proper reply, but just to get things started. Sales is there to help manage the client relationships (helping with RFQs, execution, providing color, facilitating dialogue between desk and clients). Sure, some sales who copy paste, but that is akin to line traders who just copy paste broker rates to client prices. There are some sharp sales people as well (there are also ex-traders/risk takers in sales who made the move because they didn't want to manage risk anymore)
How much do they make ?
On average, probably less than trading given they don't manage risk. However, senior/the top sales people can out earn average/run of the mill traders.
What is the career path?
Other than An -> Associate -> VP -> etc etc, one would be given more and more responsibility in terms of client coverage. Maybe that means acting as back-up for a senior sales person on their accounts, but then after some time you get your own (probably small) accounts to cover independently in terms of growing franchise value. Then if you continue to prove yourself you will get more senior and more coverage etc etc.
Do they have more exit opportunities than traders, and what are they?
I don't think I would say 'more', but certainly different - largely a function of your skillset. Sales can go to investor relations roles on the buyside, sales in another industry, etc. There are sales (= VP) I know who moved to trading. There are even sales who move to HF as a PM/risk taker (slightly rare).
I would say the exit opportunities of sales vs trading are a greater reflection on the types of people who go into one vs the other (generally speaking) rather than the roles.
What are the pros and cons?
It depends - hard to give advice without specific desks in mind (different business areas give different career paths). There are certain sales seats I would rank above trading seats and others I wouldn't....
Do they travel or have client outings?
Yes - junior sales (and certainly trading) may get less opportunities to travel, but senior people can/will travel to visit their clients
IMO sales is a hidden gem
Probably one of the easiest jobs on the street imo. May be out of the ordinary but My coverage is literally just a bunch of order takers
Every sales seat is a bit different but at a high level it boils down into 2 basic functions
1. Distribution- Your job is to take the information coming at you and know what is important for each client and why and figure out a way to present it to them in a fashion that gets them to transact with your firm. You need to have a feel for when and how to push both your clients and the traders to transact at a price that both sides feel good about.
2. Relationship Management- In addition the to distribution aspect you are also going to be building and managing relationships with your clients and trying to figure out who they are as people away from the desk. Your job is to be whoever the guy on the other end of the phone wants you to be and to figure out what he values from your or your firm. For some people they want to be entertained (dinners, drinks, sporting events, etc.) others might want you to bring your traders or research team to their offices, its a lot of trial and error to figure out what people are looking for and how you can add value relative to the competition.
Two questions -
1. What are some of the top learnable characteristics you have seen of top performers that have done great.
2. How do you learn the art of becoming who someone else wants you to be. Any advice/books/structure to relationships that you have used to your advantage in the past?
1. Being a good osmosis learner, nobody is going to tell you exactly how to handle every situation you just sort of learn from being in the environment and observing more senior people.
2. Not really sure how to answer that, you just learn about people and what they are interested in. You pick it up in conversation, there is no formula, it’s a feel thing.
Why aren’t more kids applying for sales then? Most finance or business majors would thrive in a BB sales role and no problem with prestige.
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