What exactly would a junior salesperson be doing? I understand there would be some booking of trades, research for possible trade ideas and in general backing up the more senior people, but else could the job entail? How does career progression typically work - is it similar to IB where after 2 years you are promoted and then promoted after a few more years? Or is it based on your clients? How do you get clients in the first place?
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I started as a junior salesman in bonds (first job out of school). First 2 months were just passing the series 7 and 63 and reading up on cases (bonds we trade, backstory etc.), working on a sales pitch, building a cold calling list as well as backing up my mentor with some of his clients while he was on vacation. After that you keep reading cases, as new ones role in from the IB division, and do a lot of cold calling from a list of leads and pitching them new deals/research/trading services. If you are lucky you will get some good leads, but most of them will be crap (but are good practice, and hey you never know). The best ones are the ones you find your self (new hedge funds etc.) Through thous cold calls you start building up your book little by little. If you are lucky your bank might give you some accounts, but in most cases brokers don´t like giving away a client. As potential clients respond to you you start setting them up with research, analyst calls and opening up an account for them. It then depends on how good a salesman you are when they start to trade/buy into deals. Once you have clients who are trading and buying deals more time will go into servicing your clients and less time into soliciting new ones. You will start spending more nights out on the town kissing ass, and traveling (if your clients are not in New York, if I assume you work there). It then also depends on how complex the product is you are selling, if you work with your client on structuring or if it is just plain vanilla stuff.
I work at a small bank, so this might be a bit different for the bigger banks. Most likely there it will take you longer until you start soliciting clients, and you will spend more time backing up more senior salesmen. Booking trades is something the back office does, even though your write the ticket (takes you 10 seconds). If you are in equities a trader will do the trading, while in bonds it differs wether you execute the trade your self or if you work with a trader.
Hope this helps. This is just my experience and might differ from bank to bank.
Plortedo- thanks for this clear and comprehensive write up. If you could generalize, how long was it before you were in a good place? Also, in the interim were you starving?
I'm 3 years out and may have a shot for a jr sales role. Would be leaving a comfortable role at a good brand name (not high finance but decent nonetheless). Just want to make sure I make the right decision. Thanks
Do you think the sales role is going to die? Is it a career that is doomed to cease to exist?
I work as an analyst in a credit HF and we always hear how many of the salespeople bitch on how they are not making enough after dodd-frank,volcker,etc. It seems it was a great way to make millions but with the rise of the machines (think marketaxess) it seems that fewer sales people are going to be needed. Equity sales will probably be the first to die out but what are your thoughts as a junior salesperson?
Other areas outside of equity sales are more complex (FI) and are more so a closed (OTC) market. I can't see a lot of upside in equities, but FI and other more complicated products will be around.
No it will not die. I think people sometimes confuse sales with salestrading. What a salestrader does is execute equity orders in the market for the banks clients. That can be done by an algo with todays technology.
What a salesman does is maintain the banks relationship with investors. That is something that can not be replaced by a machine. If it is equity sales or any other asset class, you will always need salespeople to sell the banks research and place new issues and blocks.
I´m only a few months in, so can´t really say when it will start to get comfortable. Still a lot of work and hassle. Can´t say that I am starving, make a decent base salary and got lucky with a big sales (takes the pressure off).
Generally (what I gather from my coworkers) it takes 8-12 months until you are really up and running and knowing your shit. It will take 3-4 years to build a really solid book that makes you the big $$.
What you should really just figure out is if sales is the right job for you and if you are ready to do the work it takes (bothering people who have no interest in talking to you and trying to get them to realize how much you could help them). Even though this is a financial role, where you need to know finance and study a lot of financial cases, your number one role in the job is being a salesman. What knowing finance will do is make you a better salesman, but if you aren´t a good one to begin with it won´t be easy.
Algos replaced the salestrader 8 years ago get with the times buddy. That is they replaced the weak ones. Salestrader usually more relationship driven providing market commentary on the product. Research sales has a deeper understanding of the research and is middleman for the research analyst and the salestrader.
Looking for Guidance - Junior Institutional Sales (Originally Posted: 05/01/2012)
Recently signed on as a Junior Institutional Sales rep at a independent research firm. Being that this is my first job in finance, especially equity research, I was looking for some insight as to how to best align myself for success (understanding there is no cookie cutter formula). What are the main things I should be focusing on, what should be my goals, where should i immediately be focusing my efforts etc.... Any insight would be beneficial. Thanks ahead of time.
Can you give more details about your background and your firm. it is hard to answer without some background information
No background in Finance (econ major). Sales background prior to joining firm. Smaller independent shop that's well respected on street. Not going to give name of firm.......
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