Feeling unfulfilled in sales

All I do is get inquiries from clients and relay them to the trader to get priced before I relay that back to the client. When clients want color, I have to ask the trader because I'm too busy juggling other clients/trades to keep watch on the specific market the client is interested in. When it comes to ideas, sure I have a market view but the ideas just feel underdeveloped/superficial because I don't have the resources or time to do a deep dive like research can. I can't help but feel like a brain dead monkey can do my job. I'm just a well paid mouthpiece/filter. I don't feel challenged. Am I the only one in sales who feels this way? Should I be looking to move into trading/research/buyside if I feel this way?

 
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Providing your listed title as a second year analyst is indeed correct, I think you're getting ahead of yourself - I think you can give a little more time and energy to your current role before you start looking at trading / research roles elsewhere. There's certainly no need to lose heart early doors.

Firstly, you're still an analyst. I think you're putting too much pressure on yourself to be covering clients across multiple markets and still expect to have a number of relevant, fully formed, insightful trade ideas to hand at the drop of a hat whenever a CP asks. This is something that will come with time: narrow your focus for the time being and try to come up with just one or two really solid trade ideas per week. Talk with the traders, get their advice and feedback, and communicate with them on a regular basis to see what they're looking at and how it can be of use to you / your clients. Sure, your ideas may not be pertinent to every client you cover, but you only need it to align with one client's interests for you to be providing immediate value-add. Use this as a stepping stone to widen your perspective as you become more adept and competent, etc.

Secondly - and I don't mean this to come across as a dig - you allege that you're "too busy". I can appreciate that this may well be the case during the day when markets are active and, as you mention, you're juggling the concerns of multiple clients at a single time. However, are you putting in the time after hours? Yes, it's a pain, but this can prove hugely valuable in terms of not only giving you the space to conduct your own analysis / research, but also to digest what exactly happened that day and how you think that may impact market movements the next. Likewise, are you getting in early? As soon as you wake up, are you reading the news to see if there are any new developments and then thinking about what they mean to your markets / clients when you're shower five minutes later? I presume you have BBG, so likely also BBG Anywhere - read Bloomberg Daybreak and get those wheels turning as soon as you can. You'll be surprised how much additional value you can get out of these tweaks to your routine.

Finally, put yourself out there to your superiors. Once you've started coming up with, in your view, one or two solid trade ideas per week, mentioned them to your head of desk. Yes, they'll challenge you, and yes, this will be uncomfortable, but it will make you better and keep you on your toes. I can guarantee the feeling of being a well-paid mouthpiece / brain-dead monkey will quickly leave you and you'll start enjoying work a lot more.

Good luck to you, mate.

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes" - Oscar Wilde
 
YoungDumbFullOfRum:
Providing your listed title as a second year analyst is indeed correct, I think you're getting ahead of yourself - I think you can give a little more time and energy to your current role before you start looking at trading / research roles elsewhere. There's certainly no need to lose heart early doors.

Firstly, you're still an analyst. I think you're putting too much pressure on yourself to be covering clients across multiple markets and still expect to have a number of relevant, fully formed, insightful trade ideas to hand at the drop of a hat whenever a CP asks. This is something that will come with time: narrow your focus for the time being and try to come up with just one or two really solid trade ideas per week. Talk with the traders, get their advice and feedback, and communicate with them on a regular basis to see what they're looking at and how it can be of use to you / your clients. Sure, your ideas may not be pertinent to every client you cover, but you only need it to align with one client's interests for you to be providing immediate value-add. Use this as a stepping stone to widen your perspective as you become more adept and competent, etc.

Secondly - and I don't mean this to come across as a dig - you allege that you're "too busy". I can appreciate that this may well be the case during the day when markets are active and, as you mention, you're juggling the concerns of multiple clients at a single time. However, are you putting in the time after hours? Yes, it's a pain, but this can prove hugely valuable in terms of not only giving you the space to conduct your own analysis / research, but also to digest what exactly happened that day and how you think that may impact market movements the next. Likewise, are you getting in early? As soon as you wake up, are you reading the news to see if there are any new developments and then thinking about what they mean to your markets / clients when you're shower five minutes later? I presume you have BBG, so likely also BBG Anywhere - read Bloomberg Daybreak and get those wheels turning as soon as you can. You'll be surprised how much additional value you can get out of these tweaks to your routine.

Finally, put yourself out there to your superiors. Once you've started coming up with, in your view, one or two solid trade ideas per week, mentioned them to your head of desk. Yes, they'll challenge you, and yes, this will be uncomfortable, but it will make you better and keep you on your toes. I can guarantee the feeling of being a well-paid mouthpiece / brain-dead monkey will quickly leave you and you'll start enjoying work a lot more.

Good luck to you, mate.

This is a great post. +SB

OP - I'll give you my thoughts from my personal HF/Buy Side perspective.

Many clients just want you/the desk to move paper at the best/competitive price. "Ideas" are often code for "flow" or "what's going on." The thinking (at least in my products) was "if it's a really good idea, the desk, if it's smart, probably has it on - why would they tell us unless they had to cut a position or get rid of it?" (for whatever reason).

Your feeling of being bored and unfulfilled isn't rare in many spaces in this industry, even early on. Trading/managing a book is great because you have risk on and things are always moving but it can also be exhausting since you have to be on point (kind of) all the time. I know plenty of guys who got bored of it and felt the same way you do. Ditto sales coverage I have had, ditto my first gig in the business, which was not trading. Ditto some friends in banking etc.

This business is not that complicated at its core. Once you understand the products and the people what you are feeling is not uncommon and it's evident that most people just do it for the money. And that's fine. I am sure you have already seen plenty of people you don't find that intelligent, or incisive, but are in high positions and have been on the desk for a while. It's because they are good at what they do, or clients like them, or they move paper or they have support somewhere politically or some or all of the above.

Like the poster above says, try to get in earlier/stay later, just to learn more about the product, the markets etc. How is your relationship with research and trading? If your answer isn't "really good" try to work on that. Then ask to learn about what they do.. Buy them beers, coffee, bring them lunch just to talk the product, markets, clients, how the book is managed etc so you can think strategically and understand how your desk things and your clients think (because often they don't think together and you are the middle man who has to please everyone because your desk needs PnL and you need sales credits and for clients to like you). It also may be a good idea to build relationships across the floor with other products/teams and bosses.

All of this is not just to learn more but it's to build relationships. So when you have some good relationships and knowledge, you can be the first one to jump into that trading/research/etc seat when someone leaves/gets canned. You can get a good intro to clients or others from colleagues when cuts come or you want to move on (and they will see you as a potential client $$$).

Good Luck

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 
YoungDumbFullOfRum:
As soon as you wake up, are you reading the news to see if there are any new developments and then thinking about what they mean to your markets / clients when you're shower five minutes later? I presume you have BBG, so likely also BBG Anywhere - read Bloomberg Daybreak and get those wheels turning as soon as you can. You'll be surprised how much additional value you can get out of these tweaks to your routine.

These are strong tips! I would also suggest to follow the 5 things to start your day from BBG as well... quick, to the point, with a juicy insight from one of their strategist (i like them till they start talking about technical analysis and resistance and support points)

 

it takes a long time to get to the point where you know all your products so well that you don't need to do a lot of "work" to have trade ideas. There will come a point where you know the products inside and out...you understand how different economic news events impact your sector, and you'll intrinsically come up with trade ideas.

You'll develop your own "market monitors" where you'll track how different security prices move in relation to one another, and become an expert at predecting future price moves...which is basically what traders do...but often at a more minute level.

Some of the best sales people also make good traders (i've seen a few sales people go on to become portfolio managers at hedge funds that they covered...this usually takes over 10 years)

 

Try to take some of the initative with senior management. When I was an analyst the way I provided myself was writting customized daily and weekly market updates for important flow clients on the desk. Sucked first couple of times because my Director or Managing Director would rip right through it, but deifnately helped me to grow. We all started somewhere and gradually grew into it. Key is to get the team to trust you so that they allow you to handle more of exciting tasks.

Now, after 2 years I have clients that specifically ask to speak to me as they want my opinoin on the markets (probably after me sending certain clients long daily technical analysis customized to their portfolios over the course of months).

 

There is some solid piece of advice in these comments. You are probably learning new things every day at this stage.

If I can give you one more option if you really feel like you need to be challenged more: move to another sales desk. The job description make me think you sit in flow rates or similar desk. There are other sales desks: structured credit, solutions, desks covering banks/insurance compagnies for ALM/capital purposes.

These desks tend to have more "structuring" fiber, while keeping the client exposure. It might be closer to what you're looking for.

In any case, you will still need to do "monkey" work as it's your job to handle some of the less interesting tasks at this level. It's also part of the learning experience.

Good luck mate.

 

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Namaste. D.O.U.G.

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