It takes more than a slap-up meal to make a financial services sales executive stand out from the City pack these days. Employers and clients want people who have professional qualifications as well as experience — and the ability to impress over dinner.
“It’s no longer about buying a nice bottle of claret,” said Tom Forrest, financial services director at Joslin Rowe, the recruitment agency. “Clients want more from sales people. They want to ask a broader range of questions and feel that they have a deep understanding of the product, so we are now looking for candidates with people skills and technical qualifications as well.”
Will Goodhart, chief executive of the CFA Society, the investment professionals’ group, has seen a rise in the number of companies sending sales employees on its three-part chartered financial analyst (CFA) programme.
“It allows sales people, marketers and others working with clients to demonstrate that they understand the client’s needs and have a complete understanding of the product that they are talking about,” he said.
Forrest added: “Until recently the CFA requirement was for front-office people. When anyone in another role was studying for it, people assumed they weren’t committed to their job and would leave because they really wanted to be a fund manager.
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“Now, though, we are seeing a client requirement for these qualifications in a much wider variety of jobs — clients in investment banking and wealth management are wanting sales, relationship management and business development people to have, if not the full charter, then certainly some level of CFA qualification.”
The number of sales people with the full qualification is rising but still low — they make up 6.6% of the CFA Society’s membership, up from 4.9% two years ago — which explains why Jenny Segal at Old Mutual Asset Managers UK is struggling to find candidates with both the full CFA qualification and 15 years of experience in sales. “I believe in people bringing different skills, so I would like at least one person in my team to have a CFA ... [technical qualifications] make them stronger sales people,” said Segal, head of institutional business.
“There is no doubt that you can be a very successful salesperson without it, but I would like to have a cutting-edge sales team.”
Having a professional qualification will mean that sales people have an in-depth understanding of how the products work and this will help them to build up trust with the institutions to which they are selling. “It means they know that you really understand it, that you are not simply pushing something that someone upstairs told you to push,” Segal said.
Financial services firms are learning to appreciate the value of qualifications for sales staff, said Harris Keillar, managing director at Keillar Resourcing, the financial services recruiter. “Some have always pooh-poohed qualifications, saying that they can’t see the point ... but they are becoming fewer and we are seeing more companies that want their sales and distribution team to be diploma qualified.”
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Employers like the CFA Institute’s investment management certificate, the diploma in regulated financial planning from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and anything that shows technical knowledge of tax and trusts, Keillar said. Qualifications from the Global Association of Risk Professionals are also well regarded, Forrest said.
The CII and the Institute of Financial Services (IFS) have seen growing interest in their courses over the past two years. The number of people taking the IFS’s level five (postgraduate) course in banking practice has doubled in 12 months. It recently introduced a part-time master’s in banking practice and management.
“As the number of jobs out there has diminished, candidates are looking for something that will set them apart,” said Anne Kiem, chief executive of the IFS. “We are also seeing a number of companies looking to get their current staff better qualified.”
David Farley, a senior operational risk manager at Lloyds TSB, is studying on the IFS’s master’s course. He sees it primarily as a way to do his current job more effectively, but also as something that will prepare him for future opportunities. “There’s no job for life in this industry, so it’s important to keep your skills up to date.”
Forrest attributes the growing interest in qualifications, at least in part, to the changing shape of the City job market. Offshoring and outsourcing mean that jobs at all levels are becoming more complex as the simpler administrative tasks are offshored or outsourced, he said. The financial crisis has also played a part, with risk awareness now part of a much wider variety of roles. It also emphasised that firms should not be buying — or selling — products that they don’t understand.
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Steve Jenkins, director of financial services at the CII, suggested that it points to a growing professionalisation of the industry. “It gives people parity with lawyers and accountants, which have been professions for some time. Qualifications are not everything, but they are a core component of being part of a profession.”
The CFA Society’s Will Goodhart agreed. Ethics and behaviour will become more prominent as professional standards are formalised, he predicted. “The CFA programme provides people with a level of technical competence but it also makes them feel that they are working in a profession, and one of the key characteristics of this is that people understand they have a duty to their customer,” he said.
Another factor is that customers are becoming more discerning, Jenkins added. “As this happens they will require evidence of expertise of their advisers, and advisers who are sensitive to that are investing in themselves.”
I don’t depend on what my analyst told me
Alex Aylen has a degree in economics but decided early in her sales career that completing the chartered financial analyst (CFA) programme would give her kudos with customers.
“My clients are some of the larger institutions in the City, and the fund managers there are incredibly bright,” said Aylen, who works in equity sales at Cenkos, the securities firm. “I have to talk to them about detailed financials; having the CFA gives me more confidence and more credibility. When I talk to clients, I have been through the financial accounts myself — I am not just depending on what my analyst has told me.”
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The qualification also helps Aylen to stand out from the crowd. “Not a lot of people on the sales side have the CFA, whereas on the buying side people often need to have the qualification,” she said. “Other sales people are quite surprised when they hear I have it. Often they say they would like to do it too, but it takes so much time and we work such long days. They like the idea and maybe some will do part one, but not the whole thing.”
Having said that, the 28-year-old would advise sales professionals to do the full three-level programme, which typically takes four years.