I Want To Talk About Selling…..
Someone I know who has a sales job has just been given a warning: Bring in the clients or else…..
He had two years to produce, but wasn’t quite able to do it. It’s very, very, hard to get people to give you their hard earned money, especially for a service oriented business that is not essential to one’s daily living, i.e. it’s not about food or housing or clothing.
His job was to bring in high net worth clients and have this investment bank manage their money for them (the bank would then charge a hefty fee for this “service” of course).
Why is it getting harder for banks to do this? The internet and the proliferation of cheap online brokers. Why pay a guy at JP Morgan $80 per trade when you can go through an online broker and pay $5 or $12 dollars a trade?
I had never really conceptualized this before, but the key to having career stability is to learn how to sell. Nobody will fire you if your bringing in the moolah (& the only way to do this is to sell). Can you think of any exceptions to this general rule? The only profession I can think of where this might not apply is in the medical field: Doctors and nurses rarely get laid off (the demand for their skills is in high supply). Who else?
I totally agree. Being a Salesman/lady is the only secure job. Currently, I am marketing unit trusts for British American asset managers though part time.
joenickson:
How do you find your clients? Do you cold call? Do they give you lists of potential people to get in touch with…what?