Margolis Advisory Group, Inc. . Investment Management . Consulting . Sales

The Optimal Sales Organization for an Asset Manager

November 16th, 2010

One of the questions most frequently asked of us is what the best structure is for a sales organization. The short answer is that there is no one best structure, but there are guidelines. In general, sales responsibilities should be client focused rather than product focused. This orientation encourages sales professionals to understand the goals of their clients and try to provide solutions for them, rather than trying to force products to fit a client’s portfolio. There are some special situations where products are extremely complex, requiring deep expertise to represent them. But even in these situations, in a multi-product firm, product focused sales individuals could clash with generalists.

Another dimension which is important to consider is whether the sales professionals should be organized by geography or distribution channel. Typically, small sales teams are organized geographically since there are not enough resources to specialize. However, the current environment is demanding more and more knowledge of each client’s specialized needs which is pushing organizations to specialize with their sales teams as much as possible. Since the financial crisis, investors have been looking for investment solutions to their problems rather than standard products. It is the task of the sales professional to thoroughly understand their client’s situation and marry their firm’s investment capabilities with them to formulate solutions.

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Tags: sales, structure