Finance

Your job is to sell a financial services company’s products and services to private individuals or corporate clients. It’s that simple. From pensions and high interest savings accounts to bonds, stocks and shares, you are charged with the responsibility of maximising your clients’ return on their investments while making some money for your employer in the process.

One minute you may be advising clients on which products will provide a better long term investment while the next you could be responding to a dip in the financial markets and offering sound advice by presenting your client with the best options to safeguard their current assets.

This is a highly-skilled role and one that carries with it a great amount of responsibility. But equally, it is one of the most rewarding sales careers there is in an industry that is constantly changing and one that will leave you behind if you don’t keep up with the pace of change.

Enthusiasm, persistence and a dogged determination to hit your targets and provide a great service for your clients will stand you in good stead for a career in financial sales. As Charles Schwab, founder of one of the world’s largest investment institutions, rightly says: “A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.”

Hours and environment

Competition for jobs is high but once you get your foot in the door, the industry can provide you with a personally and financially rewarding career. You may be working for a financial services organisation such as a bank or insurance company. The hours can be longer that the standard 9 to 5, but the return you gain more than compensates for this.

Many advisers, especially independents, will regularly work out of hours in the evenings and sometimes at weekends, visiting clients in their homes. And while the majority of positions are on a full-time basis, flexible working and part-time opportunities do exist, although they are primarily limited to front-of-house positions in a bank or contact centre, for instance.

Skills and interests

Irrespective of whether you are selling financial services products or stationery, sales is by its very nature a highly-competitive business. But what binds each industry is the core skills that each salesperson must possess or at the very least have the potential to develop:

Enthusiasm for your sector and genuine interest in what you are selling
Flexibility and adaptability
Excellent communication skills both verbal and written
Ability to translate complicated technical information into an easily understood format
Sound planning and organisational skills
Confident and persuasive
Presentation skills
Self-motivated
Assertiveness
Objection handling and problem solving

Industry

The financial services industry is, for want of a better word, huge. Despite the global recession that saw the collapse of a number of high street institutions such as Northern Rock and significant downsizing everywhere else, the financial sector continues to be one of the most in-demand and attractive career choices among newly-qualified graduates and career changers, alike. And the reason for this attraction? Money.

Starting salaries in this sector are among the highest in the UK with employers vying with each other to attract the best candidates in an ever-increasingly competitive industry. But it’s not just the potential earnings on offer that is appealing to applicants but the prospect of handling other peoples’ money.
Indeed, depending on what area of sales you are involved, such as financial adviser or trader, you will be asking people to part with their most treasured possession – their money – which could range from hundreds to millions of pounds.

The recession may have prompted a significant loss of jobs within the financial services sector on a scale not seen since the mid-1990s. However, the green shoots of recovery are clear to see – prompted in part by the rapid growth and success of emerging markets in Asia, notably China and India and by the harsh realisation that no one person’s job is more safe than another’s. This has led to a growth in people seeking greater financial security through savings, investments and other such schemes.

Entry

People enter the financial sales industry form a variety of backgrounds. Although a university degree is not a barrier to entry, the increasingly competitive nature of the industry means that more and more employers will favour those who have a related qualification.

As a minimum most employers will look for at least four or five GCSEs grades A-C, including Maths and English. But more important than any qualification will be your ability to sell, an obvious passion for the products you will pushing, a willingness to learn new skills and keep up to date with the latest trends affecting you and your clients.

Training, other qualifications and advancement

Sales is a results-orientated industry, none more so than in the finance sector – a sector that is built with the sole purpose of making as much money as possible for itself and its clients. At one end of the scale you could be sorting out Mrs Jones’ private healthcare plan while at the other end you could be buying and selling stocks and shares for your clients to the tune of millions of pounds.

And how far you progress within your career, and the time it takes, is dependent on how motivated you are to keep your skills and industry knowledge updated and the route of entry that you took to get where you are now. Oh, and your ability to sell!

For instance, if you are entering the sector fresh from university, most graduate training programmes provide the opportunity for fast-track career development with many trainees moving from a financial sales adviser role into a sales management position at the end of their training before eventually progressing to a senior management role. For everyone else, progression will invariably take slightly longer.

Irrespective of which route of entry you take, career progression without undertaking further professional study will be sluggish, at best. Indeed, the UK’s portfolio of professional qualifications is widely regarded as the gold standard in the finance industry. So you should expect to work towards obtaining those qualifications, which will inevitably help advance your career, such as the Financial Planning Certificate (FPC) Parts 1, 2 and 3 or Certified Financial Planner (CFP).

Of equal importance is your ability to identify the key skills required for the next position you have your sights set on.

For instance, if you are looking to make the move from sales adviser to senior financial sales account manager, taking steps to improve your presentation skills, develop an ability to solve complex problem and implement effective business plans, for example, will stand you in good stead when the next round of promotions come.

And with each new role comes a new set of skills that you should aim to acquire before you make your application so that you stand out from your competition and position yourself as someone who will hit the ground running when you assume the role of financial sales manager, trainer or marketer.

Top employers

With an increasing diversification of the finance industry, there is often a crossover of services provided by many financial institutions. For instance, many high street banks now provide insurance, mortgages, pensions alongside the staple current and saver accounts. Some of the leading employers in the UK include: