CHAPTER 9
Personal Selling
Traditionally, financial services have been sales driven. In most companies, marketers do not have direct access to the firm’s clients. But as the financial industry has changed, the role of marketing has become more central. In the past, salespeople often felt marketers were obstacles rather than supporters. There is a dawning recognition that each party needs the other.
It is possible that financial companies have the most complex sales structures of any industry. Consider, for example, a company like Fidelity Investments. These are some of the selling relationships for its investment management/mutual fund product set:
- In-house (captive) phone sales
- In-house (captive) branch sales
- Third-party independent advisers ...
