By Tom Bradley

When I came out of business school too long ago, it was a given that if you wanted to pursue a sales career, you went for a job with Xerox or IBM. These organizations put their recruits through extensive training and were known to be the best sales organizations. Even if you didn’t stay forever, a few years at Xerox or IBM was a ticket to a good job elsewhere.

I tell this story because I think financial services is now a good place to get some early sales training. For new grads, the big 5 banks may be the Xerox’s of today. Ten or fifteen years ago, I never could have said this, but RBC, TD et al are now sales machines. We’ve all had that ‘service’ call at home that was really a ‘sales’ call, or been asked if we want fries, er … should I say RRSPs, with the mortgage.

This was reinforced over the last couple of months while Neil and I were searching for a new Investor Specialist (We announced last month that Lori Norman has joined the team). Through the process, we met some great people. In almost every case, they were in a client servicing role, and yet their bonuses were based on growing their asset base and referring business to other parts of the bank. They were in an ‘advice’ role, but were being compensated for their ‘sales’ success.

I have no doubt that these people are providing their clients with sound, attentive advice (they got through our screens after all), but it’s happening despite the compensation system, not because of it. I didn’t hear our candidates say there were quotas or bonuses for long-term plans, stable asset mixes and regular contributions.