What is institutional sales?

In banking and finance salespeople take the form of

• Retail broker
• Institutional salesperson
• Private client services

Institutional salespeople develop business relationships with large institutional investors. Institutional investors are those who manage large groups of assets, for example pension funds, unit trusts, or large corporations. Salespeople make money through commissions on trades made through their firms.

Every day, millions of “second-hand” financial products are bought and sold in the secondary markets.

Institutional salespeople spend their time working the phones, calling clients from the moment the financial markets open. Clients are rich individuals, pension funds and institutional investors. Salespeople take orders for financial products, which they communicate to sales traders, who buy the products on the financial markets.

If I work in institutional sales what will I be doing?

In institutional sales you will be responsible for conveying information about particular securities to institutional investors. You will be likely to have heavy contact with portfolio managers and your own firm’s analysts, traders, investment bankers and market makers.

You will spend most of your time out lunching with clients and dealing with the analysts. Institutional sales is often called research sales, as you will be selling the firm’s research to institutions.

For many, institutional sales offers the best of all worlds: great pay, fewer hours than in corporate finance or research, less stress than in trading, and a nice blend of travel and office work.

You will spend your time developing relationships with key money managers and working during market hours.

You will work on desks next to the traders on the trading floor.

Typical day to day tasks include:

• Meeting analyst to discuss research and recommendations.
• Reporting back research to portfolio managers.
• Giving orders to sales traders
• Finding buyers for Market makers stocks.
• Marketing IPO to investors
• Assisting corporate financiers with road show
• Lots of pitching over phone and face to face

How do I get a graduate scheme / internship / entry level job or career in Institutional Sales?

Obtaining a graduate scheme, internship or entry level role in institutional sales can be very challenging and competitive – though very achievable by getting your application, CV, interview and general approach right. You can guarantee that ninety percent of applicants for institutional sales roles will not know how to apply, so getting your application in the top ten percent makes things a lot more achievable.

Approaching the company in the right way will make all the difference. Combining the right approach with a strong interview (and in some cases assessment centre) writ a strong focused tailored CV will go a long way. Make sure you have gone through the free videos on this sight by entering your name and email address in the top right of this screen underneath the video. Once you have filled this in you will have instant access to everything you need to secure your career in institutional sales.

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