“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker
The past year has been a time of unprecedented change for the financial services industry. While there has certainly been turmoil, there is also great opportunity to make fundamental improvements in how we do business.
In preparation for a panel that is being developed for the Fall 2009 MBA conference, I’ve been asking financial sales executives, “What will the future sales force look like?” Some of the questions we as an industry must ask are: What will be required of a salesperson in the future? How will origination be different? What qualities and skills are most important in financial sales? Are salespeople being compensated based on these skills? What works about the current compensation structure? What needs to change?
These are all difficult questions but before we can find real answers, companies must be willing to take an honest look at how they currently operate and be open to changing the status quo. I welcome your thoughts on this important topic. Let me know what YOU think.