Funds Management Sales. What type of Business Development Associate are you looking for? Sales Driven or excellent Administrator? The decision is critical.
Sales-driven or excellent administrators, what type of Business Development Associate are you really looking for?
Great Business Development Associates (BDAs) can be the backbone of a successful funds management or superannuation business. But their value-add to the business, and their satisfaction in the role, very much depends on employers clearly defining at the outset the "type" of BDA the business needs – and ensuring an alignment between role type and personality traits.
The job title "Business Development Associate" typically covers two distinctive role types which can be broken down into:
1. Sales-focussed
2. Administratively-focussed / Executive support
On the one hand, we have a BDA role which is essentially a Personal or Administrative Assistant that supports the sales function for the Business Development Manager (BDM). These type of BDAs are not usually looking to progress to a Business Development Manager role and more often, progress their careers by working for larger fund managers or in more diverse and complex BDA roles.
The other type of BDA role typically has aspirations to progress to a Business Development Manager, and uses the BDA role to hone their sales skills and develop their craft under the guidance and mentorship of a seasoned Business Development Manager.
Recruiting the wrong "BDA" type can be a costly mistake for both employer and employee, with sales-oriented BDAs becoming frustrated with too much of an administrative or support focus while a more administratively-focussed BDA may crumble under the pressure of a more sales-driven role.
Both these scenarios often result in people leaving an organisation and fund managers still struggling to ease and streamline the workload that led to the recruitment of a BDA in the first place!
It seems simple but as I said, it is a mistake I have seen repeated, resulting from employers casting the net too widely and too indiscriminately in their search for anyone holding the job title "Business Development Associate". So what is the lesson here?
At the outset, be clear about the type of BDA your business needs. Are you looking for excellent administrative support for your existing BDMs to minimise their admin workload and allow them to focus on their sales objectives – or - are you looking to grow your business through sales-focussed BDAs aspiring to progress to BDMs?
Be clear about your needs and don't be deflected by CVs that while impressive, don't demonstrate the right skillset - or alternatively, be so desperate to recruit someone in a competitive market that you hire the wrong BDA type for your business.
Having clearly defined the type of BDA you want to hire, the next important step is to identify the personality traits of a candidate to match the varied skillsets of these two differing roles.
My experience in recruitment shows me time and time again that appropriate experience is only one piece of the puzzle and the most reliable indicators are personality and attitude.
Some personalities and attitudes are a natural fit for sales – others, not so, despite their aspirations.
The Perennial question when hiring Sales people is often raised, “Are top sales people born or made”
In assessing potential candidates for a sales- focussed BDA opportunity, it is useful to incorporate some behavioural questions in the initial screening and subsequent interview process. Some psychometric testing can also be invaluable in identifying certain personality traits that are indicative of successful sales-orientation.
Typical "non-technical" traits suited to sales-focussed BDA roles are:
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Gift of the gab
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Hunter mentality
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Passionate
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Confidence
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Optimism – a belief anything is possible
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A high need for achievement
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Charisma
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Tenacity
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Hard work and energy
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Conscientiousness
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Acceptance of responsibility
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Discipline to follow up
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Resilience
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Empathy
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Listening skills
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Lacks self-consciousness
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Not easily discouraged
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Modest
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Respectful
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Coachable
The sales-focussed BDA model now used in the Australian market has evolved from the US internal wholesale and external wholesale model. In the US, the internal wholesale role requires a budding sales person to take inbound sales calls for a two year period. After passing that test, they further develop their sales skills for a subsequent two year period, making around forty external sales calls a day. This training ground then allows them to progress into the external wholesale role which sees them out on the road, knocking on doors and coming face-to-face with Advisors.
Businesses looking to employ BDAs with an administrative and executive support focus should be targeting people with completely different skillset and personality traits. This type of BDA is largely a personal or executive assistant servicing the Business Developers. They are typically focussed on tasks like diary management, coordinating client events and functions, producing support materials necessary for meetings and complete a timely follow-up process, assist with investment roadshows and boardroom briefings.
The personality traits required for this more Administrative BDA role are:
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Communication skills
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Organisational skills
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Listening skills
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Flexibility
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Multi-tasking
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Problem solving skills
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Time management
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Attention to detail & accuracy
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Administration skills
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Initiative
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Interpersonal & relationship skills
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Tech savvy
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Reliability
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Discretion and loyalty
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Autonomy
As you can see, there is little overlap in the personality traits best suited to each role type.
Of course, that's not to say people possessing the personality traits for one BDA "type" could not successfully perform the role of the other "type". People are constantly learning and evolving and there is also a danger in pigeon-holing personalities.
There is a scarcity of skilled BDM’s and BDA’s in the market relative to the early 2000’s/pre-GFC when most Fund Managers and Superannuation Funds had BDA teams. These teams would provide training and development grounds for nurturing and coaching junior sales people for progression into BDM roles.
Post GFC, and with tightened budgets, few businesses have been able invest in these BDA roles, creating a shortage of quality BDAs and through the pipeline, BDMs. The tendency of fund managers to recruit people from related or completely different areas of industry has had mixed results.
To many, it would seem obvious that businesses could easily make the distinction between the type of BDA role they wanted to recruit and the type of personality they wanted to employ in that role – but that is not always my experience.
By the time businesses recognise they need a BDA and take steps to recruit, they are so bogged down in the workload and desperate to hire someone, they don't take the time to objectively assess what they need. Further, many businesses have not had BDAs in their team structures previously so are unsure what they should be hiring.
Given the competitive nature of the industry and the scarcity of talent, it is always worth undertaking a thorough recruitment process, applying appropriate and probing questions and where possible, using psychometric testing.
Contact me at brendonjukes@helmrecruitment. com.au or 0422 541 511 to discuss your business' current needs.
Brendon Jukes is the founder of Helm Recruitment, with more than twenty years of recruitment expertise and direct financial services industry experience.
Helm Recruitment is a financial services recruitment specialist. We focus on careers in investment management, including private wealth management, financial planning and funds management.