The startling news was dropped during a Private Coaching call with “Hal” (not his real name), who was a new(er) external wholesaler.
Hal worked at a firm that has had multiple senior-level management shake-ups, along with dubious local management support.
As we got past the niceties and into the purpose of the coaching session, Hal took a sharp left turn and explained that he had received a call from the home office – and he was no longer employed with the firm.
He went on to explain that a huge weight felt like it had been lifted from his shoulders and that he was done with wholesaling.
As a person devoted to our profession, I felt a bit deflated and disappointed.
Hal explained that after trying to get airtime with brokers for his less well-known company, enduring three strategy shifts at the firm courtesy of multiple C-suite changes, and dealing with a Divisional Manager who, in his opinion, was clueless, he was done with “the whole financial services wholesaling thing”.
And then I started thinking about the fact that it is true, that not everyone is cut out for this line of work.
After all, the hours are longer than long, the role we play in brokers lives’ ranges from teacher, to clergy, to pseudo-friend, and the job is flat out hard to do well.
Unfortunately, Hal had all those other headwinds that made the job even harder.
A Few Thoughts:
1. Working for a boss that you believe adds no value to your career is frustrating and can be debilitating.
Wholesalers deserve to have a leader that assists in making their jobs easier and more rewarding by removing obstacles and helping to propel their careers through training, mentoring, coaching and being a motivational force.
In the event that is not the description of your leader, you need to work harder (and smarter) to succeed.
2. Watching the CEO at the firm change multiple times in only five years is distracting, confusing and tiring.
Getting on board with a new set of directives, strategies and tactics takes a massive amount of time and energy.
Wholesalers are wise to understand the opportunity offered by a firm from top to bottom, and ask a ton of insightful questions before accepting the job.
3. Hawking a product that few are familiar with has great challenges. And yet not every wholesaler gets to show a name brand product – and that name brand product may not even be the best solution.
Not every wholesaler works for a “tier one”‘ firm, and some prefer it that way.
The great wholesalers that work for lesser known brands understand that their product is only part of the story.
Their brand, their PVP-Peerless Value Proposition, plays a vital role in their success.
Hal did try. I have to give him that.
He reached out and sought coaching help – and paid for it out of his own pocket.
That alone speaks volumes.
The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
While acknowledging that it’s his career to manage, I can’t help but believe that Hal made a mistake.
Won’t the challenges be the same in pharmaceutical sales, as an example?
It’s another highly regulated industry with razor thin margins.
Sales managers in that industry are, after all, still humans, still sales managers.
It’s your drug vs. the other firms’ drug.
There are great doctors to call on, and those doctors and you would like to report for malpractice.
Wholesaling is one of the truly great professions.
While not for everyone, it has a great combination of ‘assisted entrepreneurialism’, extraordinary earnings opportunity, and the ability to make a difference in the lives of those that use our products.
Did Hal make a mistake by leaving our business?
That’s Hal’s question to answer.
As for us at Wholesaler Masterminds® we’ll continue, as we have for almost a decade, to provide the resources wholesalers need to endure the marathon that is this career of wholesaling.
If you are a wholesaler that is new(er) to the role of external, please check out the course we designed just for you – it packs an unprecedented amount of content and support into a very realistic price.
31 Things Your Toughest Wholesaling Competitor Won’t Tell You
4 Things That Advisors Need From Wholesalers In Today’s Market
Wholesalers Should Give Their Clients The Platinum Treatment
28 Reasons Why Wholesaling is the Greatest Job on Earth
When Dinosaurs Roamed Sales Management
Milosche says
Who said he was going into pharma sales? Why a mistake? I’ve known countless wholesalers who get churned by firms and end up mid-40’s and unable to find another decent wholesaling gig besides with a boutique fund family that nobody wants or buys. The job prospects are dwindling and good luck keeping a happy family life when on the road +200 nights per year. Wholesaling mutual fund wraps and insurance products is a sleazy hustle managed by even sleazier middle managers, and owners who can’t wait to cut costs by eliminating the expensive wholesaler who costs them $300-500K per head.
“Those who can not do, teach”
Rob says
“Wholesaling mutual fund wraps and insurance products is a sleazy hustle managed by even sleazier middle managers and owners who can’t wait to cut costs by eliminating the expensive wholesaler who costs them $300-500K per head.”
Painting with a rather wide, bitter brush I’d say.
The “sleazy hustle” to which you refer gainfully employs a ton of high caliber folks that do good work each and every day for the advisors that they serve.
Dog says
Hal made the right decision for him as wholesaling is like Russian Roulette especially what I’ve seen with the external wholesalers I know at my firm of which has had several management changes, an obsession with change management and lack of professional courtesy to externals who have made all in commitments and gotten little to no severance if let go. Internals treated the same it’s awful
Rob says
It’s a shame to read that. And yes, as mentioned in the post, Hal made the decision that was best for his situation.
James says
Wholesaleing is a dying profession, he was wise to exit. If a fund needs a “consultative” salesman to pester an advisor to buy it, it’s probably not worth buying…
Rob says
Ridiculous. As virtually every product manufacturer has some sort of wholesaling intermediary to help educate, inform, and advance the sale of the product. That person may come in the form of a product specialist or even a PM (especially at smaller firms) but the activity is wholesaling the product.
Mark says
Rob’s assessment that Hal will no doubt find the challenges of wholesaling similar in virtually any sales role that he musters going forward or any other job requiring accountability – perhaps a career in government is in order! All kidding aside, the complexities and variables of wholesaling are daunting to say the least – product, competitors product, rotation, geography, internals, territory changes, scheduling, expenses, screeners, and of course all knowing management.
Point #1 regarding the boss or immediate supervisor is crucial. In my own experience, an NSM opted to travel with me on a day I was giving a presentation at the Ritz to a group of advisors. This manager, a former CPA, decided to embellish my presentation – visibly shaking and nervous – attempting to sell a product and strategy he knew very little about and digging into my limited presentation time. After that presentation, 2 advisors approached me and questioned me as to whether I was training him and was he some kind of control freak. It is very hard to respect, let alone learn anything from a boss who has never actually carried the bag.
As to Point #2, imagine if you will, at the same company, senior management and principles of the firm making the local newspaper over accusations of sexual harassment in a rather embarrassing manner. Now, imagine your one of your top relationships hands you a copy of that newspaper article at your next meeting. Ask yourself how you would handle that situation with the advisor and explaining that to your manager as the production ceases.
Point #3 is the one of the most challenging aspects of the business. To a large extent, if you represent funds, your product must screen competitively, if it doesn’t, you better have an extremely convincing reason as to why it will screen well going forward. However, there is a delicate dance between getting rained on and making rain – you may be lucky enough to have your fund hit the top screen someday and don’t forget the Tier 1 wholesaler has as much pressure to raise his assets even though the perception is that he is printing money. Granted, a reasonable salary and healthy expense account provides additional support to an already strong brand. Finally, there are simply funds and products that don’t sell for many reasons, usually performance, it’s just a fact, and management that expects you to sell a quarter pounder to an organic vegan is a sad reality in this business.
This, like any business, can be extremely rewarding or extremely frustrating, and usually both all at once. Just remember, every other profession presents nearly identical challenges and rewards. At the end of the day, it’s what you make of it.
Rob says
Thanks for the comments Mark.
Re point #1: It is very hard to respect, let alone learn anything from a boss who has never actually carried the bag. We know there are exceptions to this, but it’s seriously difficult for anyone to think they know what the job entails – unless they too have done it.
Point #2: The local newspaper! Yikes.
Point #3: Got to say, this line is classic: “management that expects you to sell a quarter pounder to an organic vegan”. And, it’s all numbers, isn’t it? If you don’t sell product, we don’t meet our projections for revenue and net income. If we don’t meet those numbers, you (and they) could easily be out of work.