I am currently in asset management sales but in another channel and am interested in moving into institutional sales. How much can I expect to make as an institutional sales analyst in Boston or nyc? And how does the comp progression look over time?
thank you in advance!
What sort of asset and what sort of company?
Working in institutional sales at an asset manager and I’m having trouble understanding your question. What do you mean by “buyside” sales? What would you be selling and to whom?
sorry i meant asset management sales selling to pensions, insurance firms, ect. Is the path from inside sales to external longer than on the retail side of things? what can you make on the inside?
There are a lot of variables but, no, the path wasn’t longer for me. I started as an internal wholesaler and do institutional sales now. My career progression was similar to those I started on the desk with that remained and decided to be an external wholesaler. As far as what you can make, do you mean as an internal in institutional or “external” (note: no one calls us externals but for the sake of easy conversation…). Internals in institutional (also not normally called internals), make slightly more than retail internals because they’re specialists and firms prefer they have their CFA or more experience. External sales people make similar money both on the retail side and in institutional. Institutional is a much longer sales cycle, but with much bigger wins so the pay is lumpier. Over time we make similar money, though we (institutional) have the opportunity to hit it big every now and then.
Being able to move positions comes down to your firm’s willingness to promote from within and across channels, and your performance. If both of those are good, you just need a position to open up. If you’re looking to leave your firm for an external institutional sales job, it’s definitely harder but I’ve seen it done several times. Generally you’d have to move to a smaller firm that doesn’t pay as much though. Best bet is to network within your current company and make your intentions known to both your manager and the managers in the institutional channel.
Feel free to PM me with questions. Or just ask them here. Either way.
I appreciate it. I am looking at institutional sales analyst roles in Boston and NYC. Would $120-150k sound about right for NYC? Also what kind of all in comp is normal once you make external? (my firm’s pay is low so don’t want to use it as reference)
Also what did your day look like as an analyst?
appreciate the help!
I’m not sure we’re talking about the same things. I’m talking about client facing (external) or client interacting (internal via phone and some travel) roles. Neither of those are referred to as analysts, at least in my experience. We do have analysts that help us out. Those reside in Product Management, which is normally a part of Marketing. They provide competitive analysis, info on our strategies, info on prospective plans, etc.
The “external” and “internal” institutional roles are more about calling on mega-401k plans, DB plans, working with consultants, and the research teams at large broker-dealers that have home office models. Essentially getting our strategies in searches, parading the portfolio managers around, and doing finals presentations.
As far as comp goes, for NYC I’d say $120k-$150k would be about right for an internal or an analyst that sits with the product group.
The role i am looking at is an internal role, i have just seen a couple that are calling it analyst. what is normal for external client facing institutional sales comp wise?
It varies based on a lot of factors. It is a sales job so you’re ability to bring in assets is the biggest factor. What kind of products you’re selling also matters. For example, if you’re working at a boutique fixed income shop you’re going to have to sell more than a guy that’s pitching mostly non-US equities due to the gap in expense ratios. Your commission/bonus is generally determined by the amount of revenue you bring in, so assets*expense ratio. The size of the firm also matters. Bigger firms generally pay better than small firms. Overall, though, I’d say if you’re having a bad year and don’t have a single sale (it happens to everyone), you should still be around $250k. If you have a decent year it’s much more. And if you knock it out of the park, well there’s normally no cap on commissions so the sky’s the limit.
I appreciate the response!