The asset management sales interview – what really matters?
Fram’s sales & marketing practice has a long established track record of working with firms hiring asset management sales professionals. It’s a competitive field, often seen as a glamorous and rewarding environment to work in, but it’s hard work. At a senior level it can be stressful, integral to firm’s future success, and boards can be uncompromising in their expectations that assets are delivered.
We’ve outlined below some of the things we feel firms are interested in assessing when they interview candidates, but we also hope it acts as a guide for hirers too.
1. Market knowledge
2. A quality assessment of the interviewer’s firm
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3. A repeatable process
4. They know their numbers

5. Ability to build relationships across a business
6. Grit
We don’t believe in stereotypical salespeople, but we do believe that those who make it to the top, as in most things in life, have grit. Our earlier article explains this further.
In short, psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth, author of ‘Grit – the Power of Passion and Perseverance’ studied high achievers over time, initially in education, but also in business and other settings. “in all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predicator of success," Duckworth says. “And it wasn’t social intelligent. It wasn’t good looks, physical health, and wasn’t IQ, It was grit”.
For this reason, we would strongly advocate personality profiling individuals for positions in sales (for more information on this, please do contact us)
Whilst the above isn’t a comprehensive list of everything covered in a sales interview, we feel they are the core of most interviews and we’d advise both candidates and clients to give them significant consideration.
About us
Fram Search is a specialist financial services recruitment firm, which was established in 2010. Our clients include asset managers, private equity firms, wealth managers, and hedge funds. Fram’s Sales & Marketing practice focuses on experienced hires right through to “marzipan layer”.
For more information, or for an informal chat, please don't hesitate to contact us on 01525 864 372/[email protected].
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