HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES, INC. Announces Findings of Survey on Management Skills for Bank Investment Program Platform Sales

Banks that provide investment and insurance products to their retail customers are finding a larger and larger percentage of sales are comming from part-time sales staffs. These are typically tellers, customer service, or new account personel. The effetive sales management of these people is a critical function that is not being effectivly done.

St. Petersburg, Florida- April 16, 2003- Human Capital Resources, Inc. (HCR), a nationally known firm specializing in recruiting, employee testing/evaluations, and a wide range of consulting and financial services research has just completed a comprehensive look at management issues facing banks selling investment/insurance products utilizing so-called "platform programs". Utilizing part-time bank employees to sell mutual funds or annuity products has dramatically expanded banks' distribution capabilities", stated Paul A. Werlin, President of Human Capital Resources, Inc. "In fact, our research has shown that banks with aggressive platform programs can receive as much as 50% of their total retail investments sales revenue from this area. With so much at stake, management at bank investment programs are taking a very hard look at the skills and resources necessary to effectively manage this area."

    To determine how banks view the management of platform sales activities, HCR distributed a comprehensive survey to managers responsible for platform sales. HCR received data from banks across the country representing more than 2700 part-time sales people averaging $31,400 in annual sales commissions, and more than 400 Platform Representative Sales Managers. "In almost all cases, individuals with sales management responsibility for platform sales have little or no prior sales management experience. Existing brokers are "promoted" and given a financial stake in building sales from their part-time sales staffs. In general, we found that managers unanimously agree that making part time sales people as productive as possible is critical. Responding Managers ranked effective management of platform sales people to achieving goals 4.4 and 4.5 (out of a maximum 5.0) for achieving goals in 2003 and 2004 respectively." Werlin continued, "we discovered that managers believe the management function is not currently being done effectively. In fact, every responding manager felt they didn't provide enough training to managers with direct platform sales supervisory responsibilities." Survey respondents stated that there was a specific lack of training in areas such as coaching, time management, leadership, motivational and communications skills. Werlin concluded, " not only does our research clearly shows that bank investment program managers believe that managing the sales activities of a part-time sales force is of paramount importance, they are willing to commit time and resources to address their needs."

HCR is in the process of utilizing the information obtained from this Survey to develop a training program that will meet the needs and objectives of bank investment programs.