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Hot Job Of The Future: National Accounts Manager

by Eric Daugherty

Increasingly, National Accounts Managers (NAMs) are the ones responsible for generating big opportunities for asset management firms. We just published Excellence in Distribution: National Accounts, a study that discusses the rise in importance of National Accounts teams. It's not hard to understand why they are gaining prominence.

Distributors continue to consolidate. Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney merged, and Wells Fargo took over Wachovia. On any given platform, there is only finite space for investment products. So, as distributors consolidate, there is a natural rationalization of products. For asset managers, this is a huge risk, and a huge opportunity. While the office to office wholesaling to individual advisors (or teams of advisors) still has to happen, more and more of the huge battles are being for fought for platform placements. This makes the role of National Accounts Manager vital.

More than ever, National Accounts Managers need to be polymaths - adept at multiple functions. They need to be relationship builders and astute strategists when dealing with the distributors, and agile gatherers of resources within their own firms. They need to insure clear and ample communications to multiple parties, and to identify opportunities to marry their firm's products with a distributor's needs. They also need to be technical enough to talk product attributes with research analysts. As you can imagine, finding the right person for the role is of paramount importance.

However, there are other key findings in our report that firms need adopt. Specifically, they need to focus on fewer distribution partners. The landscape of distribution is changing, and dispersing efforts across too many focus firms will just limit chances for success. Firms should be measuring the profitability of each distribution relationship that they have (P&L example below).

Additionally, firms need to insure that the goals and incentives of Sales and National Accounts are aligned. National Accounts drives how product gets placed on platforms. Sales drives how much product gets bought off of those platforms. Clearly, neither of those can be optimized without the other.

Lastly, firms need to put more resources behind National Accounts. Curiously, while 92% of firms expect National Accounts to become more important at their firms, only 68% expect staffing increases, and 48% anticipate budget increases. With fewer, but bigger, opportunities available, those firms who recognize the importance of resourcing National Accounts appropriately, and staffing it with the best and brightest they can find, will win the most profitable placements.

Long term winners in distribution will be those firms who figure out how 1+ 1 >2, how Sales plus a stellar National Accounts team can drive better partnerships, more valuable platform placements, and greater sales. In the meantime, expect to see a big focus on National Accounts Manager hiring and development.