Mutual fund company Van Kampen-American Capital has designed a training course for managers of bank-based brokers.
The course is based on selling techniques developed by Xerox Corp., the copy machine manufacturer that owned Van Kampen for nine years until 1993.
The program teaches that effective selling always involves the same techniques, regardless of what is being sold.
Indeed, what sets Van Kampen's program apart from those of other fund companies is that the teachers are representatives of Xerox.
"Whether buying a mutual fund, a Xerox machine, or an airplane, a buyer goes through a predictable, repeated process," said R. Scott West, the fund firm's senior vice president, director of financial institutions.
For four years, Van Kampen, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., has taught branch-based brokers how to sell its funds.
The problem is that the brokers' bosses don't always reinforce those techniques once Van Kampen trainers have gone.
Van Kampen, which manages $42.4 billion in assets, is a leading seller of mutual funds through banks. The company has selling arrangements with 350 banks, and it expects financial institutions to contribute 35% to 40% to its sales this year.
Mr. West said most salespeople think touting the virtues of a product is enough to persuade a customer to shell out money. But Xerox teaches that the process is more complex.
Brokers learn to probe a customer for specific needs such as the lack of a retirement plan or a dearth of savings to fund a child's college.
Van Kampen is taking its training program to the sales managers to teach that group how to spot brokers who are veering from the sales process.
Patrick Walsh, sales director at First Chicago-NBD Corp., swears by Van Kampen's training program. He added that a brokerage unit's success depends on sales managers who embrace the principles of the program.
If brokers "don't have someone supporting them and reminding them, they go back to their old ways," he said.
Van Kampen charges $5,500 per 20 students, and offers banks the option of getting reimbursed by capturing an equal amount of assets into Van Kampen's portfolios.
That's how the fund company tries to hook brokers into selling its funds. But Mr. Walsh insisted Van Kampen's training program is unusual in that it focuses on general selling techniques and avoids touting the portfolios the fund company manages.
"Other fund company's training programs are about how their products fit in with a customer's needs," Mr. Walsh said.
