A mentoring program in which brokers coach small teams of licensed bankers helps explain Compass Bank's retail brokerage sales growth of about 20% in each of the past three years, according to the brokerage unit's head.
"As a salesman, you are a lone wolf, but for the 10 or so platform reps, you are the coach and mentor," said Noah Zecher, the chief executive at Compass Brokerage, in describing the arrangement. "If you are not comfortable doing that, we are probably not going to be a program you will thrive in."
Compass' 500 licensed bankers' volume has grown more swiftly than that of its 110 dedicated brokers, he said. The bankers' sales of mutual funds and annuities have grown more than 30% annually during the past three years.
Mr. Zecher woudln't reveal the retail brokerage unit's assets under management or its total sales, but data from federal filings, compiled by Michael White-Symetra BHC Fee Income Report, show the holding company reported about $31 million of combined fees from securities and annuities in 2007.
Compass Bancshares Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., was bought last year by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA of Madrid.
Maintaining sales growth of about 20% a year is impressive, said Michael A. White, a consultant in Radnor, Pa. The average annual growth of mutual fund and annuity sales at large bank holding companies was 8.2% from 2001 through 2006, though the rate rose to 18.6% in the first three quarters of last year, he said.
Compass Brokerage's earned it Bank Insurance and Securities Association's "program of the year" award for large financial institutions. The mentoring arrangement, one of several new initiatives, ensures platform bankers get "very targeted product information and training in selling," Mr. Zecher said.
Brokers lead weekly meetings with the bankers and often meet jointly with customers, he said. The brokers and bankers then share the fees generated from this.
Another element behind the consistent sales growth is a rigorous system of review in which regional and divisional leaders must "stand and deliver," laying out their weekly results and how they were achieved, he said.
"There is a tremendous amount of oversight and inspection to make sure the numbers are where they need to be at the end of the month, quarter, and year," he said.
Mr. Zecher's initiatives include some aimed at positioning Compass Brokerage long-term. Within the past 18 months, its brokers have earned the certified retirement counselor designation sponsored by the International Foundation for Retirement Education.
"We think it's been critical in terms of making brokers think that every time you sit with a customer you are going to think about retirement income planning," he said, "not just how we are going to maximize the return on your investments."
Compass requires its fund and annuity partners to share the focus on retirement planning during monthly calls with the bank's brokers. "We've told our partners that, in their component, they must talk about how to help us provide for retirement income planning."
It is not yet clear the extent to which such efforts have boosted sales, he said, but it's a good bet that they will in the long run. "We've all seen these figures about 11,000 people turning 60 each week from 2007 onward," he said.
Compass began adding associate brokers five years ago It now has 25 associates who work under senior brokers with smaller clients. "We are maintaining the senior brokers' sway and opportunity," said Mr. Zecher. "And over time, this provides us with a great pool of tested applicants."
