Robert Thomas Securities, a St. Petersburg, Fla., company that runs investment product marketing programs in banks, has developed a regime to help its bank clients overcome the slump in investment sales.
The initiative, dubbed the Sales Growth Program, combines marketing, training, and planning to provide sales representatives with at least 15 sales leads each week.
To that end, bank-based sales representatives must now develop weekly reports that detail how they will turn up leads - through cold calls, direct mail, or other means. The object of this effort is to generate more meetings with potential customers.
"We know that the more face-to-face meetings that occur, the more business banks will see," said Brewster Ellis, president of Robert Thomas' financial institutions division.
The sales representatives are also courting nonbank customers and reviewing existing securities accounts to uncover product gaps.
In addition to these tactics, there are biweekly conference calls that allow Robert Thomas salespeople at various banks to share strategies with each other.
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Northern Trust Co. has appointed senior vice president Terence J. Toth manager of its securities lending business, the bank announced last week.
Mr. Toth succeeds the departing Orrin J. Bargerhuff, who has managed the Chicago-based bank's global securities lending unit since 1986.
The bank, a subsidiary of Northern Trust Corp., said that Mr. Bargerhuff plans to "develop a performance advisory service for participants in securities lending programs throughout the world and to pursue opportunities in university-level teaching."
Mr. Toth began working at Northern Trust in 1982. After a brief stint as a managing director with Bankers Trust New York Corp., he returned - to work for Mr. Bargerhuff in the securities lending area.
- Barton Crockett
