Jagoinvestor
June 8, 2012
Relationship Manager – Who are they and what they do ?
In this article, we will discuss “Relationship managers” . I got an interesting comment about “Relationship Managers” on my facebook wall from Prasad when we were discussing recent HDFC Life offering on 100% Free Financial Planning through snapdeal. Here is Prasad’s sharing on his relationship manager and what happened with him.
I am totally disappointed with HDFC Bank , every time my RM calls, he wants me to sell an insurance plan. If i tell him that I have other commitments at this point of time, he tells me he can get me a credit card if I dont have one and use it to buy the insurance plan.. It can’t go down more !! had so much respect to this bank.. But the concept of RMs is the most misleading thing !!!
Focus on this comment and re-focus on one sentence – “he tells me he can get me a credit card if I dont have one and use it to buy the insurance plan” . What does it say? What comes to your mind when you read this? It shows that there is an extreme focus on performance, there is extreme pressure on meeting targets on relationship managers. Their jobs are at stake at times and there is a do or die situation.
What are Relationship Managers ?
Relationship Managers are generally assigned to a customer who have more money and resources than others, who has more longer-term relationship with Banks, you are told that you will be taken special care by this relationship manager, at times you can directly talk to him for any issues. All the people having more than a certain net-worth or salary are assigned, relationship managers.
You are told that he is supposed to help you out whenever you want and he will be available to you all the time when you need him. However relationship managers are generally MBA Marketing guys, who are hired to take the sales to go up, they are responsible to bring business by hook or by crook. The worst part of relationship managers is that their attrition rate is so high, that by the time you figure out that you 90% is-bought and were 10% missold a financial product, the relationship manager is not working in the same company anymore, he has moved to another job now.
I read this funny incident on Hemant’s article comment section where Shinoj is sharing something about customer care people lie
Recently got a call from kotak mahindra bank regarding some bullshit insurance policy. Usually whenever marketing calls comes to my mobile, I use to say “sorry, Not interested”. But this time I decided to elaborate why I am not interested by telling a lie. All I told was “Actually I was interested in this product and had fixed appointment with your relationship manager on last friday. But he dint came. So not interested.” The marketing guy replied that he will check back. After two or three minutes i got a call from them again. “Sir we are extremely sorry. We called that relationship manager. He was not able to come to you because he met with an accident that day. shall he come today?”
What does a relationship manager know about you?
A relationship manager knows how much money do you have in your bank account, he knows for how long it is lying there. He knows the recent credit and recent debit from your bank account. He can figure out that one of your FD maturity and is now “available” for the massacre. He can then call you or meet you and show you an amazing product, if you want to invest and “if you have any money” . Obviously he knows you are sitting on a 10 lac cash right now. He is innocent, he is just telling you about something FYI, after all, that’s his job!
Remember, If a relationship manager recommends you some product and if you manage to make good returns or it turns out to be a good thing for you, it’s mostly accidental! So now, if you are an HNI or if you are going to get a relationship manager from your bank, broker or whatever it is, just make sure you know that its most probably going to add to your headache. He will keep on pushing you, convince you about opportunities and prove to you how your money is getting wasted sitting at your bank account. I remember a comment made by Subra on one of his articles on relationship managers and doctors.
“Doctors over-diagnose and Relationship Managers over-analyze your portfolio. Doctors recommend treatment and drugs, RMs recommend ULIP.”
Relationship Manager interview
I can only imagine the interviews which banks or companies take for hiring relationship managers.
Question : Tell me something about why you will be a good relationship manager at our bank ? And What qualities in you makes you a great candidate ?
Candidate 1 : I have completed this amazing course on portfolio construction which is internationally accepted. I always think from the viewpoint of the client and what will make his life more easy and great . His interest should come before mine and bank and I say this because I think from long term point of view.
Candidate 2 : I am a behavioural finance expert and with use of words I can create situations of guilt , excitement and trust . I can make sure that the clients common sense and logical reasoning will just go for a toss and I also know how to do this all without appearing too pushy and deceptive . I have completed PHD in powerpoint and excel and can use those tools at 3:00 am in the morning too to impress a client.
You know who gets hired !
Why did you hire me ? – Asked Candidate 2
“So that we can learn somethings from you , anyways they never tought us anything useful in our MBA” – Says Interviewers
“And Why did you reject me ” – Asked Candidate 1
‘Because you took the title we were offering you very seriously” – Said interviewers
Any comments or experiences?
Do you think this topic of “relationship managers” deserves a Satyamev jayate episode ! . I can see some crying face’s already here, not on the show. Did this article help you understand exactly what relationship manager do?
Hi all,
Can anybody please tell me , is AVP and Senior Relationship manager designation is same in a bank or not.
Please explain. It’s highly urgent.
Thanks in Advance
No
I am into this for years now and let me tell you the salary hikes which a relationship manager gets is far better than any other banking role. If you have a liking to step out of your comfort level, go out and meet people and develop long term healthy relationship then this job is for you. Considering the pressure, if one really knows how to sell and how to play with peoples mindset then he/she can be pretty successful in this role. I multiplied my own salary in this role 2x within 6 month, that is the kind of money which this role offers. Besides this you get incentives on achieving you targets.
Glad to know that Ashish ..
This job is just abt maintaining the relationships or nothing else ! @Jagoinvestor Chauhan
I see where you guys are coming from…..bad senior management…..sales pressure….morning huddles…evenng MIS…..skipping boss`s calls……Relationship Management in Banking is out n out sales job……there are lot of good Relationship managers out there……the only difference is…..these guys are passionate about what they do…..they have the hunger to succeed and they are disciplined……They make plans for the day and go by the plan…….so before we say that RM`s job is a bad job….just ask yourself…..do you really have the passion to be an RM……if answer is no……better look for a job which requre lesser expertise.
Thanks for your comment Yogeshwar
This is one of the worst job in the market. It gives you money but at the cost of learning, peace, job satisfaction. I have been in to this since many years and struggling to move out. The problem is with the mindset of top management who completely lack compassionate leadership, thoughtful strategy, people skills. Senior management in these jobs are known to have worst people skills. It is all because the concept of relationship management is not that old in India and people have been accustomed to ad-hoc way of selling which is completely redudant and useless these days. Those who are your managers have got promoted in the past because they were fortunate to have phase wherein the customers weren’t that financially literate. Trust me if you happen to jump in to this by accident or by purpose then make sure that you find some way out of this. If you work diligently and honestly you will never be rewarded. Less talented people will get promoted because they have the guts to deceive and misell and good people who do clean work will not go that far so you will find yourself changing jobs too often because you are never settled. Good relationship management is very rare
Thanks for your comment Rajani
oh lord true rajani.. am going for a walk in …tell me what to do and how and i dont like to deceive people and sell false things/Policies/insurance/etc and what not!
Regards
Krishnan
Exaggerated..Dont blame the role.Blame d people who cheated.Iam from IIM.Iam not a RM.
TOP BSCHOOL GUYS WILL BE RECRUITED AS HNI MANAGERS and later will be promoted to higher roles..these website guys have no other work to defame the othrer role for their own business
I’m currently working as a recruiter, hiring for BPOs and I happened to come across this ad on Quikr about an urgent opening for relationship managers at a financial company the name of which wasn’t mentioned in said ad. Not knowing what relationship management actually involves, I Googled it and ended up here. And if this article is anything to go by, being a relationship manager at a bank/financial enterprise is no different from being a recruiter. You have to sell stuff to people, and you have targets and in a desperate attempt to meet your targets, you may have to deceive your customers from time to time. It’s make or break.
Hi Alan
Thanks for your sharing your valuable comment on this topic. Please keep sharing your views in future also
Manish
[…] THE BANK CULTURE :: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-HDFC-Bank-RVW4478355.htm http://jagoinvestor.dev.diginnovators.site/2012/06/relationship-manager.html The HDFC Bank has certainly cheated me, exactly in the same manner that Reader’s Digest […]
what is different between sales officer and Relationship manager at bank if there is different than tell me how i get job of RM and what educational qualifications i need to get job of RM at bank and i have two year experience in Sales
You can surely get a job as RM if you can crack the interview 🙂 .. No special thing required for that !
PLEASE HEPL ME OUT!!!! I GOT A JOB IN ING VYSYA BANK AS RELATIONSHIP MANAGER. SHALL I DO IT? WILL IT BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR A FEMALE TO CARRY IT OUT & CAN I FURTHER SWITCH & BUILD MY CARRER IN BANKING OPERATION IN THE SAME BANK IN FUTURE???
Gargi
Dont panic .. A job is always good, if you do it right way .. Life is long and this is a small thing in life at the moment.
Good One!
Thank God! None of my bank clients are here…
I worked as a relationship manager for six years, in six years time- i worked with India’s three largest private banks… Though my performance in the last organisation was 42% of the total achievement of the Branch’s revenue achievement by selling only mutual funds, private equity, General insurance and very few lakhs of ULIPs, my Branch Head was not giving me confirmation, as i am not selling LIFE insurance – He missed his Bangkok trip 😛
Ultimately, i had to take up the decision to serve my clients who provides me bread, butter and pizzas and ice creams too; by leaving the job ans started my own financial planning company… Left the job and into this asset management business last 2 years 8 months… Happily serving clients, God is providing me for my heart…
Please don’t blame RMs anymore… 90% of them are doing it for their survival…. 10% are there… they deserve all the curses! 😀
Haha good one Binson .. Glad to hear your story ! 🙂
RM’s situation is pathetic in an organization. They have more 25-30 products to sell and in 25 products also there are some variants means more than 150 products. Except that they some targets which is called revenue generation. They have do or die situation and that’s why some RM’s do misselling which is wrong.
very useful information and post. Its very much helpful for me and didn’t become a victim of RM’s
I would like to share my experience.
I have been trying to change my Phone number and address from long time. I have visited HDFC bank many times for this reason and it’s not done. HDFC Executives are very very responsive and they don’t care about the customer. They care about only their targets and business SLA’s. I did some FD in that bank for some short time by using Online banking.
This information came to RM and he called me one nice day. He told me that i’m a classic customer (surprised I’m not aware this :)) and you are been assigned a Relation ship Manager who can take of your bank transactions. He check with me ” How is the service and other things with HDFC?”
I explained my issues and he came to my office with a person for providing the resolution. That person is a financial advisor fromHDFC LIFE Insurance products.
At the first word, i told him. I don’t like HDFC Services so that’s why i don’t use HDFC bank for any transactions. Financial Advisor asked me about the issues want to give resolution.
He bring the application form to change Mobile & Address and gave me a bonus upgrading my debit card with zero annual fees. Asked me to go for Credit card also. I told I’m having the CC from last few years which is also a waste Card with out any benefits 🙂
He is telling me that FD is not good and would like to suggest a best option with life coverage. Frankly i was not aware of those products. He told its easy to get 16 – 17 % of return with medium risk and around 30% of returns with high risk. All these come along with 10X life coverage.
After i did some research and come to know few things. But i would like to know the review and experience from JI. Posted a thread here.
http://jagoinvestor.dev.diginnovators.site/forum/hdfc-pro-growth-plus-is-a-good-investion-option-with-life-cover/5042
Interesting thing is there forget about my issues to provide resolution(which is a primary responsbility of RM ). Followed up with calls about the Product purchase.
Asked them to first provide resolution and call. Its has taken 1 month to provide the resolution and then he called me.
Finally I told to RM. I’m not interested regarding this by knowing all the facts.
Thanks guys for the valuable post and helping me 🙂
Extremlly good Murali
You have behaved as a informed cusotmer and thats the reason your financial life will be much simple and good for this single reason . Well done and thanks for taking patience of sharing your experince !
Absolutely agree.. HDFC has a paaaaathetic service.. the no of ‘a’ s i mentioned directly proportional to their “valuable” service. We have a relationship manager for our company who will always “get back” on whatever we ask information or service on.. but NEVER got back till now on a single thing. Even escalation to his manager doesnt help…guess they all are a bunch of incapable unprofessional staff.
They will be on your head the moment you are ready to invest something but dont ask for good service. I had high opinion on HDFC till recently but its as WORSE as any other.
Hi all,
If its only with insurance that you’ve a problem, let me share something. I work for a private bank, and never mis-sold a product and to top it all never sold any insurance other than term insurance despite the mounting pressure (can you imagine that??). I help my clients’ accumulate their wealth only after understanding their risk appetite and time horizon. I feel proud that none of my client would be thinking of me in such a poor light.
It is a sad state and sometimes I wonder why IRDA doesn’t do a reality check and throw some light as to why insurance should be bought, not sold.
Thats great to hear Chakravarthy ! ,. but you are more of an advisor , we are talking the post “Relationship Managers” who work in companies showing to clients as if they are for them !
Hi Manish,
I nice article to empower the people to know and tackle their RM’s.
I personally never face the problem of a RM, but still I would say that this problem arise coz of the system and in reality the system is corrupt.
I distant relative of mine (also a very close friend) working with a leading Indian bank once gave me a call and start telling me my credit card details. I inquired how come you know each and every details, to which he said they have access and can get the access based on requirements. Explained and requested me to buy a policy on card and then get it cancelled withing 3-4 days. Later I asked why he did that, he said they were forced coz bank want more business and not just selling CC or normal accounts. I said the product is bad and he also confirmed that and said when they complain they were asked to keep quite and and sell.
So the problem is not these RM (of course they are the face) but the entire system and when the system do not want something better for the consumer or customer how can these RM be good..even they act like evil.
If I see this philosophy in a broader sense every one of us are equally responsible for this system, coz of our desire of more wealth and much better return.
Thanks,
Swetank
hmm.. thats one way of looking at it 🙂 .
THanks for sharing your relative case and the overall incident. It should how deep rooted the issue is!
I had an account with KM Bank. My RM told me to open an Demat account with them. Obviously he didnt told me various hidden charges and the money started deducted from my account. Immediately I withdrew all my money and never used that account again. I am more comfortable with Public sector banks
I dont think there is any thing different in PSU Bank here ,all banks charge for demat accounts
They charge but they dont hide. The KM guy obviously hid other charges which was wrong
Is a relationship manager equivalent to a Financial Planner. If not, can you suggest a good financial planner. I am suffering from Chronic kidney disease – creatinine level of 5.5 average. Currently I am fit and fine. But can’t say the same in future. Can i get a term plan of 1 crore from any insurance company.
Financial PLanner is different , RM are mostly people who assist you anytime from Bank . You will face issues getting a term plan. Better opt for one or two companies and see what happens
Just wanted to share a small incident which happened with me recently when I waked into a bank to submit KYC documents. I could see MIHY person being extra couteous to me and I could sense a sale pitch coming to me.
As suspected he came with “an excellent” investment plan that will make me rich if I invest 1lak for just 7 years and stay there for 15 years and with free insurance. I asked him if he is trying to sell me a ULIP, he said couteously it is free insurance no charges.
He gave me an illustration on how much I will get after 15 years along with split of “guaranteed” adition year on year. I closely looked at guranteed addition amounts to 95k per every 1lak invested. I asked where they invest to get 95% return, he said govt bonds. When I probed names of govt bonds which give more than 10% return he went to seek help from his colleague. His colleague came in and suggested that over all after 15 years guaranteed 15% return plus insurance and he went on to claim that money is not invested bonds but it would be given as loans to bank customers.
By then I understood that they are either not sure of the product at all or they are trying to missell. I asked both of them to prove that end number they have shown as indicative return is better than what PPF gives then I will buy the product. They confidently said yes but when I have shown then what PPF offers is more than what they have claimed as 15% retrun they were struggling for words.
Haha .. nice 🙂
thats what happens when one does his homework well 🙂
Let me guess, Are you referring to ICICI Bank and GSIP (Guaranteed Savings Insurance Plan)??
The truth has been explained on practical lines.I am suffering & facing a heavy damage by purchasing ULIP of Metlife insurance.The details of happenings will be eloberated in due course of time.
Sure .. please let us know the case of yours
I first of all wanna thank you for the wonderful articles that you are sharing on this website ,its really worth reading them.Well this article about Relationship Managers I would say a 50-50 for the fact that whatt you have mentioned here is true that the RMs here who work for the Banking firms are just product sellers.Now this is more or less like a doctor who is forced to sell medicines if that is all that he can make money out of then there is nothing to be surprised that he is pushing everything that he has to his clients but a good doctor would obviously see the issue and prescribe.For people who are not well educated on personal finance will obviously make mistakes that most of us have done in our past.So RMs are mediums used to rectify this if they understand this and work towards it there is a lot of good things that can happen to a person .So a bad prescription makes a bad doctor and the right makes a good.
So it all depends on the ethics that is followed than just try and sell products that will leave that kind of an impression that you mentioned in this article…
Regards,
Varun.
Yes Varun
The point I wanted to make is how things are working in finance world these days and they should not get an impression that RM is for his benefit totally .
A must read article on how HSBC relationship managers looted singer Suchitra Krishnamoorthi.
http://www.moneylife.in/article/hsbc-loots-suchitra-krishnamoorthi-after-big-promises-of-24-returns/24975.html
Thanks for the link Tarun . I was aware of this link and the issue . It will help others
I am an imperia customer of HDFC bank and is provided with dedicated RM. After my account upgradation from preferred to imperia, a new RM with special training and more experience with banking are provided.This is what bank informed me when I enquired about the need for RM change.
I am in senior position with all resources in hand in my company. As usual our first solicitation call started with trying to offload some thing on me. Couple of probing questions in technical terms and overall financial knowledge from my side, they quickly realise the customer level and never bothered me. Certainly these RMs are not equipped to deal with the senior level corporate executives and that is the good news.
Did I find the use of RM.The answer is unequivocal ‘Yes’. All my service requests are taken care with prompt action. My RM never dare to call me and it is other way that ‘hunter gets hunted’. I give lot of work to my RM to never think about selling anything to me.
Haha .. thats a great comment on how RM can be used to do your petty banking works . Would like to know what kind of tasks you give RM;s ? I never knew what all they are suppose to do for HNI’s (assuming you to be HNI) ?