Bank Sales Manager: Unstable Job and Income?

Working as a bank sales manager and handling customers' accounts and solving problems and issues for them is a huge challenge. They sometimes have very tricky requests that could take a long time to settle. On top on this, one would have to look for new business for the bank as well. This is done either thru recommending new products/services to existing customers or bringing totally new to the bank customers in.
Both ways, it is a challenge and it gets stressful at times. There are staff who leave the bank after a short spell, citing stress as the main push factor. More often than not, the sales staff have to manage high sales targets set for them by senior management on the one hand, and manage customers' expectations on the other, while maintaining low or zero complaint rates. Harmony among selfish colleagues and overworked admin staff is also hard to maintain.
How to do all these when one has to work fast and furious in order to achieve the high and demanding sales targets?
Some say it is almost impossible. Well, they are quite right. Few manage to weather thru this cycle unscathed. And some bankers who are good at their work manage to earn a very fat salary. However, having said that, these high-earning bankers are in the minority. Probably out of 20, 1 would make it big. Another 5 would be above average performers who are being treated as cash cows, while the other 14 would not even survive more than a year.

Number of Bank Closures in USA > 70 in 2009, Compared to 25 in 2008 and 3 in 2007

Not sure if this kind of closures would ever happen in Singapore? If it does, then my job will be on the line. Please read.

Bank Closure

Please read this article. Another bank closure in the USA.

Economy Picking Up?

Please read this article if you are keen on knowing more about home loan packages.

Taiwan Bank Scams

The below article is from Vivien Yeo, 07 August 2009, on bank scams in Taiwan.

An e-mail scam making its rounds in Taiwan, attempts to trick users into downloading malware, Symantec has warned. Systems without up-to-date patching for Adobe products are vulnerable to the attack.
Appearing to be a credit card promotional e-mail sent from a Taiwanese commercial bank, the spam message has a deliberate void in the content which gives users the impression that it failed to load properly, according to a Symantec blog post on Thursday night. Users are then instructed to click onto a link if they are unable to view the images.
Clicking on the link brings users to a Web page containing malicious code, which then redirects them to at least one other site. At this stage, it attempts to drop a shellcode--an exercise that targets systems without up-to-date patching for Adobe software. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to gain control of the machine.
Adobe last month released a patch for the vulnerability, which affects products including Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.
When contacted by ZDNet Asia, a Symantec spokesperson declined to name the spoofed bank but noted that it had already been notified of the matter. Spam activity has been limited to Taiwan, the Singapore-based spokesperson added. Symantec was, however, unable to provide the number of infections.

Banking Counterparts?

Are there any readers who are also working in banks and doing sales in particular? Personal Financial Services or Commercial Banking? Are there any interesting stories that you can share? Please leave a message in the comments section. Thank you very much.

Busy and Stressful Banking Work

Dear all, I apologise if I have not written anything much lately. I have been so busy with work that I hardly have the time to write on this blog.
I find Banking Sales very interesting and challenging and it lets me meet people from many different business backgrounds. It is indeed fun, but it can also be stressful, what with all the demands placed upon us by management, customers and people in the bank/office.
Sometimes, it does get demoralising when things dont work out your way.

Weird Bank Customer

There is this bank customer who was so blur as to sign up for a product with a bank sales staff who sold him at a more expensive rate compared with another bank sales staff.
This customer, seemed 'blur', when contacted by the latter staff who asked the customer, why he signed up with the other person?
The customer's reply was, 'I just signed, I did not know what exactly I was signing'.
Can you imagine that?