Skills for being a relationship manager

Skills for being a relationship manager

Swati Gandhi had always wanted to join the banking sector. “When I was in Class XI, I was fascinated with the work profile of bankers, and was impressed by the respect they get from their customers,” says this relationship manager (RM) with Axis Bank.
Gandhi, who joined the bank 10 months ago, after completing her MBA (finance), feels that the job is giving her everything she ever wanted. “I started off as an NRI RM and was also handling forex. It’s interesting being an RM as you get to meet a lot of people. You are part of the chain that makes and maintains relationships with the customers on behalf of the bank,” she says.
What Gandhi likes about her job is that her profile is very well defined. “As an RM you have to do field as well as desk work, which gives you a taste of both the worlds. Because of this, the growth prospects here are tremendous,” she says.
Different banks have different profiles for RMs. However, some of the common profiles are: If you are an acquisition manager, you have to acquire clients and focus on fieldwork to get business for your branch. As a service relationship manager, you have to sit in office and resolve the problems that the customers of your branch have. You also try to sell the bank’s products and services to the customers — new or old.
Another benefit of working for a bank is that promotions are frequent. If your performance is good, then you can be promoted from the post of RM to that of a manager in two to three years.
“It is a performance-driven field. If someone comes to you with a problem, then you should have the capability to solve it within a specific time period or else explain to the customers the various ways in which or s/he can get it solved,” says Gandhi.
With promotions come salary hikes. Then you get incentives on completion of targets, which is in excess of your monthly salary or cost to company (CTC).
The toughest part of the job is that you have to have loads of patience. You might encounter impatient/angry customers — some of them might have high expectations when it comes to service delivery and will demand quick solutions to problems. “If you give them a good hearing and manage to placate them, or solve their problems, then you can be sure you have won their loyalty for your bank. This is the time when your mental capabilities are tried and tested,” says Surinder Khanna, RM with a reputable bank in Delhi. “Fitness also counts as you may have to spend a lot of time out in the field. Building a rapport with your customer is important as you might have to meet him or her again and again,” says Surinder.
What’s it about?
Relationship managers or RMs look after the administration of a bank branch. They also look after the direct sales associates (DSA) and direct sales team (DST). Checking files, forming DSA teams, training people, making DSAs aware of various policies of the bank, creating relationships with customers are some responsibilities that RMs share. They also take feedback about DSAs and DSTs from customers. They have to ensure that a bank’s services are topnotch, making a customer feel safe and pampered
Clock Work
8:30 am: Leave home
9:30 am: Reach office
10 am: Brief DSAs and DSTs; fix targets for the day
11 am: Check files (loan), check CASA files (current account, saving account)
11:30 am: Process files
12 pm: Check Credit Investigation Bureau of India Limited (CIBIL) rating
1:30 pm: lunch
2:30 pm: Follow up on the credit team files
4-6 pm: Check files for the day, taking reports from DSAs and DSTs
6:30 pm: Leave office
The Payoff
. Relationship Manager: Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 a month
. Branch Manager: Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 a month
. District Manager: Rs 55,000 to Rs 65,000 a month
. Regional Manager (AVP): Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh a month
. VP (North, East, West, South): Sky is the limit
Skills
. Good administrative skills
. Good communication and presentation skills
. Sound knowledge of product
. Networking capabilities
. Good at strategising

How do i get there?
Taking up maths or commerce at the plus-two level helps. A BBA degree at the graduation level will make it easy for you to handle the job. Some banks promote executives to RM, some directly recruit MBA freshers for the post of RM. However, many banks will only take candidates with an MBA degree
Pros & cons
. Money is good in this profession
. Good work culture
. You get to interact with interesting people/customers
. Long working hours
. Stressful job
Institutes & urls
. Indian Institutes of Management (Ahmedabad, Kolkata, etc.),
www.catiim.in
. Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (FMS), New Delhi,
www.fms.edu
. Management Development Institute, Gurgaon,
www.mdi.ac.in
. International Management Institute, New Delhi,
www.imi.edu
. FORE School of Management, New Delhi,
www.fsm.ac.in


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