Thus, producers and management alike have never put much thought into marketing. Consequently, prospecting has been seen as an extension of the sales process, making it difficult to focus on developing marketing and relational skills the very skills that are needed in today's hyper-competitive environment. Positioning must precede promotion. What this means is that there is a great deal of promotion taking place with no thought of positioning oneself first. Positioning is vitally important prior to promotion because without positioning yourself first as a financial resource with your prospective clients, all the promotion that you do simply tells them that you're trying to sell them something as opposed to help them buy what they need.
Marketers focus on people, merchandisers focus on products.
Unique to the financial services industry is the frequent articulation of markets as products or services, as in the annuities market, the equities market, or the personal banking market. The challenge many producers have in acquiring sequential sales as well as gathering additional assets of their clients is this idea of being focused on product or process as opposed to being focused on people. People buy solutions to their problems. They are looking for convenience and one-stop shopping. By focusing on specific groups of people and seeing them as your market, it allows you to speak their language effectively, understand their needs perceptively, and position and promote yourself as a financial resource.