Fund managers will slash the number of business development manager (BDM) roles by half within the next 12 months, according to Perennial Investment Partners head of retail funds management Brian Thomas.
"On the funds management side the old distribution strategy of the big players with lots of BDMs is going to be over," Thomas said.
"You'll find that the number of BDMs in the industry will possibly halve in the next 12 months as people probably use more cost-effective and more modern marketing approaches in terms of getting to the financial planners, rather than having armies of BDMs."
Fund managers would go back to targeted marketing techniques rather than basing sales purely on relationships, he said.
Financial Recruitment Group state manager Conor Donoghue said while some selective downsizing of BDMs had already occurred, further cuts would continue but not to the extent where those roles were whittled down by half.
"I think that some of the downsizing will still happen but I will be very surprised if we see it halve in the next 12 months," he said.
Furthermore, Donoghue said he had not observed a trend of fund managers wanting to resort to more traditional marketing techniques to replace BDM roles.
"I haven't necessarily heard from any of our clients where they're saying they just want people to go back to the really old sales style without focusing on the relationships," he said.
"But I think people's KPIs [key performance indicators] will be a lot more managed and I think there will be a lot less leeway for people not achieving targets."
