KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 9): Asset management sales departments across Europe are set to increase their hiring activity—41% of the managers plan to substantially increase their sales headcount in the U.K., 34% plan to substantially increase their headcount in Spain, and 32% plan to substantially increase their headcount in France.

In a statement on Tuesday (Nov 9), Boston-based global research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates said asset managers are poised to make changes to their sales and marketing operations to increase their chances of winning business from investors.

It said almost half (46%) believe that improving their responsiveness to client requests is an important goal.

A similar number (48%) aim to increase the specialisation of their sales staff and 38% plan to increase the number of investment and product specialists in their sales teams.

In addition, respondents are keen to meet clients’ requests for time with portfolio managers: 42% will focus on this target over the coming 12 to 24 months.

Cerulli associate director Fabrizio Zumbo said three-quarters of asset managers expect to increase their marketing headcount in Europe over the coming 12 to 24 months.

“In addition, 20% expect to increase their annual marketing spend by at least 10% in 2022.

“We believe this is a clear sign of increased optimism and certainty when it comes to future planning,” said Zumbo.

Cerulli said video is one area that asset managers are devoting more time and resources to in their promotional communications.

It said nearly half (46%) of the managers surveyed throughout Europe plan to increase their production of video marketing content over the next 12 to 24 months and 60% expect to increase their production of video thought leadership content.

In addition, social media content is becoming more important: 44% of the managers expect to increase their production of such content substantially over the next two years and 42% identified social media specialists as their top priority in terms of recruitment.