Are sales won by skill or flexibility? A look inside investment banking sales strategies

When clients meet with an investment banker, their decision to trust that advisor often comes down to more than just numbers. Do they feel the banker truly understands the market? Can that person adapt when a client’s needs shift? These questions guided a recent study published in SAGE Open, which examined how salespeople’s expertise and adaptability shape client attitudes in the investment banking sector.

Conducted by Leslier Valenzuela-Fernández from the University of Chile and Francisco Villegas Pinuer from Universidad Diego Portales, the research explored how two key salesperson traits—technical knowledge and adaptive selling behavior—interact to influence how customers view their bankers. The study also looked at how these effects differ by client age and gender.

The findings suggest that both technical expertise and adaptability improve client attitudes toward salespeople. However, age and gender play an important role in how much each trait matters. Older clients value adaptability more, while younger clients respond more to technical knowledge. Women also place greater weight on adaptability than men do.

Psychology of Selling

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Setting the Stage: What Drives a Client’s Trust?

In financial services, trust is currency. The people managing investments must not only know the products but also communicate with clarity and flexibility. As banks compete to retain clients, understanding what customers value in a salesperson becomes essential.

Valenzuela-Fernández and Villegas Pinuer began their research with a simple but underexplored question: What makes a salesperson in investment banking successful from the client’s perspective? Previous studies often focused on management or sales performance metrics rather than the customer’s viewpoint.

The researchers drew on the knowledge-based view of business, a framework suggesting that a firm’s competitive advantage grows from how well it generates and uses knowledge. Applied to sales, this view implies that salespeople who can draw on deep technical understanding—and adjust that knowledge to fit each client—can create stronger customer relationships.

In banking, the combination of expertise and adaptability is particularly important. Financial products are complex, and clients vary widely in their goals, experience, and comfort with risk. A technically skilled but rigid banker might overwhelm or alienate some clients, while a flexible but uninformed one may fail to earn respect. The study set out to measure how these qualities work together to shape customers’ attitudes.

The Investigation: Studying Investment Bank Clients in Chile

The research took place within a Chilean investment bank known for its stability and high service standards. The authors surveyed 115 long-term customers, all of whom had maintained business relationships with the bank for at least five years. These clients represented a financially knowledgeable group, familiar with investment products and services.

Participants ranged in age from 18 to 65, with an average age of 48. About 59 percent were men, and a little over half had been with the bank for more than five years. The survey asked them to rate their experiences with their assigned salespeople using a 7-point scale.

The survey measured three main areas. The first was technical knowledge, referring to how well a salesperson understood financial markets, competitors’ products, and company procedures. The second was adaptive selling behavior, or how flexibly a salesperson adjusted their approach to match the client’s needs. The third was attitude toward the salesperson, which included satisfaction, perceived customer orientation, and overall impression.

Using structural equation modeling, the researchers analyzed how technical knowledge and adaptive behavior influenced customer attitudes and how those relationships changed across age and gender groups.

What the Data Revealed

Across the full sample, both technical knowledge and adaptability were linked to better client attitudes toward salespeople. In other words, clients valued both expertise and the ability to adjust. The researchers also found that these two factors reinforced each other. A salesperson who was both knowledgeable and flexible generated the most positive impressions.

Yet the story became more nuanced when age and gender were considered.

Among younger clients, technical knowledge had the strongest effect. Those under 50 tended to reward salespeople who could demonstrate mastery of investment products and market conditions. Younger clients appeared to rely on expertise to make sense of financial complexity and confirm that their banker understood the industry.

Older clients showed a different pattern. While they also valued knowledge, they responded more positively to adaptability. For customers over 50, a salesperson’s ability to adjust to preferences, communication style, and pace of decision-making mattered more. These clients seemed to prioritize personal connection and responsiveness over purely technical skill.

Gender differences also appeared in the analysis. Men and women both rated technical expertise as important, and the effect of knowledge was nearly identical between the two groups. However, only women showed a significant positive response to adaptive selling behavior. Female clients placed more value on how well a salesperson could tailor the interaction to their needs and maintain a sense of rapport.

Together, these results suggest that while expertise forms a baseline for credibility, adaptability may become the deciding factor for certain client groups, particularly older and female customers.

Inside the Sales Process: Why Knowledge and Flexibility Matter

To understand the significance of these findings, it helps to look at what “technical knowledge” and “adaptive selling behavior” actually mean in practice.

Technical knowledge includes familiarity with investment instruments, market trends, competitor products, and internal processes. In banking, this expertise allows salespeople to function as advisors rather than simple intermediaries. When clients ask about risk or portfolio diversification, they expect accurate, well-reasoned answers. A salesperson who can explain these concepts clearly can build credibility and trust.

Adaptive selling behavior, on the other hand, involves adjusting communication style, tone, and approach based on the client’s situation. For instance, a younger investor might prefer quick, digital interactions with data-driven presentations, while an older client may value face-to-face meetings and relationship continuity. Adaptability is the ability to read those cues and respond accordingly.

The study found that when salespeople combined these two qualities, the effect on customer attitudes was strongest. Expertise without flexibility risked coming across as detached, while flexibility without depth risked appearing superficial. Together, they formed a mix that resonated across most client groups.

What This Means for Business

Although the research focused on a Chilean bank, the results carry broader implications for financial institutions and other service industries. They suggest that training and management practices should not treat technical knowledge and adaptability as separate goals. Instead, these traits may reinforce each other in building stronger client relationships.

For businesses, the study points to several takeaways. First, sales training programs may need to balance product expertise with interpersonal skills. A salesperson who can explain complex products but also adjust their message to different audiences may have a better chance of retaining clients.

Second, demographic awareness matters. Managers can consider matching salespeople to clients in ways that align with these dynamics. For example, teams serving older clients might benefit from developing communication flexibility and patience, while those working with younger investors may focus more on deep product knowledge and technical insights.

Third, gender dynamics in client relationships may call for nuanced management approaches. Since female clients in this study responded more to adaptability, banks could train sales staff to emphasize personalized service and relationship maintenance when working with this segment.

These findings align with the growing shift in banking toward customer experience and relationship management. As more transactions move online, the human element becomes a differentiator. Salespeople who combine technical precision with personal adaptability can help institutions maintain loyalty in an increasingly digital market.

What’s Next for Research

While the study offers a detailed look into investment banking relationships, it also highlights areas for further exploration. The research focused on a single Chilean institution, so future studies could test whether the same patterns hold in other countries or industries. Financial cultures vary, and factors such as regulation, digital adoption, and economic volatility could influence how clients value expertise versus adaptability.

Another open question concerns the salesperson’s own characteristics. This study examined client perceptions but did not account for salesperson personality, stress, or emotional factors that might shape interactions. Future research might look at how these human elements influence the balance between knowledge and flexibility.

It may also be valuable to study how digital communication channels affect adaptability. As more investment discussions move to online platforms, the nature of adaptive selling may change. Salespeople might need to find new ways to read client cues and build trust without face-to-face interaction.