Skills
Financial Services Sales Agent Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in financial services sales agents, and how to build and show them.
Financial Services Sales Agents need technical skills such as investment products, financial markets, and portfolio basics, plus people skills like trustworthiness and communication. They also use tools such as Trading platforms and Financial planning software.
Technical (hard) skills
- Investment products
- Financial markets
- Portfolio basics
- Securities regulations
- Sales and prospecting
- Financial planning tools
People (soft) skills
- Trustworthiness
- Communication
- Persistence
- Analytical thinking
Tools, equipment and technology
- Trading platforms
- Financial planning software
- CRM systems
- Market data tools
- Spreadsheets
- Compliance systems
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how financial services sales agents put their skills to work:
- How to assess a client’s risk tolerance
- How to build a diversified portfolio
- How to document a client recommendation
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Investment products” and “Financial markets.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “trustworthiness,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as FINRA SIE near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our financial services sales agent glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Financial Services Sales Agent training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.