In banking and finance, relationship managers come in many colours, shapes and sizes. There are the grey-suited bankers who deal in corporate banking, bespoke suit-wearing private bankers catering to high-net-worth individuals, and their retail banking cousins who cater to the needs of the general public.
However, at the end of the day, their jobs are more similar than they are different, says Levina Poon, recruitment firm Hudson's director for banking and financial services.
'A relationship manager is someone who represents the bank and who promotes the bank's services to clients,' she says, adding they spend most of their time developing relationships with potential customers - or 'prospecting' - and maintaining existing relationships.
Maisie Lam, country human resources director at Citi Hong Kong, says where they do differ is in the way prospecting is executed, and in the types of products and services they have to deal with.
For example, relationship managers in private banking and corporate banking rely more on referrals to develop new clients. But clients of the latter, such as multinational corporations, tend to base their banking decisions on whether the company already has an existing relationship in other regions.
Corporate banking relationship managers also deal with solutions designed to meet a company's financing needs, such as cash management, trade finance and securitisation, in addition to traditional banking services such as lending and advising on investments.