Today's marketplace calls for decisive action in order to ensure that the sales forces of financial services organizations can produce results while winning back the consumers' trust. Depending on their financial health and position within the global banking arena, financial services organizations today are balancing a range of strategic necessities.

Executive Leaders of these organizations are wrestling with how to reconcile competing imperatives, including maintaining a strong competitive advantage, identifying ways to position the organization for mergers or acquisitions, and identifying the "right" expansion opportunities in the global economic turmoil. All of these must take place while continuing to meet increasing demands from investors, regulators, and clients with far fewer resources and talent than they had one year ago.

The report includes:

• The most pressing sales trends in the financial services industry, resulting from powerful economic, consumer, and regulatory shifts;
• The strategic initiatives for adapting to the sales trends to gain a sustainable, long-term approach to value creation and to rebuild consumer confidence;
• The best practices for skill development in order to meet strategic objectives amidst a new, challenging environment.