BNY Mellon has brought in Rod Riggins as sales director for its wealth management business in the Texas region, a newly-created role in an important market for the firm.

Riggins is responsible for new business development and connecting high net worth families and foundations with BNY Mellon’s services. He reports to Erich Smith, executive director within the wealth management business.

Riggins joins from US Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management, where he was employed for 22 years, most recently as a sales director.

Dallas, TX is an important market for BNY Mellon, a spokesperson told Family Wealth Report, and the firm has tripled the size of its office staff there over the past year. It also says it is on track to increase new business by 50 per cent compared to last year.

The latest appointment is part of a sales push at BNY Mellon, which earlier this week announced the hire of Fred Young, who joined from Glenmede, as managing director of sales for investment management in the Boston region.

At the same time, a new study from Family Office Exchange this week highlighted the increasing importance of sales and business development for wealth managers, as they fight for new business in what has been a difficult environment.

Nearly all wealth advisory firms are strengthening their sales-related roles, the study shows, and some are bringing in business development officers to work exclusively with wealthy individuals, according to FOX. Strategies such as creating specific incentive plans and providing sales training and coaching tools are part of this trend (view here).

However, as a new report from Weatherill Executive Consulting highlights, this needs to be balanced with an ongoing commitment to current clients to maintain trusted advisor status by achieving a relationship of at least six years, as this has been shown to boost profitability (view here).