Movers and Shakers: Ann Zeiler, Senior Vice President, North American Sales at Northern Trust

By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

Ann Zeiler takes the long view in her position as a saleswoman for Global Fund Services at the 120-year-old bank, Northern Trust Corp. “I am the cheerleader of the group, the perpetual optimist,” said Zeiler. “If someone keeps saying no, it is hard to get a group of people to energize again. Why keep trying?”

She answered her own question: “Because a lost opportunity is your next prospect.”

Zeiler is a natural saleswoman. She is energetic, driven and believable. Her career began 28 years ago at Northern Trust when she was supporting retirees and “on the phone all day working on retirement benefits.” Eventually, her personality opened doors to a marketing role where she was supporting a sales team and responding to requests for proposals.

“I am a team player but I like having individual responsibilities,” said Zeiler. “Buying decisions are emotional decisions. A sale depends on your knowledge and your ability to communicate.”

Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Sales

She said that she likes everything about sales – from not knowing the challenges you will face on a daily basis to going out there and finding the answers.

“It’s a creative job and gets my competitive nature out,” she said.

She explained that one of the hardest things about being a woman in sales is that you don’t have control over your schedule.

“Saleswomen make choices based on their family and some will give opportunities to colleagues that can have a negative impact on their own careers,” said Zeiler. “There are not many women in sales who can succeed at the highest level while juggling family and kids.”

Zeiler knows the challenges saleswoman face all too well. She has two college-aged children and admits that her schedule kept her away from home while they were growing up. “There are a lot of points of possible failure for women – health, kids, support at home. There are so many things that could go wrong and derail women more than men,” said Zeiler.

She credits her mentor, Jennifer Tretheway, to helping her succeed as a saleswoman. “She was one of the people I was supporting when I first moved over to the sales side,” said Zeiler. “She not only taught me how to write, act and present myself but she was the blueprint for a successful saleswoman with a family.”

Longevity in the Industry

Zeiler went on to say that Tretheway has been at Northern Trust for over 37 years, similar to her own 28 years at the bank. She said that this is one differentiator about the firm – longevity. “We frequently become an extension of the client we are supporting,” said Zeiler. “We are like their corporate memory because we are still at Northern and cultivate those long-term relationships.”

According to Zeiler, Northern Trust has a reputation for being conservative, which is a positive trait for a bank but makes it difficult to launch new business lines. The bank culture was a hurdle she had to cross as she helped build the Global Fund Services business, which provides custody, post-trading support, fund administration and other back- and middle-office services to investment managers.

She explained that the bank in the past had been primarily focused on pension and retirement plan assets, private client business and more recently its non-U.S. business entities. When Zeiler noticed a growing traction surrounding investment managers as a client base, she knew the bank might struggle to adapt but welcomed the challenge of building a new business.

To launch a business that supported investment managers, Northern Trust had to make acquisitions, including a European hedge fund service provider and a Dublin-based fund administration firm. She also had to make frequent trips to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other money centers multiple times a month.

“Could I have moved the business faster if I were a man? Maybe,” said Zeiler, thinking back. “However most of my challenges had to do with the bank’s way of doing things, which is to take a very deliberate approach and consider all the possible risks before jumping in to a new line of business.”

She said that she doesn’t think she faced any certain challenges because she is a woman. She gives credit to the women that have gone before and explained that many of her female bosses and mentors must have been met with adversity.

“They made the road much smoother for what I was trying to do,” Zeiler said.

Achieving Success through Tenacity

And what Zeiler was trying to do, she succeeded at. She explains that one of her most important successes was a deal she tried closing 4 times before it was actually inked. “We were losing because we were new to the game and the firm didn’t consider us a major player,” she explained. “I look at failure as just another opportunity to succeed and we worked to earn a recognizable name.”

She said that traveling out to Boston for a fifth time was the charm. “It has been very gratifying to watch our GFS business grow from a novelty to a major player in investment management.”

With Zeiler’s energy and drive it is no wonder she is sometimes called the Patron Saint of Lost Causes. Her independent spirit and aggressive attitude has helped her conquer the challenges many other businesswomen face today.

“We usually constrain ourselves,” she said. “There is much more openness for a successful woman these days. A lot of women say you can’t have it all but I think you can come pretty close.”