The Numbers of Financial Communications

For those interested in a career in financial communications, it’s time to up your game with numbers, percentages, ratios, and so much more. Of course communications skills need to be great too, but the better you get along with numbers, the more likely you’ll find success in this sector.

Dealing with Consumers and Employees

As you start out in financial communications, you may spend more of your time working with your client’s staff members and their customers. One of the main focuses at this level will be learning how to engage the employees in the financial happenings of the company other than if they want to know about bonuses or the possibility of hiring or laying off employees. Part of this may be a need for education among the ranks about the terminology used in financial statements and reports. So helping them understand what the numbers mean to them on the reports should be considered and suggested to your clients.

Dealing with Leaders

When working with corporate and organization leaders, you may work in a number of transactions such as IPOs, mergers, acquisitions, and negotiations. Some of these may require very specialized skills that will be learned over time working with other experts. You’ll also need to be familiar with the various stock exchanges that impact your clients.

Another part of the work is dealing with financial institutions such as banks, credit companies, brokerages, fund managers, and private equity companies. Knowing their lingo and pulling together due diligence and background reports will also be necessary.

Dealing with Investors

Much of the work being done in financial communications has to do with investors and relations with them. The numbers need to be precise and high-level. It is also likely that you’ll work with national and international organizations as you move up the job ladder and improve your skills. As those skills increase, the investors are likely to be more sophisticated and knowledgeable – and not just in the investing world. People are likely to know others in power placement, and at that level, it can be a very small world, so your skills will carry you or bury you.

With investor relations, some of the work you’ll do on a regular basis is prepare and present quarterly and annual reports, regulatory issues, video production, investor meetings, running the IR-function, issue management, and corporate governance. You will also be called upon to work with financial target groups.

Financial PR firms include Makovsky PR, Finn Partners and Dukas Linden.