John Carroll, head of U.S. retail distribution for Allianz Global Investors is slowly and deliberately growing his sales team.

"We're one of the largest and best asset managers globally, but we have a very small footprint in the U.S. We are looking to hire to cover what we have on the books today," he recently told MFWire.

Carroll noted the hiring of two wholesalers late last year in order to split up two big territories.

Allianz also upgraded its RIA team, he said, recently bringing in a "very experienced hire": Greg Shannahan, who was hired in February to serve as senior vice president and eastern division sales manager.

Carroll said that Allianz is in the process of adding three more sales people to reach out to the platforms and described his plans for further hiring in this way:

"We are very slowly and very thoughtfully expanding our footprint. We will be expanding again this year. We are still not at the right size for all of the opportunities that we can tap into. We go very deep into some of the major firms industry due to the relations we have. There is more room for us to grow. We have very exciting and interesting stories to tell. This business is really about who you can talk to. We just need to get in front of more people to tell these stories."

Here are the figures for his sales force:

Targeting 24 external IC’s in advisory in 2013. Looking to add more in 2014

22 Internals, with corresponding rise as more Externals are added

3 RIA external, 1 internal

5 external DCIO, 3 internal

5 DCIO national accounts / subadvisory

7 advisory national accounts

Carroll said that they also expanded their retirement group, bringing in a small team of DC I-O specialists. 

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