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Making The Most From Capital Introduction

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 13, 2011, in Thoughts

Last week, I met with Sales executives at 6 different prime brokers.  Among the numerous topics we discussed (reporting, securities lending, etc.), capital introduction process was at the forefront.

The cap intro teams do not have the skill set and/or resources to revamp and improve each hedge fund’s presentation.  Here are two topics for hedge funds to consider:

  • Improve the pitch book.  We’ve written about that here.  Additionally most capital introduction folks will offer a dozens of ideas during a 20-30 minute conversation.  We recommend using that conversation time to take notes and apply the most relevant ideas to your materials.
  • Learn by example.  Most prime brokers have an inventory of hedge fund materials.  While they may not share those materials, ask for examples from successful hedge funds.  A good question would be to inquire about funds with similar strategies and similar target markets.  For instance, “In your experience, what are the most crucial selling points to make when selling an event-driven strategy to family offices?”

Most materials benefit from numerous rounds of revision.  These two tips enable hedge funds to begin at a better point than staring at an empty PowerPoint document after-hours.

Social Networks Replacing CRM? Stop the Hype.

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Jan 10, 2011, in Thoughts , tagged with , , , ,

Socialware, a company that provides automated monitoring and archiving of enterprise social media use, maintains an interesting blog.  Good, relevant ideas without being overtly self-serving.  I especially like the $100M Tweet.

One recent post touched on an idea that, at first, struck me as solid:  social networks become the new CRM system.  Instead of having/using a wholly separate tool, why not have the CRM be the tools everyone already uses?  In other words, use the contact and personal information (job history, interests, people they know) captured by Facebook and LinkedIn as your go-to client/prospect database.

I see two problems with the idea:

  • As the post notes, it’s hard to maintain updated information on prospects and clients.  But you know what – it’s no slam-dunk for people to keep their social media profiles and information up to date, either.  The problem of inaccurate information is not necessarily solved.  More importantly…
  • The main value of CRM lies in combining contact information with all sorts of proprietary knowledge.  No social network is going to log past business deals, Web site activity, and when you last saw somebody.  At least not yet.

In fact, it’s likely that social networks will make CRM tools more important, not less.  Applications like Faceconnector integrate social media information with firms’ proprietary databases.  And firms will increasingly be able to bring this information in-house to build even better client/prospect profiles.

So I don’t believe social networks will be replacing CRM tools.  And I think grand overstatements about social media’s potential provide skeptics the ammunition to resist the legitimate opportunities it presents.

Will there be War on the Korean Peninsula?

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 31, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with

We have no clue.  But, somebody did want a Naissance perspective and asked us this via our blog’s comment section.  Such is life when managing an active blog with comment sections.  There’s an intense amount of spam directed at blogs.

So here are the three best blog SPAM comments of 2010.  Enjoy.

Number 3 – The “Oh, By The Way” spam – here, my robust discussion on PIMCO moves Travel Offers to sing my praises, but then he/she drops an important software to install

Number 2 – The “Brilliant!” spam – here, Mike’s keen insight on wholesaler emails brings someone to call him “brilliant” and the home viewers click on the commenter’s Web site.

Number 1 – The “Flattery Will Get You…” spam – here, Mike does make a convincing argument for BCP within the sales force.  But top 10 globally?  Probably not.  Still there’s always something being sold and the commenter hopes you notice his/her name and Web site.

Best of Q4 Blogs – A Few More

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Dec 30, 2010, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Last week Anu revisited a few of his favorite posts from our blog over the last three months.  He promised I’d do the same, so here we go with three of my favorites so far:

  1. Spend More Time with the Best Wholesalers:  Most Sales teams we work with know their stuff, so the best way to get better is to consider new approaches for the same old activities.  Our thought on the pastime of coaching wholesalers fits the bill.

  2. Regulation is a People Business:  I tend to think that simple ideas are best.  They’re easier to come up with, easier to understand, and can have a big impact.  The insight from Anu regarding regulation is a forehead-slapper for me.

  3. Pitch Book Length:  With every blog post I write I ask myself “how can I make this more concise?”  Attention spans are shorter than even the most realistic person believes.  Pitch books included.

We’ll revisit the “Best Of” our blog at the end of Q1 next year.  After all, good/interesting ideas (at least in our minds) shouldn’t be lost just because they’re more than a week old. Gawker reminded me of that just a few weeks ago.

Happy New Year!

Best of Q4 Blogs

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 22, 2010, in Best Blogs of the Week

It’s that time of year – best of everything, right?  So why not a best of Naissance blogs?  In our first 90 days, we’ve published over 30 posts.  There are three I want to share as favorites.  I know Mike will chime in next week with his favorites.

  1. Why Naissance isn’t on Facebook (for now) – A few months later, we’ve had numerous discussions about social media strategies.  The conversations are interesting and pretty unique even across executives in a single industry.  The  best use of social media – and facebook in particular – begins with an idea of who you want to engage, what messages you can deliver to them, and how frequent you can participate.  We applied that thinking to our e-Business strategy and found facebook not critical to our growth.
  2. Does Focusing on Performance Ever Help Fund Marketers – The more conversations we have, the more opportunity I sense for select firms to craft interesting stories and messages that do not begin with returns.  Everyone knows that past performance doesn’t indicate future returns, yet few come up with interesting stories for fund families or specific funds.
  3. Life (insurance) is Complex – Simplifying product isn’t always the answer.  Some products are inherently complex.  Too often increased complexity leads to increased analysis-paralysis and stagnation.  We’ve seen many firms move the needle by starting with small initiatives.  This blog covers some of those complexities for life insurance that lead to indecision.

Happy New Year!  Thank you for reading.