Inventory: Our first task is to assess your business and marketing assets:
What are the strengths & weaknesses of our team, strategy, trading?
What is the current composition of our investor base?
What are our advantages/disadvantages vs competitors?
What does independent due diligence say about our firm?
Target Market: Successful firms narrowly define their unique selling proposition (USP) and targets:
What is our market share of desired segments?
How can we increase mandates from current clients?
Which investor segments will be easiest to add?
How does each segment make decisions?
How should we access each investor segment?
What alliances, third parties and other networks can we use?
Do we have the print, people, and internet communications we need?
What resources are needed to maintain client relations?
Four Ps: These are the elements of the marketing mix that you can control for each target market:
Product: Which of our products best meet current demand?
Price: Funds, managed accounts, other parameters per segment?
Place: Which complementary distribution channels should we use?
Promotion: How can we use media to communicate our message?
Positioning: Basic principals relevant to fund managers include:
Be different and be clear. (Customers suffer from information overload).
Identify the position we seek to own in the customers mind.
Simplicity and consistency of message are essential.
Identify our advantage to investors in every area.
Know our position vs competitors.
Materials: Reflect your position consistently in all of your materials:
Remember, the medium is (often) the message. Quality pays.
4 essentials: summary, presentation, due diligence, fund docs.
Optional: research papers, sample portfolios, risk analytics.
Monthly email programs should be well-managed and reflect quality.
Have prepared compliance manual and procedures
Website: A firm overview with client login is the ideal format.
Data sites: Send your performance to select industry data sites.
Materials may be adapted for different target markets.
Endorsements: press, consultants, clients use them!
| How to Execute Your Marketing Plan
Youve done the preparation, now its time to assemble your sales team. No matter how small your firm, a team effort is required using inside and outside players. These simple rules should be respected:
Protect the managers time: There are many choices for who should represent you to prospective investors, and the portfolio manager is not one of them! New prospects need to see that your primary focus is on the job of managing money, not on the road soliciting clients. When prospects need to speak directly to the manager, we follow a graduated method: Conference calls, Webinars, visits to your office. Only when each of these steps has been explored, and a legitimate need for personal interaction remains, do we ask you to visit prospects overseas.
Use the right people for each target: No matter what your size or history, you will need to engage outside help. After all, you are selling to new prospects and that requires new hands to help reach them. Some give you access: prime brokers, other service providers, client referrals. Some represent you to key targets: third-party marketers. All supplement your limited, internal resources.
Support your team: Share information that will help them. Give them clear, limited goals. Show your appreciation. And, of course, honor your commitments contractual and otherwise. The more you support these relationships, the easier it will be for you to achieve your goals without stretching your internal resources.
Your Investors
Suspects vs. Prospects: Good intelligence helps you determine the difference. Before taking valuable time to call or see an investor, you need to know what the investor is doing. Does he really want to allocate to your strategy area and your firm profile? Unless you can check both these boxes, your time is better spent on pursuing true prospects not suspects.
Influencers vs. Deciders: Know who you really need to see. Consultants, service providers, and most analysts at your prospect are Influencers. They are important, often vital, but their needs can be satisfied with written and phone communication rather than personal sales time. Keep your information consistent across all contacts, as well. Deciders are the ones you want your sales team to spend personal time with. Make sure they do not receive information second-hand, and that your PMs get exposure to them at the right time in the careful ways outlined earlier. Remember, the Deciders may not be the highest ranking staff at your prospect and it may be a committee. Intelligence work helps identify who really counts.
Identifying Needs: You may know that a certain investor allocates to managers, but exactly what are their current needs and what is their decision process? Some of this information can be obtained before you meet thru trade publications, service providers, data services. Before, during and after your contact with each prospect, you want to be continually updating your understanding of their true needs.
Competitive Research: Remember that investors are choosing between alternatives. You have to be clear about how you may add value to their portfolio, in their mind. Who are your true competitors? Knowing where you stand in your strategy area is essential and must be addressed in your materials (S&P500 may not be the relevant benchmark, although it seems like most managers believe that is the competition). What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors? Address them openly with the prospect. The appropriate way to do this is in a consultative manner: you may provide valuable insight to the problem that the investor is trying to solve, by knowing something about the solutions being considered. Lastly, this is often not a zero-sum game: you may be hired along with a competitor for a portfolio. Know how your differences may be complementary.
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