[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: Craving more knowledge, but don't always have time to sit down for a five course meal? Take a quick snack break with StorySnacks. Bite sized content to feed your funnel. Each short episode features Stacey digging into one question. This series has her talking stories, sales, and so much more. Oh yeah, it's time for story snacks.
[00:00:24] So I've come to realize that 90 percent of my unanswered sales emails are to firms where there's no fit anyway. Is there a better way? For me to figure out who my potential clients are. I don't want to bother people who don't need my services But I just can't tell yes. Well, this is a great question. I'm glad this person asked Okay, so I want to start with a mistake that a lot of us make when we start Prospecting and it goes back to the Rogers adoption curve [00:01:00] So a lot of times what happens is we go too far out on the curve Because we want those really big kind of late majority investors to want us Right.
[00:01:15] We sort of do this math exercise where we're like, gosh, if I could just get the firm that makes billion dollar allocations to give me a tiny little sliver, it would be super meaningful to me in this earlier stage of my business. But the problem is that that late Stage investor will never invest in you where they are.
[00:01:38] They where you are. They can't so the first thing that happens Is we sort of we're aiming at the wrong end of the adoption curve If we're a boutique, it's very typical. So typically when you're sub three years Sub a couple hundred million bucks. You want to focus on the front end of the curve. So [00:02:00] first friends and family and then Early adopters such as RIAs, family offices, firms that can make allocations and love to make allocations to new, innovative, interesting managers.
[00:02:16] So that's the mistake that typically happens. The qualifier around this, because if you're doing any kind of screening or using a database, a lot of times managers say, Oh, well, I'll just put Like an A. U. M. Screen an asset screen and only call smaller firms. Then you can do that. But I'm going to give you another alternative.
[00:02:38] And the alternative is to look for firms where regardless of asset size, they have a smaller, more focused investment committee. Because if you have a big investment committee with a lot of stakeholders, read a lot of red tape, the decision making is tougher, there's [00:03:00] more boxes to check, and it's not really in your best interest.
[00:03:04] Like, those are all things that are more common for a later stage. Adoption curve allocator. So ideally you'd look for firms where it's a single, like the founder is the decision maker on the investment committee or the investment committee only has a couple people on it, less red tape, less people to convince, more flexibility, more of an early adopter type of structure.
[00:03:29] So that's a good qualifier that you can use. And then the last thing, this is the biggest one, and you're not going to like what I'm about to say, because it's more work, but here's the thing, like the more work, the more obsessive we can be before we ever send that email, The more effective those emails will be caught and how that applies to targeting is before you send the email when you [00:04:00] think that this firm is a good fit for you, go to their website and just geek out.
[00:04:05] I mean, read everything like you're a detective. Okay. And look for clues to tell you whether or not this firm could potentially be a good fit. For example, if you are an active manager and you go to the firm's website, And you see anything at all that says DFA, they don't invest in active managers. They like passive managers.
[00:04:30] If you see anything in there talking about passive, not great for you as an active manager. So read about their services, what they do, look at logins and portals they're giving their clients access to, looking for any kind of clues that this person or firm could be a good fit or not. Next level you're not done.
[00:04:51] So now you've just geeked out on the website. I'm giving you more homework You haven't even sent the email yet. You'll thank me later. Then I want you [00:05:00] to go and look for their commentaries Some kind of investment commentary some sort of market outlook And I want you to read through there and maybe do a couple of them.
[00:05:10] And again, you're looking for clues Around what's important to them what they allocate to what they don't If you're an alts manager and you don't see any talk of alts anywhere on their website anywhere in their commentary They might not be a great fit if you see them in the commentary talking about how They're contrarian and they really like private equity here fantastic And you can even use a give, give, give, ask framework with that.
[00:05:38] So it's really important to do that research. Website, commentaries, LinkedIn. Take the 15, 20 minutes, half hour, whatever it is, beforehand to make sure that this is a good fit for you as much as you can to pre qualify that prospect. I hope that helps. [00:06:00] Are you an investment boutique looking to grow your business and need a little help?
[00:06:04] If you feel like you're fighting for the spotlight and, well, still stuck in the shadows of the bigs, join us in the Boutique Investment Collective, Havener's new membership community dedicated to the specialists in the investment industry. In the collective, we'll guide you through the billion dollar blueprint we've used to help boutiques add over 30 billion in AUM.
[00:06:23] You'll refine your story, focus on your ideal target market, and practice your pitch. You'll rethink your marketing materials, rewrite your emails, and refresh your differentiators. We'll even help you step up your LinkedIn game and give your profile a makeover. You want to grow your biz? We've got your back.
[00:06:40] Learn more about the collective, the curriculum, and the amazing coaches who will help you on your journey. Visit Haven or capital. com slash collective high five. Hope to see you in a coaching session soon.[00:07:00]
[00:07:01] This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance.
[00:07:20] All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Havener or Havener Capital Partners.