Finding Investors
You have to work smarter and faster than the next guy if you want to find investors that are likely to be interested in your fund. The most common issue that we see with clients is that they have been using generic alternative investor contact lists that contain out-of-date information. While in the past this may not have been a make or break issue, the financial events of 2008 created an environment where it is a major error to rely on data that is not fresh and current.
Based on the economic events of the past 2 years, an investor's historical record regarding how they chose to invest has largely been rendered invalid because their money has been redeemed or put on the sidelines. As a result, investors are reevaluating and reshuffling their portfolios. Unfortunately for fund managers, historical information about what investors used to invest in has almost no bearing on what they are interested in investing in now.
Most fund managers who work off generic alternative investor contact lists waste their time and ruin their opportunity to connect with the right investors. They send hundreds or thousands of introductory emails without ever truly understanding what a prospect is looking for before they put the effort into making contact. You get a very poor response rate by spamming the alternative investor audience.
The way to increase your response rate and get dramatically better results is to target investors. Targeting investors has to do with your understanding where and how you fit with a particular audience, and then using the right tools to find and reach that audience.
What you want to do is find a list of investors who have actually disclosed what type of fund manager and investing strategy they will consider seriously because they have open mandates now. That's how you gain access to qualified leads, rather than unqualified leads that are random and useless. Investors who are serious about investing now have hired analysts to decide what types of investments with particular risk and performance profiles are appropriate for them to have an appetite for at the current time.
These are the lists that BCP has access to through strategic relationships with state-of-the-art alternative investor list providers and database companies. Your response rate will increase dramatically if you send an introductory letter to a potential investor who has told a market researcher that they are definitely looking for your particular type of fund manager, investing strategy, and that the timing fits for their current mandate.