Get Clients into Your Hedge Fund
on May 30, 2011
Raising money is difficult. When you’re a small, new, or niche hedge fund it can be extraordinarily difficult.
As we continue to meet with hedge fund managers looking to grow, there are four ways to better market yourself and your fund (assuming you’re seeing as many prospects as humanly possible).
- Buy Pedigree – Baupost. Bridgewater. JPMorgan. Can you bring on a junior investment person from a top-tier firm? If you can, many more doors will open and experienced investors will be interested to see if they can catch lightning in a bottle.
- Discount – Can you provide your strategy at a markedly lower cost than the competition? With hedge funds, you don’t have to have a singular price and your clients won’t know the price other clients are paying. Instead of 2/20, can you offer 1.5/5?
- Unequaled Service – Most fund managers dislike the client engagement component. Can you provide a weekly newsletter and a regular monthly conference call? Many investors may not take advantage, but they will value those service features.
- Professional Presentation – Can you design the prospect experience to feel professional? From “dot com” e-mail addresses, a functioning Web site, not-free business cards, to pitch books and 1 pagers – invest the money and time to look credible.
On the latter topic, we’ve written extensively on how-to improve your materials: here and here.