Every investment banking professional strives to have an active deal pipeline that delivers a surplus of high-quality opportunities. Reaching this level takes time, but can be done by building a solid reputation through consistently excellent work while simultaneously cultivating a variety of referral partnerships. If you’re a lower middle market investment banker hoping to boost your deal origination, here are five suggestions of where to start.
1. Share your success stories with potential clients.
Every time you successfully close a deal, don’t keep the good news to yourself. Reach out to any other businesses with a similar focus and tell them the story of the deal you just concluded.
Don’t think small, either. It’s very easy to get a mailing list of every company in the country with a particular specialty. Sending out printed materials can be a very effective way of introducing yourself to prospects who operate in the same area of the market as a previous client, letting them know of your capabilities and explaining how you were able to assist a business with a similar set of challenges, like M&A or deal flow.
2. Demonstrate your current market knowledge to clients.
While tenacious marketing is never a bad thing, if you want to boost your lower middle market investment banking deal origination efforts, you should also clearly show how you can add value for prospective clients.
As an active market participant, the most valuable asset you bring is your inside knowledge about company valuation based on recent deals you’ve worked on. Although you must respect client confidentiality, and your sample size likely isn’t big enough to be representative, any market data points you offer can provide insight into current sale prices, the factors that influenced the terms of those deals, and even the counterparty’s thought process during negotiations.
3. Be a source of expertise to those around you.
Your proprietary knowledge doesn’t only make you valuable to prospective clients.
Building relationships in the deal process isn’t just about closing transactions—it’s about establishing yourself as a valuable resource:
- Reach out to fellow investment bankers, attorneys, financial advisors, accountants, and even other bidders.
- Approach knowledge-sharing with authenticity, not just as a means to drive investment banking deal origination.
- Establish trust and credibility by offering insights without expecting anything in return.
Far from being awkward, these conversations can be enlightening on both sides, providing the seed for future referral partnerships.
4. Ask your peers what your knowledge means to them.
Once you’ve shared your expertise with the parties above, a good way of closing the circle is to follow it with a question. Ask your peers how this knowledge helps them do their jobs better.
If you’re talking with a wealth adviser, for instance, they might tell you that their clients benefited from the knowledge they received from you, which helped add value to their relationship. Perhaps the feedback you receive can help you improve the way you tell your story, making it even more beneficial.
5. Find a way to say yes to everybody.
The most common distinguishing characteristic of successful investment bankers is that they’re viewed as problem-solvers. That doesn’t mean they personally solve the problems of every client or prospect, but because they’ve developed a network of strong connections, they know where to turn for practically any situation.
If you can find a way to say yes to every client or prospect, helping them even if their needs are outside your specific area of expertise, you’ll strengthen those relationships and build your own reputation as a problem-solver. Over time, this will bring more opportunities into the top of your investment banking origination deal funnel, and in turn, increase the number of qualified leads to choose from.
How Oaklyn Consulting helps boost deal origination for investment bankers
Even though not every deal is going to be a natural fit for your business model, you want to be able to help every client in some way so they continue to look to you for assistance. The key to always saying yes is knowing you have a reliable referral partner for any given deal scenario.
That’s where Oaklyn Consulting comes in. We specialize in deals that are too structurally complex, too uncertain or too small to fit into the traditional investment banking business model. Because we never charge success fees and instead follow an hourly investment banking model, we can provide truly objective advice that helps deliver the best possible outcome for clients. For our referral partners, we allow you to focus on your most profitable opportunities while preserving important client relationships.
Feel free to reach out if we can be a resource to you or somebody you know.
