The Best CRM for Raising Capital

This is not another resource about the wizardry of the world’s best CRMs. This is about how to simplify your CRM for marketing and capital raising. 

They come in different shapes and sizes: Hubspot, Backstop, Zoho, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Dynamo, Clienteer, Altvia, etc.  

Different GPs will have different tools required and that largely comes down to team size and AUM... emerging managers generally have little time to set-up systems or learn them; more established managers might require tracking third-party marketers, consultants, salespeople across funds, etc.  However, Capital+ applies the same approach regardless of platform, and here are 3 tips to turn your CRM into a capital raising engine: 

 

1. Have LPs present themselves to you by communicating actively 

The capital raising cycle is a long one. 

Reverse control of the sales process by deploying quality and dynamic thought leadership consistently. With each piece of thought leadership that you deploy, you’re earning credibility and opening an opportunity to build relationships around authentic dialogue.  

Raising capital has much to do with timing and relationships as it does with performance. Through regular communications via your CRM, you have a much better chance of knowing the moment to ask for an allocation has arrived if you are communicating actively.  

 

2. Know why deals were lost + hedge against them

After closing your first fund with many “yays” but plenty more “nays”, are you able to quantify the reasons for lost deals + reflect on lessons learned for your next fund? 

Better yet, know how to now segment these “nays” to receive different communications i.e. for those who were concerned about fund size, send them case studies and testimonials to demonstrate your expertise. For those who felt that there was a misalignment with strategy, how about awards and press releases to demonstrate relevancy? 

Whenever a deal falls through, ask the investor why it wasn’t the right time, and use that to [methodically] plan future marketing around these same investors. 

3. Automate the Follow-Up Process: Know when to do so.  

The longer you’ve been around, the larger your database naturally gets, and the more conversations you’re in. With your list of names growing over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember who (and when) to hit your follow-ups. 

Prospective LPs become hand-raisers at different parts of the fundraising cycle. Often, it’s a process of self-discovery where they’ve been dormant, only to return to visit your website, past emails, videos, etc. You need to know when LPs have raised their hand and are most open to dialogue. 

If your Opportunities/Deals Pipeline is managed with discipline over time, the analytics will present ‘average duration’ that a prospective LP sits in each stage of your funnel. Triangulating this other data, you’ll gain a scientific approach in knowing when to follow-up with LPs who have gone idle.  

There are few things worse in raising capital than letting a prospective LP lie dormant in your pipeline. 

Everything can be automated: the notifications, the [customized] communications to LPs, and your own task list. 



The best CRM for raising capital is the CRM that you will use. Cut through the noise, profile LP interest, grow AUM... there are very few things more valuable to a marketing process than the effective management of a CRM system and marketing communications system. 

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