I sit on the board of an emerging asset manager that has a truly breakthrough innovation in global equities index investing. The investment strategies have the same risk and liquidity profiles of traditional index funds yet consistently deliver superior risk adjusted returns above the benchmarks. Our CIO has a stellar reputation, having successfully managed >$75 billion in institutional assets over a thirty year career. His personal relationships with the heads of largest global pension and sovereign wealth funds also mean we have a target list of accessible prospects. Despite these advantages, something was constraining AUM from taking off more quickly.
Through trial and error, we learned that our sales motion was not adequately tailored to how our target clients – institutional and non-institutional investors – vet and select new managers. Following a series of sales calls, we took our learnings and recalibrated the entire sales process to better align with the stage gates commonly used by investment committees in the segments we serve. Becoming more in tune with what our customers want has begun to pay off – AUM has grown threefold in less than a year.
