Are You an Investor or are you actually a salesperson? Or Both?
As a Private Equity / Growth Equity professional, you are primarily a Salesperson, not an Investor!
You thought you signed up to be a great investor like Warren Buffet,
But you won't get there without mastering the art of Sales
Who are your clients?
As a junior person, your clients are your VPs/Deal Captains... you exist to make analyses perfect, run down the odds and ends, and not let anything slip through the cracks
As a midlevel person, your clients are the Partners... they source deals, and you shepherd the process, balancing when to seek their input versus executing based on what you think makes sense
As a Partner, your clients are the LPs and Portfolio Companies. Your junior client service training prepared you to sit between two clients and keep both of them happy.
Two steps:
Step one of being a great salesperson – and ultimately a great investor – is identifying who your client is.
Step two is understanding their needs and what they care most about.
Are you stuck in the weeds, or chasing down your own agenda? Do you think "sales" is a scummy profession that you're above?
Sales is the art of listening to what your key stakeholders want, so you can deliver a service which provides maximal value to them.
Where can you be a better salesperson in your day to day?
#privateequity #growthequity
