Welcome to our July Newsletter.
In this month’s edition, I will offer some thoughts on utilizing research as a business development tool, especially in these challenging markets. Michelle Mueller will then share compliance updates, and Zaya Bold will do so for banker collaboration.
To all of our success,
Jay Turo
Managing Director
GT Securities, Inc.
Research as a Business Development Tool
At GT Securities, we take great pride in the ethics, professionalism, expertise, and experience of the world class bankers on our platform.
These admirable qualities shine through both when servicing existing clients and cultivating new ones.
And how our best bankers cultivate new clients is clearly one of their key “secret sauces.”
So what do they do, and what lessons can we learn from them to attract more and better mandates and close more deals?
As I have shared in past newsletters, when it comes to banking business development, everything begins and ends with authentic long-term relationship development with one’s network – referral sources like attorneys, accountants and wealth managers, capital sources (VC, PE, Family Office, etc.) and most profoundly with operating executives leading transactional businesses.
On this level, banking business development has always been and will remain pretty straightforward, just requiring old fashioned work.
Picking up the phone, the Zoom, and getting on the road, investing time and intention in cultivating and adding value to our network.
Over and over again.
But, in more challenging markets like this one, often more is required.
Like a point of view.
First, and most basically, on where financial and deal markets as a whole are trending and why.
And then, where a particular market / industry niche – real estate, healthcare, consumer products, crypto, cannabis software, etc. – is and again why.
And finally, and most importantly, on the opportunities and challenges of a particular company.
Now, I have a pretty defined “hierarchy” as to the relative importance of these points of view.
While for sure they are all important and valuable when it comes to the first two, they can be like parts of the body – everyone has one, and in an “efficient markets” context, they can all sound pretty much alike.
Listen to CNBC for just a few minutes each day for “expert takes” on both sides of any market forecast to bear this out.
But when it comes to the point of view of a specific company, the dynamic is altogether different.
Why? Well, for starters, except for large public companies, there isn’t much analysis and forecasting done for most middle market and smaller companies.
So it can be relatively easy to develop a uniquely interesting and credible point of view on a particular business.
To this, we can add curiosity and insecurity.
Owners and decision makers of businesses are naturally highly curious as to opinions and forecasts about their own business. They correspondingly are often quite insecure as to their own ability to forecast and predict its future.
Developing and communicating a quality point of view on a specific business is not easy.
Especially so as the audience for it will be those business owners / executives themselves, who obviously are very fluent and sophisticated in the subject matter.
So the work has to be very good, which requires intellect, street smarts, and time invested in research and analysis.
From my experience, most of our seniors, with their decades of experience as bankers and deal makers, have the intellect and street smarts, but their research skills are perhaps not as sharp as they once were.
This is why I’m so excited to announce GT Securities’ partnership with Evalueserve, one of the world’s largest research services providers to financial services firms, with clients including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, Jefferies, and Lazard.
I would specifically encourage you to not utilize them only in a traditional “analyst / associate role” for client support work, but for business development work too (ask Zaya for details!)
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised both by the quality of their work and by the magic of connecting with prospective clients not just with anecdotal commentary and thoughts as to the market as a whole and their prospects for their companies, but with a rigorous point of view on their particular company, developed and backed by data, research and professional analytics.
It certainly can’t hurt.
Compliance Updates
New Brokerage Account Review Automated System. As announced last month, the Firm has partnered with brokerage statement compliance provider My Compliance Office (MCO), a global regulatory technology company, to enhance the review of outside brokerage accounts per FINRA Rule 3210. All GT Securities Registered Persons through MCO will have self-serve access to securely add, remove, and update copies of brokerage account statements and trade confirmations.
Box Data Room Update. The Firm has enhanced our electronic data room functionality via Box.com, now including the ability to watermark downloaded documents for specifically invited persons.
What is the difference between a passive investment and a Private Securities Transaction? Note that passive investments in private companies are not characterized by FINRA as Private Securities Transactions (PSTs).
PSTs are outside business activities that involve participation in a securities transaction outside the regular scope of business as an associated person away from the Broker-Dealer. Before a GT Securities Registered Person can engage in any PST, pre-approval from firm compliance is required.
Michelle Mueller, Compliance Manager
Collaboration Updates
Research and Deal Execution Support. Per Jay’s note above, we are excited to partner with Evalueserve, one of the largest research and analytic providers to the investment banking community.
Evalueserve’s team have extensive experience in providing services across the Deal Process: Deal Origination (Pitch Support), Deal Execution (Deal Preparation, Marketing), and general presentation support (Formatting of CIM, Presentations, Pitchbook, etc).
Marketing Material. We have created a GT Securities Overview presentation, which can be utilized for our bankers / shared prospective clients and partners. We hope it will be useful in your marketing efforts.
Collaboration Deals. We receive many deal opportunities from our affiliate bankers and external partners, and upon assessing them, we are happy to share select deals with our affiliate network. Please reach out for a list of deals that are open for collaboration.
Please reach out to me at [email protected] to learn more.
Zaya Bold, Director of Banking Synergies
Happy July to All!
