How much of your analyst/associate's job is cold calling?
Hi there!
A little background about me: Bio major pre-med/dental in undergraduate. Currently in a masters program for bio again- will graduate in 2017. Decided to switch to finance earlier this year. Unsure if my masters in bio will help or hurt if i do end up going into equity research (guess I'm pretty much struck with healthcare equity research? :/)
I'm currently doing an unpaid internship in venture capital with a VERY early stage company (they only have partners, no employees). So part of my job is to cold call other early stage companies to get them interested in us (setting up intro meetings with their CEO).
So I would always cold-call other companies and ASK FOR THEIR CEO -_____- like this: Hi I'm an investment analyst calling from XXX, we are interested in your company blah blah blah May I please speak with the CEO?
Obviously Im not getting much positive responses. I guess I do kinda sound like a kid on the phone and maybe the other companies think the calls aren't legitimate.
But I was told that cold-calling is a valuable experience as an ex-equity research analyst (sell-side) once told me that a major part of his job involves cold-calling and making different pitches for different people.
Is it really true? How much cold-calling do Equity Research Analysts do? I'm somewhat new to finance so Im pretty much open to all areas (investment banking, equity research, consulting). But I'm just wondering how much cold calling do they really have to do. I suck at it (i know i should just try to get better at this) but I don't tthink i would really enjoy it.
On a side note, I find this VC internship to be very boring. Im mostly researching some early stage healthcare companies (trying to research their competitors and compile a list) and cold-calling/cold-emailing other new start ups. Im not doing anything with the stock market Does it sound like what equity research analysts would do?
What career paths would you guys recommend for someone who's interested in the stock market?
Keep in mind that I'm a bio major (haven't taken math in years so i guess quant trading is out of the question?)
Thanks!
Hi there,
None. Unless you are a senior and run client relationships, there is no point in calling clients. As an entry level analyst (usually called associate, as opposed to investment banking), you contribute to research of senior analysts and can consider yourself lucky if your name is mentioned somewhere else apart from the page of a research report. You can imagine how many years it takes to advance to a level where you can speak to a client. At most big banks, these are the guys in their 40s or late 30s.
Even at that level, I highly doubt that they cold call people. Normally they run client relationships which were built over the course of their careers, so they really know who are they talking to.
In my experience, you're not really soliciting investors to schedule calls. However, you will sometimes reach out to new folks to see if they want to talk and how you can best help them out. You're relying on sales for the most part to make the initial contacts
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Usually the sales team will do the cold calling. Analysts will do the research and provide the sales team with the new information - the sales team then takes this info and calls not only established clients, but also cold calls new clients in hopes of building a business relationship. However, I have made numerous calls to do store checks, not necessarily cold calling, but similar skills apply.
As others mentioned, research analysts are almost never cold calling especially at the larger firms. Even the salespeople are very rarely cold calling. If you're trying to build a new client relationship its usually a warm introduction or at least they would recognize your firm. For existing client relationships, the salesperson might be calling a new analyst at the client, but its not a cold call per say.
Now I get calls from salespeople all the time trying to pitch ideas, trips, etc., but that's not really cold calling.
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