How to bring clients in as an Associate?
Hey folks, do you have any advice for bringing clients in as an associate? I've been in touch with several co-founders of different companies and I've developed a good relationship with them over time.
I work at a bulge bracket and I was recently promoted to an associate. My group has done $100m IPO to Bn+ IPOs and private placement. However, I am not sure what kind of deal size my bank would entertain. Some of my clients are $5-20mm revenue and the others are $10-75mm revenue. It usually ranges from Series A to IPO. I am also not comfortable talking to my VP/Director about it.
I have a meeting next week. I don't want to promise the client that my bank would entertain meetings and then we can't support them because of their size. Any advice?
I wouldn't bother if I were you. At least at my BB, most of the transactions smaller in size and below our bank's general size limits aren't done for actual revenue purposes, but are rather done for existing clients in order to maintain and strengthen relationships.
My BB is different. Our MD encourages us to bring clients. Just don't want VPs/Directors to feel threatened by it.
Some of these startups actually have potential to be $250m - $1bn + in size just not sure if the timing is right. We obvs wouldn't touch a $50-$100mm IPO. Also, there are lots of opportunities for M&A introduction as well. This is literally what our Directors do all day anyway. Existing clients don't bring in IPOs.
Lol
Jeez man, easy with the R word. I don't know what kind of weak fuck you are but this soft pussy talk is for guys like you. I am gonna do both. I don't slack off.
There's been a handful of threads on this and the consensus is always that it's not worth it. Maybe if you were a tenured senior associate and just a few months from VP it'd be different, but as a brand new A2A they will either 1) laugh at you 2) do the deal and give you 0 credit/bonus 3) blame you if the relationship sours. You are not going to get some insane bonus or promotion for sourcing, maybe at a boutique but not happening at a BB.
I would also strongly caution you against meeting with clients to discuss these things without telling your bank...
Okay now that’s a reasonable answer. Thank you! So the thing is I am not meeting these clients to just pitch or explain the bank’s capabilities. I am involved in other events with these clients so what I usually do is assess their financing needs or willingness to sell during our informal chat. Then, I basically explain my bank’s capabilities without really giving the traditional banker pitch and offer them if it’d be helpful to introduce them to sector specialist at my BB.
For context, I work at a smaller coverage office (think LA/London/Houston) vs execution hubs like NY and we know each other very well. Half of my other associates are doing the same. Our MD wants us to go out and get clients but the only issue is we aren’t sure “which client”. We lost a couple of MDs so if we can build the IPO pipeline, my team wouldn’t mind that at all. I personally don’t care about the bonus because I’m usually in the top bucket. I just think it’d help me build my client book as I try to move up the ladder. I am not here to move to buy side so I just wonder how do these MDs build up client relationship (especially banks that are solely focused on IPOs).
Agree with (3) though.
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