For you bankers, how much time do you spend your time looking for investors to buy the company you're trying to sell?
And what are some common ways to find the contact info for the executives you're trying to pitch it to?
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if they knew, they would be BSDs...not some WSO posters
I thought "pitching" generally referred to selling your firm's services to a potential client. As in the bank is trying to get a mandate for a deal. What you described sounds like a live sell-side deal. Am I mistaken here?
Panther is generally right. Pitching typically involves creating a PPT for a potential new client that is largely basic overview slides of your firm and its capabilities with some company specific info, ECM / DCM / case studies depending on what txn is being pitched, comps / basic valuation mats, etc.
The process the OP is talking about usually occurs after engagement and the lengthy marketing materials (offering memorandum, etc.) are completed. Generally, your MD will have an idea of the relevant universe of investors which is then augmented by additional research. How long does that take? Depends largely on the market; in 2008 and early 2009 sometimes infinity is the best answer because half my deals died in the marketing phase.
You are a little confused my friend - what you are talking about is soft marketing. Senior guys will spend a fair bit of their time doing this (proportion of time will vary immensely from group to group and partner to partner). Analysts and associates will not be doing this sort of thing save for drafting a cover letter or teaser.
Pitching is selling your firm's services to a potential client. Only you won't do the actual selling, you'll just spend days (and nights) creating and re-creating pretty powerpoint slides which will likely be given a cursory glance at best by potential clients. Again, the proportion of your time spent doing this will vary massively depending on your circumstances e.g. well established teams will pitch less, some partners/MDs will only want a few slides as opposed to an orgy of pie charts and column graphs the width of the yellow pages etc
FYI M&A whilst often perceived as the most 'glamorous' part of investment banking involves by a distance the most pitchpack-based bullshit from what I've seen
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