Taking over coverage as a VP?
Ignore title. I’m a VP at a MM shop (coverage). Spend most my time in biz services. My MD got cut - her performance wasn’t great. Question is whether I should lateral or perhaps try and build out my own coverage. I obviously have a bunch of contacts as clients and prospects. I’m good with clients but it will be tough for a client to hire a VP vs seasoned MD…
Reason for staying is pretty clear. Group likes me enough to keep me despite my MD getting cut. Will be an opportunity to punch above my weight and learn a ton.
However, I don’t have a ton of closed deal experience and will be missing an important step in my skill set progression.
Group will likely hire a new MD at some point but it’ll take some time. No MD in the seat today.
Stay and do work as if you are an ED or MD. Given you’re flying solo you can chill and do what you want
Maybe you get lucky and drive a little revenue and get promoted. Worse case you have good hours and get fired in a year or two
Hmm it’s an interesting situation, both options have their pros and cons. How many deals have you closed?
I have seen this happen to both a VP and a junior director at a BB that I used to work at. The MDs who owned the relationships in the 2 sectors left to go to other banks and then the VP and director were told to step up and try to win deals. It didn’t work and they won zero M&A deals, never got the MD promote and eventually got laid off after a few years when the bank hired more seasoned MDs to take over the sector coverage.
Not saying it’s impossible for you to be successful but it’s going to be pretty hard for you to win deals over “grey haired” MDs.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Can’t imagine a sponsor would hire me to run a sell side instead of a seasoned vet. However, perhaps a small buy side is in the cards.
So this happened to me.
I tried to build up coverage on my own and it failed miserably. Was definitely on thin ice when I decided to lateral.
That said, I don’t regret a thing. It was my failures of coverage as a VP that allowed me to learn from my mistakes and become a killer coverage banker as a Director.
I see very little downside and a lot of upside to trying. Just be ready to fail and pivot as needed.
Like many things in life, coverage needs reps too. Obviously you need to have the ability and be switched on, but never underestimate the benefits of starting early and getting more reps in.
Appreciate the comments. What type of failures did you experience and is there anything I should be mindful of?
In terms of your comment of being on thin ice - was this a function of just taking a long time to generate revenue?
If you had to build your own coverage from start today how would you approach?
When you’re just starting coverage, you don’t know what’s real, who’s real, what’s good business, what isn’t nand whether you stand a real shot. When clients hire banks and bankers there are generally one or two things they care about in any given situation and it takes time and experience to know what those are and how to nail the hot buttons. It just takes experience to know how to play the game and 99% of people are bound to fail starting out before they figure it out. It worked out well for me to fail early.
I was on thin ice because business was down, and similarly situated bankers who had been executing deals for important MDs were better positioned than me who was running around unsuccessfully trying to win business. But as I said I was able to lateral and all those failures as a VP made me a very effective Director.
I am going through something similar as a new director. Do you have any advice on how to build up early relationships and get a foot in the door, particularly where the space where clients’ relationships with banks go back decades?
Similique itaque aut laboriosam quo. Inventore consequatur quos eius sed et et sunt. Omnis ea quos culpa. Iste qui deleniti non magni est.
Dolorum qui harum et non dolorum dolorum nemo. Blanditiis quasi illo voluptate distinctio. Nihil ipsam incidunt aut est. Consectetur non inventore deserunt modi enim in. Reiciendis iste velit quia ut.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...