What makes banks win pitches?
Why do the top players beat out the bottom players most of the time? What determines whether someone will win the pitch or not? Any insight would be greatly appreciated
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It's mostly relationships. Bankers love to go insane on pitches because they can, but at the end of the day they're substantially the same from all of the banks. Any team that is doing it correctly has met with the client several times a year even if there is no deal opportunity, just to keep them warm and talking. Clients also tend to gravitate towards banks they have relationships with in other ways (revolving credit facilities, treasury services, CFO worked with the banker on a different deal at a different company years back etc). The pitch is wrapping that all up in a nice bow, but the real work is done long before the meeting
Dang that's so interesting to hear. And sad but real. So in the long run, for exit opps and all that it depends on the MD relationships rather than a single person's capabilities since that determines the bank's deals and the experience they get since certain level PE firms won't even look at some investment banks? Or is that overhyped and doom posting on WSO?
Exit opps are much more based on prior group exits rather than a group's current deal flow, barring some major incident (ie tons of MDs leave for another firm). Oncycle (and even most of offcycle) happens before you will have any meaningful deal experience; and even the best analysts at the best banks sometimes get screwed on a deal or two and go their entire experience with no closed deals. The PE firms just tend to hire from the same groups year to year because they know what to expect with analysts from that group.
In general though, yes MDs determine the bank's success - that's why if a few key MDs leave a group can go from best on the street to totally irrelevant
I see - thank you for this insight, it makes sense. What happens to the analysts at like MM shops or lower? Do they basically have no shot at the same PE firms?
Also what advice would you give to someone going to one of these shops in terms of how to navigate it since it isn't really going to depend on the person's own capabilities as a banker?
Yeah the hard truth is that at MM or below you are not going to MF PE. You can look at historical exits from those shops, but it's typically MM/LMM PE.
You keep saying capabilities as a banker, but realistically you are recruiting as a fresh college grad with between 0 and 6 months of FT work. Your experience is not that special and you really don't have unique capabilities, so someone who is at an elite group and elite school is of course going to get first pass with recruiters because it is otherwise impossible to differentiate candidates. Every candidate in IB is motivated, smart and a quick learner. Not trying to be harsh, but don't get too caught up in main character syndrome here.
The best thing you can do is be prepared for recruiting early, and be realistic about where you could land and educated on shops in that space. Depending on how MM or how LMM you are, you may or may not participate in oncycle but they will find you eventually
One factor that’s rarely mentioned is how big of a customer your bank is of the client. This is especially prevalent in TMT. Banks use Oracle and IBM software. When these companies dole out business, they’re awarding it to their biggest clients
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