Investment bankers and micro-content, an emerging love story

Ask any junior banker on what they spend the most time and producing content is likely to be near the top of the list.

Ask any investment bank’s management team about what the bank’s greatest expense is, and the answer will be human capital. So, this means you're in the situation where your most expensive resource spends most of its day on a single task. You need to make sure that its time and money well spent.

How micro-content can save time and money

Pitchbooks are vital to winning business. In my experience, it’s highly uncommon for a deal to get printed without a hefty tome involved somewhere. But not all pitchbooks are created equal. That is, given the cost of the production and the likelihood of a positive outcome, some cost and time shortcuts should be deployed where possible.

Toward the end of my tenure as a Group Head and Managing Director at Credit Suisse, I began to implement a new technique: micro-content. By creating a small, relevant piece of information, usually a single page or image, I found I could decrease the content production burden of my team while increasing the probability that a client meeting went well. I’ve started to see this emerging tactic used more broadly by Pellucid clients, and it appears to be profitable all around.

Take for example the relationship meeting, a frequent occurrence that serves to solidify client rapport and cement your status as “trusted advisor”. There is no transaction associated with the meeting, but there is still the expectation that you should drop a thump-worthy presentation on the table that satisfies your client.

Usually, the following would happen:

• The senior banker would email the client with some text outlining an idea for a meeting. For example, recent changes in valuation multiple and the forces driving this.
• The client agrees to the meeting and a date is set
• The senior banker kicks-off the project and secures resources (i.e junior bankers)
• The pitchbook is created
• The meeting takes place

How helpful was the meeting to the client? The answer is pretty binary.

From the banker’s perspective, the purpose of the meeting was to reaffirm the trusted advisor status; a limited upside, which hangs on the client believing the meeting was a good use of time. If the client didn’t like the meeting, human capital, money, and potentially some of your personal relationship credits are burned.

Reimagine the above process with a simple change. In the first email to set up the meeting, include micro-content: a single chart that speaks to the issue at hand with a little additional supportive copy to provide some color.

How does this alter the client’s possible responses?

There are two big differences here:

1. The option to have only a conference call to discuss the micro-content has been introduced. No additional resources required.
2. By vetting the client’s interest in a meeting before jumping into pitchbook creation, the meeting is more likely to go well.

Using Pellucid's services to create your micro-content, you will dramatically reduce content creation time further as you can test data, comps, and subject company across multiple charts, pages, and books quickly and easily to see which may resonate the most with your client.

What are your thoughts on micro-content? Is it something you’ve used? Let me know your thoughts at adrian.s.crockett@gmail.com.