With more than $580 billion in deals announced in the first half of the year, 2021 is on track to break records and become the first year in which private equity firms deploy in excess of $1 trillion in capital. However, according to the autumn 2021 edition of the DealCloud Dealmaker Pulse Survey Report, the first 6 months of 2022 will bring increasingly stiff competition for more private equity deals at higher prices that demand larger fund sizes, going beyond the significant rebound reported 6 months ago.
With the increase in competition for deals, it’s more important than ever that private equity placement agents maintain visibility across industries and sectors to find potential investors for fund managers, and vice versa. To stay ahead of the competition, private equity placement agents require purpose-built software that systemizes limited partner (LP) and general partner (GP) relationship management, transaction, and fundraising data.
Centralize Your Firm’s Data
Upgrading your firm’s private equity CRM creates a central data management system that provides placement agents with a single source of truth — where all firm data and key information is accounted for and easily accessible — to better manage relationships and execute deals.
For example, placement agents can leverage the Sponsor Coverage dashboard in DealCloud (below) to track sponsors by fee potential, including closed engagements, live engagements, and prospective deals. Users of this placement agent CRM tool can also keep records of their touchpoints with sponsors and set reminders to follow up within a set timeframe. They can track sponsors by company name, type of capital provider, coverage person, primary contact, and other key features.
Keeping All Data in One Place, Private equity Placement Agents
Can Better Track and Leverage Their Institutional Knowledge
Gain Deal Transparency
Placement agents should have software that monitors deal data across the engagement lifecycle. If team members are expected to stay diligent and maintain a full understanding of their deals, they’ll need purpose-built CRM technology to help track those deals within a single source of truth.
With DealCloud, placement agents leverage the Prospective Deals dashboard (below) to track deals by stage, deal flow, and engagement pipeline. They’re also able to track fees and negotiations.
Placement agents can also track live transactions (below) by industry sector, engagement type, deal stage, and other fields.
Placement agents can track closed transactions using the DealCloud dashboard (below). Users can track fees by industry group, closed deals by month, and closed transactions by industry sector, engagement type, fees, and other deal criteria.
Uncover Opportunities for Internal and External Collaboration
When upgrading private equity CRM software, it’s important to look for features that improve collaboration. By sharing information, firms create an ecosystem and lifecycle that ensure they can manage every deal and relationship in a sophisticated, efficient manner.
To support internal collaboration, it’s crucial to create a single source of truth, integrating third-party data, improving team transparency, and providing each placement agent with actionable relationship intelligence. Private equity placement agents can improve communication with investors by providing advanced reporting and implementing an integrated marketing solution like DealCloud Dispatch for their marketing efforts.
Choose the Right Private equity CRM for Your Firm
The development and rise of vertical-specific tools like DealCloud’s private equity CRM make it easier for private equity firms to keep all their contacts, activities, and other critical information in one place. With these advances, dealmakers are better able to manage relationships and execute on deals. Firms can benefit from a clearly defined process and workflow for finding answers and making decisions.
Schedule a demo to explore DealCloud’s features for private equity placement agents and learn how you can remain competitive in the private capital markets industry.