Whether you are a large investment company or a small business, deal origination involves establishing relationships and connections. This holds true even during challenging periods.
What is deal origination?
It includes finding deals and completing the necessary paperwork for them. To streamline and improve their deal origination, private equity firms, investment banks, and venture capital firms need to optimize how they collect leads, and have the ability to identify and prioritize their highest-quality leads.
But what is the best way to pursue these relationships? And what best practices can you follow in the private equity real estate (PERE) market in particular?
Here are some tips for building connections and finding deals in the competitive PERE market.
Do consider alternative deal channels (like social media)
Decades ago, the deal origination process started and ended at home. Dealmakers usually find contacts and target companies in their own cities, relying on referrals and meeting people directly. Investors could invest in local condo projects through face-to-face handshake deals to combine their capital.
Today, the market is wide open. Investors are searching globally for good investment opportunities, even if it’s not in their own country, due to globalization. They’re working with intermediaries, checking valuations online, and using self-service deal-sourcing platforms. They’re also using LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media venues to develop B2B connections.
To capture these leads in today’s connected world, your firm needs a strong social media presence. To increase your social media presence, concentrate on a particular area or type of property. Go where the investors and corporate finance professionals are. On social media, share good content like talking about local real estate trends to establish expertise.
Do make time for personal relationships and one-on-one touchpoints
When markets constrict, every dealmaker feels the pressure to build ROI. Even during the busiest of times, though, it’s important to keep up personal relationships. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. By using technology to streamline your sales process, you can free up more time to build and maintain your relationships.
According to McKinsey, “more than 30% of sales-related activities can be automated.” Such activities include lead qualification and identification, deal origination strategy development, and forecasting.
By pursuing automation in these areas of your deal-sourcing process, you can spend more time building personal relationships. Intapp DealCloud’s algorithms and tools automate emails, prioritize leads, and reduce effort while generating leads.
Do engage in intelligent outsourcing and offshoring
In the past, people were afraid to outsource or offshore because they thought it would harm their connections’ quality. They were also concerned about dealing with unresponsive or unavailable outsourced teams. But technology is now available to make outsourcing and offshoring an easier, more cost-effective method of acquiring leads.
Because of inflation, geopolitical events, and other factors, commercial real estate slowed down in Q3 2022. As a result, PERE teams may need to cut back on expenses while the economy stabilizes. Even the best dealmakers can’t fight global economic change, and they will need to do more with less. By outsourcing, your firm can bring in more leads for your dollar.
Cloud-based dealmaking platforms like DealCloud make it easy to interface with outsourced origination teams. DealCloud empowers outsourced teams to work independently while staying informed, as everyone utilizes the same data repository. With automated data capture and reporting capabilities, up-to-date firmwide transparency becomes attainable even remotely.
Don’t ignore the threat of new regulations
Fintech regulations in PERE change a lot, so your firm should be careful. New regulations on new technologies can affect investment value. Complete your due diligence and keep up to date on new technology, investments, and startups.
It’s still unknown how regulations will impact blockchain technologies or investments driven by neobanks. However, the Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Oversight Council has suggested enforcement of existing regulations along with assessments of gaps.
DealCloud helps you complete your PERE due diligence and assess your risk with custom checklists, data consolidation, and improved collaboration. Work with your legal team within DealCloud to verify the risk profiles of new prospects, including startups that may deal with new tech. Third-party data synced in DealCloud will help identify potentially risky relationships with fintech or neobank companies.
Don’t pursue leads or make deals based on faulty data
Today’s dealmakers need to collect information from many disparate sources. Without the right technology, this practice increases the odds of incomplete or incorrect data pools.
If your company doesn’t organize and standardize the data it collects, future analyses may not be reliable or significant. If someone on your team uses outdated data, others may think a lead is good when it’s actually not. If your team uses Excel spreadsheets, they likely spend a lot of time searching for the data they need.
Improve the strength of your deals by using technology to consolidate your information into a single source of truth. DealCloud uses third-party PERE data and collects first-party data. This helps to keep your teams updated on new businesses, developments, and relationships. With DealCloud, your team can see real-time updates on your company’s deals and react promptly to any significant changes.
Don’t let leads die on the vine
In a connected world, deals can happen quickly. With many prospects, it’s easy to miss things. Dealmaking is about connecting with people at the right time. If you’re not available when they need you, you can lose a lead.
Not to mention, other firms are already pursuing the same leads you are. This presents significant challenges, as no one can be personally available at all hours. That’s why DealCloud’s collaboration services connect your teams through a cloud-based, always-on system:
Even if you don’t have the time to connect with a lead, someone else on your team will. With real-time data and updates in DealCloud, your team will always know the status of deals and interactions. DealCloud’s fully configurable workflows also enable your firm to craft the steps your team needs to take.
See how DealCloud helps Balfour Pacific Capital stay on top of fast-moving deals even while team members travel.
Let DealCloud streamline your deal origination
It’s important for your company to update its technology as the world becomes more advanced in digital operations. DealCloud helps you implement these guidelines by giving you one reliable source for your deal initiation activities.
DealCloud is a CRM made for the financial services industry, like venture capital firms, PE firms, and CRE. The software offers the latest features and capabilities that your teams and dealmakers need on a daily basis. We regularly update it to address the industry’s needs and challenges.
Learn more about managing deal origination in Intapp DealCloud. Sign up for a demo today.