How to Build Distribution and Revenue

Focusing on referrals or “low hanging fruit” alone is not a growth strategy. Building a sustainable revenue model requires prioritizing the needs of sales management, key accounts and product development.

Sales Management

As part of Sondhelm Partners distribution practice, we help asset managers large and small in reviewing and developing sales priorities and strategies. Are your sales efforts productive and efficient? For example, you may have internal sales people who set up meetings and provide support, externals who travel to meet with advisors, and hybrids who perform both internal and external roles…but how effective are they? What’s more, how do you leverage the data you have in your CRM to find out who your customers are, and to target and serve them efficiently? How are you turning contacts into relationships?

Key Accounts

Working with gatekeepers to make select lists and model portfolios is a critical component of key account management. Yet getting a fund or SMA on the shelf of a major distribution platform is one thing; getting noticed is something else entirely. Access doesn’t automatically mean sales. Many firms lack dedicated teams to work with gatekeepers. As a result, no one is in charge of communicating your competitive advantages to distributors and platforms through their cost-efficient internal marketing vehicles. Sondhelm Partners will provide best practices on navigating and managing the key distribution platforms.

Product Development

We can also help you determine the best strategy to develop and introduce a new mutual fund, ETF, or SMA to a new market. “We want someone to introduce us to gatekeepers and manager research teams.” The most sophisticated distribution strategy, however, won’t help a firm without a compelling story or actionable message. But a firm with a great story can grow by thinking through goals and developing a strategy to get there.