If you’re in the business of fundraising, you already know that RIAs (Registered Investment Advisors) are one of the most important channels to tap into.
With trillions of dollars in assets under management, RIAs offer endless opportunities for fundraisers looking to connect with high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional investors.
But breaking into this market isn’t easy.
RIAs are constantly pitched new software and solutions, making them highly selective about what they adopt. Success requires more than just a great product – it takes skill, strategy, and persistence. You need to know how to reach the right people, communicate value clearly, and follow up in a way that feels helpful rather than pushy.
The good news? With the right approach, you can cut through the noise and build strong relationships with RIAs.
In this article, we’re going to review three best practices for selling to RIAs. By the end of this, you’ll have a better idea on how to start this and keep going.
Cold Outreach
Cold outreach should be a cornerstone of your sales strategy when targeting RIAs. Despite their packed schedules, RIAs are constantly looking for innovative ways to retain existing clients and attract new ones. However, with due diligence analysts at RIAs spending only about 20% of their time researching new investment strategies, they have limited bandwidth for discovery. This is where sales professionals can provide real value.
In many cases, RIAs rely on sales outreach to stay informed. They often don’t have time to proactively search for every potential investment or software solution available—but they do appreciate thoughtful, well-researched insights from sales professionals. While they may not have time for every meeting, they often discover new strategies simply because someone took the initiative to reach out via a well-crafted cold email or call.
In this way, RIAs tend to view sales professionals as extensions of their research teams. With limited resources to vet new opportunities, they welcome direct access to innovative strategies and solutions that cold outreach provides. In many cases, an RIA might never have come across a particular offering if not for a proactive email or phone call.
By positioning yourself as a valuable resource and regularly sharing new ideas, market trends, or relevant case studies, you become an essential part of their decision-making process. But how you structure that initial email matters just as much as the outreach itself.
Crafting the Right Email
Once you’ve identified the right RIAs to reach out to, the next challenge is crafting an email that actually gets opened and read. Remember, RIAs have packed schedules, and their inboxes are flooded with messages daily. If your email feels generic, overly promotional, or unclear in its value, it’ll be ignored.
Your goal is to write an email that’s short, personal, and immediately valuable. The structure should follow a simple framework that makes it easy for the recipient to understand why they should engage with you. Here’s how to structure it:
1. Subject Line
The subject line is the first thing the recipient sees, and it must be clear, relevant, and attention-grabbing. The best approach is to be straightforward and specific, especially when requesting a meeting.
Example: Meeting Request: April 2nd, 3:00 PM.
2. Body
The body of your email should be short and powerful, you have only a few seconds to grab their attention. Open with one strong sentence that introduces your firm and immediately highlights your value proposition.
Think of this as the “JP Morgan Private Bank test”, what can you say in one sentence that makes your strategy so compelling that they want to meet with you?
Example: “Hi [Name], I’m [Your Name] with [Your Firm]. I’ll be in NYC on April 2nd and would love to discuss how our strategy can help enhance your portfolio’s performance in the market.”
3. Call to Action
Close your email with a specific, actionable request. Avoid vague phrases like “Let’s connect” or “Would love to chat sometime.” Instead, suggest a clear date and time for a meeting.
Example: Can we meet on April 2nd at 3:00 PM?
This approach eliminates uncertainty and makes it easier for the recipient to respond. If they’re interested but unavailable at that time, they’ll typically propose an alternative – keeping the conversation moving forward.
By structuring your email with a direct subject line, a concise and compelling body, and a clear call to action, you increase your chances of cutting through the noise and securing meetings with RIA software providers.
City Scheduling
City scheduling is a strategic approach that ensures you're always maximizing your time on the road. At any given time, you should have 4-5 cities planned in advance with meetings lined up. This keeps your travel structured, eliminates wasted time, and ensures a steady flow of face-to-face interactions with RIAs. The key to maintaining this momentum is consistency, by sending around 25 meeting asks per day, you fill your pipeline and eliminate uncertainty about where your next meetings will come from.
Tools like Dakota Marketplace can help pinpoint the right firms to target in specific cities, making scheduling even easier. By committing to a structured city scheduling strategy, you create purpose in your daily outreach, maximize your in-person interactions, and set yourself up for long-term success.
Stay Disciplined, Stay Reaching Out
Selling software to RIAs requires more than just a great product – it demands a strategic, disciplined sales process. By mastering cold outreach, crafting the perfect email, and implementing an effective city scheduling strategy, you can build strong relationships and close more deals in the RIA space.
With persistence, structure, and the right tools like Dakota Marketplace, you can turn RIAs into long-term partners and unlock significant business opportunities.
To start calling on the right RIAs and using city scheduling, book a demo of Dakota Marketplace!
