Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
Cold outreach is the foundation of every fundraising program at Dakota. Not the warm intro.
Dakota's approach to investment sales comes down to four core principles:
- Set expectations
- Know who to call on
- Know what to say
- Build a killer follow-up system
Here are the 10 takeaways every fundraiser should apply.
1. Cold Outreach Drives Everything
Referrals are great. But they can't be the plan.
The business doesn't exist without cold outreach. The BDRs who reach out consistently are the ones who fill the pipeline.
There's a second benefit that's easy to miss: brand marketing.
A clear, well-targeted email doesn't just request a meeting. It tells the recipient exactly who you are and what you sell. Get that right, and you land in the right mental (and Outlook) folder for the next opportunity too.
2. Create Alignment With Your Boss First
Before any tactical work begins, set expectations internally.
- Write a sales plan
- Agree on what success looks like
- Commit to a weekly cadence (5-10 minutes reviewing pipeline, activity, and the opportunity pipeline report)
Every manager carries unrealistic assumptions about what fundraising success looks like day to day. A shared, written definition, cold emails sent, cities booked, target investor types, removes the ambiguity.
3. Know Who to Call: Fit the Channel to the Product
Calling on the wrong buyer wastes time on both sides.
The example given: don't pitch a mutual fund or ETF to Harvard's endowment.
Determine your product's proper fit channel first, LP, mutual fund, ETF, or otherwise. Then build your total addressable market around investors who can actually buy what you're selling.
4. City Scheduling Is Table Stakes
Dakota's fundraisers keep five cities on the calendar at any given time, booking meetings at 9:00, 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, and 4:30, with flexibility built in around that structure.
When one city drops off the calendar, another gets added immediately. The structure exists so reps can focus their energy on the work that matters, not on rebuilding a travel plan from scratch every week.
5. Write a Tight, Personalized Cold Email
The format:
- Subject line stating the meeting request
- 1-2 sentences on who you are and why the recipient should care
- A specific date and time
"Can you meet in Boston on May 4th at 3 o'clock?" beats a vague ask for time.
The sharpest addition to that formula: research the prospect first. A mention of their recent podcast appearance or a published article, referenced authentically, turns a cold email warm.
6. Send 20 to 25 Cold Emails a Day
There's no shortcut around volume.
Consistency at this pace, not any single email, is what keeps five cities filled and a pipeline moving.
7. Center the Meeting in the First Two Minutes
Once you're in the room (or on the call), keep the opening tight: who you are, what you do, and why the prospect should care.
Then, before pitching anything, ask the due diligence analyst how their investment decision-making process actually works.
That single question gets skipped constantly. Asking it is what lets a fundraiser position their strategy inside the allocator's real framework, instead of delivering a generic pitch.
8. Let the Allocator Talk 70% of the Time
Once the process question is answered, shift into Q&A.
The allocator should be doing most of the talking. A fundraiser's job in the room is closer to consulting and education than presenting.
9. Ask the Two Tough Questions Before You Leave
The follow-up starts in the meeting. Not after it.
Close by asking directly whether the strategy fits the allocator's asset allocation mix.
- If the answer is no: move the contact to a mailing list and move on.
- If the answer is yes: ask the second question.
- For public strategies: do you anticipate a search in the next 12 months?
- For closed-end funds: can you make the relevant final close date?
The goal is a specific status and a specific next step. Not a vague "great meeting" recap for your boss.
10. Build Follow-Up Leverage Through Your CRM
A CRM isn't optional overhead. It's the single biggest leverage point an individual fundraiser has.
- Log every scheduled meeting
- Dictate call notes immediately (word count drops roughly 75% if a rep waits 24 hours to write them up)
- Build opportunity pipeline reports sorted by stage
- Never leave "current status" and "next step" fields blank
Dictating notes into an AI tool like Claude right after a meeting, then routing them into Slack or Salesforce, removes the administrative friction that used to make this step get skipped.
The Bigger Pattern
Every principle above traces back to the same two ideas:
- Focus on what you can control
- Focus on what matters most
Performance and market conditions aren't in a fundraiser's control. A sales plan, a target list, an email cadence, a meeting structure, and a CRM discipline are.
Dakota Marketplace gives fundraisers the account and contact data to put these principles into practice, from identifying best-fit channels and building city-by-city target lists to tracking role changes at the firms you're calling on.
Book a demo to see how Dakota Marketplace supports your outreach, city scheduling, and pipeline from day one.
