The Two Essential Reports to Run in Your CRM for Success in Investment Sales

In order to 1x, 2x, 5, and 10x your fundraising efforts, there is one thing every investment sales professional should do: leverage their CRM.

Dakota has been in the investment sales business since 2006 and raised over $30 billion, and we are here to tell you that CRM’s absolutely vital to your success. They are more than just digital Rolodexes; they are powerful tools that drive efficiency, improve client experiences, and enable strategic decision-making.

A well-implemented CRM helps streamline your processes, keeping your sales team organized and on track. It allows you to store all your client interactions in one place, making it easier to manage relationships and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. 

With a CRM, you can easily track every touchpoint with a client, from emails and phone calls to meetings and follow-ups. This comprehensive view of client interactions helps in building stronger relationships and provides valuable insights for making data-driven decisions.

There are many CRMs that are great for investment sales, and whether your CRM is Salesforce, Hubspot, Dynamics, Altvia, or Satuit- the two reports we are going to discuss in this article are possible.

In this article, we're telling you the two types of reports that are necessities in order to leverage your CRM. By the end of the article, you'll have a clear path forward, and a better understanding of the benefits of using your CRM to the fullest extent.

Meeting notes

Before we even get started with the two reports you need to be running, let’s talk entering meeting notes. Entering your meeting notes into your CRM is one of the simplest, but most important things your sales team can do.

However, in order to get your notes entered tends to be like pulling teeth. It's tedious, and most often sales people don’t want to go back and do this extra step. We cannot stress the importance of this enough.

On our Rainmaker Podcast series, we have heard from investment sales leaders time and time again, "If it’s not in the CRM, it doesn’t exist”. Adding your meetings scheduled and your activity around these meetings is absolutely essential to your success.

Continuing on with the theme of the Dakota Way, if you’re sending 15-20 emails a day and city scheduling - realistically you’ll be doing hundreds of meetings. Physically, your brain will not be able to remember all this information you’re taking in.

This is why it’s so important to enter into your CRM! If you’re able to get the scheduled meetings into your CRM 100% of the time, there’s a ton of doors that will open for you.

Once your scheduled meetings and notes are entered, you are able to remember everything and most importantly, you can run any type of report you want.

This leads us to our next point - you can run activity reports and opportunity reports. 

1. Activity reports

To fully leverage the power of your CRM, it's crucial to create and regularly review activity reports. Start by setting up reports that detail your meetings and calls. Segment these reports into manageable time frames - meetings held within the last fourteen, thirty, and ninety days. This breakdown provides a clear snapshot of your recent activities and helps identify patterns and opportunities for follow-up.

The key to maximizing the value of these activity reports is consistent review and action. By analyzing your past activities, you can pinpoint the next steps needed to advance your relationships. You’ll be setting up sales triggers for yourself.

Sales triggers might involve following up on a previous conversation, sending an email, or scheduling a follow-up meeting. Perhaps you promised to send additional information or follow up a few weeks after an initial meeting. Regularly reviewing your activity reports ensures these triggers are not missed, keeping your sales pipeline active and engaged.

Over six months, this consistent review and action can result in a significant number of follow-ups and interactions. The simplicity of generating these reports with a single click makes it an indispensable part of your sales strategy. 

For instance, you may recall a trip to Cincinnati last month, but upon reviewing your reports, you realize it was actually three months ago. Time flies, and without these reports, important opportunities may be overlooked.

2. Pipeline reports

The second report that is essential for success in investment sales are pipeline reports. They are vital for providing a comprehensive view of your sales process and potential revenue. 

After generating your activity reports, the next step is to create detailed opportunity reports to track your progress and plan your strategies.

Start by creating a general pipeline report that encompasses all channels. This report gives a broad overview of your entire sales pipeline at the click of a button, making it easy to share with your boss. It allows you to see the big picture, identify trends, and monitor overall progress. 

In addition to the general pipeline report, create multiple pipeline reports segmented by specific channels such as Bank/BD, Consultant, and RIA. These channel-specific reports provide deeper insights into how you’re progressing within each segment. This segmentation helps you prioritize your outreach and tailor your strategies to the unique needs of each channel.

Consultant reports are particularly crucial for understanding where you stand in relation to your competitors. These reports can highlight your position in the market, helping you identify areas where you need to focus more effort. By knowing where you stand against consultants, you can better strategize your next moves and enhance your competitive edge.

One of the key principles of the Dakota Way is setting clear expectations and maintaining alignment with your boss. Pipeline reports are instrumental in this regard. With a single click, you can access all your upcoming opportunities and review everything you’ve accomplished. This transparency helps in managing your boss’s expectations, ensuring that you are both on the same page regarding your progress and goals.

Regularly updating and sharing these reports fosters open communication and strategic alignment. It ensures that your efforts are recognized and that any necessary adjustments can be made promptly to keep your sales process on track.

Putting it into action

By integrating regular activity reports into your routine, you ensure no detail is forgotten, every follow-up is timely, and every opportunity is maximized. This proactive approach not only keeps your sales process dynamic but also significantly enhances your ability to build and maintain strong client relationships.

By leveraging both general and channel-specific pipeline reports, you gain the tools needed to drive efficiency, improve client experiences, and make informed strategic decisions. Your CRM, when used to its fullest extent, becomes more than just a repository of information—it becomes a powerful engine driving your sales success.

Now, it’s time to put these strategies into action. Start by entering your meeting notes into your CRM and generating your activity reports. Schedule regular reviews to set up your sales triggers and keep your pipeline moving. Then, create your pipeline reports to gain a comprehensive view of your sales process, identify trends, and strategize your next moves. Share these reports with your team and your boss to maintain alignment and set clear expectations.

By taking these steps, you’ll be on your way to significantly increasing your fundraising efforts and achieving success in investment sales. Your CRM is a vital tool - use it to its fullest, and watch your results soar.

Increase CRM adoption across your firm, eliminate the need to login to multiple platforms to view data, maintain data integrity with a single reliable source within your CRM instance, and most importantly – streamline fundraising day one. Learn more about our integrations here.