Investor CRM Buyer’s Guide: What Should You Look for?

Some investor relations officers (IROs) might have once relied on engaging only a small selection of established contacts at major funds invested in their company. But, with the rise of the retail investor, renewed activism following COVID-19 and SRD II providing an opportunity to identify your shareholding more easily, the time has come to devise a more sophisticated strategy. However, there is more data than ever to process.

Some IROs may try to track this mine of information using a spreadsheet, but this is far from efficient. An investor CRM is created specifically for improving IR workflows. It can save time, engage shareholders more effectively and help target new investors, too. 

This article explains what you should consider when purchasing an investor CRM for your organisation. 

What is an investor CRM? 

CRM stands for customer relationship management. An investor CRM, such as IR.Manager, is software specifically used by IROs to allow them to track, manage and record details of their relationships with current and potential customers. 

The system allows for the creation of automation, detailed analysis of your shareholding and the market conditions, preparation for investor events and reporting on IR progress and performance. 

Why is an investor CRM crucial for modern IROs?

The sheer weight of data needed to run an effective investor relations strategy means that IROs need a solution that is better placed to manage the processes than a spreadsheet. 

Here are some ways in which a CRM is now crucial to the work of investor relations professionals: 

• A cloud-based CRM updates for all users immediately, reducing the risk of accessing out-of-date data and allowing all team members to gain insight into the development of relationships with investors.
• It makes it easier to analyse your current shareholding, understand where the gaps are, assess the health of relationships with current investors and more. 
• Your CRM automates many tasks that can free up time for an IR team. This includes sending invitations and reminders to investor events, as well as mailing financial reports. 
• Using IR.Manager from Euronext Corporate Services provides access to a database of investment contacts collected from publicly available information. The CRM collates this data to provide correct, up-to-date details without IROs having to take valuable time to research on their own. 
• The data in the CRM means that it is easier to prepare accurate investor profiles to help executives understand more about the shareholders they will meet at roadshows and other events. 

Key features of effective investor CRM systems

Here are the key features you should consider when seeking out an investor CRM solution. 

Contact management

As a minimum requirement, the CRM should allow you to store contact information from your shareholders and target investors. You need to be able to add their important details, such as name, position, email address and telephone number. 

But, in addition, the contact management capabilities must offer the ability to segment your contact list so that you can create groups and better personalise your outreach to them. By profiling your contacts, you can send out tailored communications that hit their needs and requirements more effectively than a generic, one-size-fits-all approach. 

Consider the best ways to segment your audience within your centralised database, such as whether they are institutional investors or retail investors, if they are based in or out of the EU, the type of investor they are, and other such considerations. 

Advanced targeting

Not only should an investor CRM allow you to manage your current shareholding, but it should also provide access to advanced targeting functionality. In the case of IR. Manager, this includes accurate and current data sourced from publicly available records. Having this feature built into the CRM saves a significant amount of time on prospecting for your IR team. 

As well as providing this data, you should be able to filter the contacts by a set of attributes in order to find the potential shareholders that best fit your company profile and fill the shareholding gaps you have identified. 

Record-keeping

Being able to track your interactions with your shareholders and your target investors is important to help develop and maintain relationships between issuer and investor. You can gain insight into the warmth of the relationship by analysing these communications and understanding whether an investor is likely to increase their interest or exit their shareholding in the near future. This allows you to engage with them and work together for a solution that works for both parties. 

The ability to access all conversations between the investor and the company helps you monitor your shareholding for potential activist activity. You can gain insight from the nature of the discourse and prepare to mitigate any potential campaign before it gains too much momentum. 

This feature also helps all team members understand the status of the relationship simply by accessing the record-keeping area of the CRM, aiding consistent engagement with shareholders.

Identifying engaged investors

Your CRM can show you when and how your investors or potential investors engage with you and your content. This allows you to understand which parties are most interested in your proposition and what materials they are accessing in order to understand more about the issuer. 

You can use this information to harness the engagement and turn it into further investment in your business. When you identify the themes, issues and resources that they value the most, as uncovered in your CRM data, you can tailor your engagement approach and provide them with an offer that speaks to their requirements. 

For example, the CRM data shows you who is attending your online and in-person events, such as investor roadshows or press conferences. Frequent attendance suggests a more engaged investor. 

Similarly, you can discover who is not engaged and develop a strategy to interact with them and build a relationship, rather than risk them floating away.   

Reporting and efficiency assessment

To be able to understand how effective and efficient your investor relations strategy is, the CRM that you use must allow for reporting. You should be able to generate and export reports based on your engagement data and understand where you are gaining results and where you need to change tack to achieve greater success. 

Look into metrics such as shareholder retention to measure your IR performance. Another aspect to consider is the level of diversity within your shareholder base and whether you are striking the right balance between institutional and retail investors, investment styles, location and other factors. 

Look into reports on the number of visits to your IR website and how many people are following your calls to action, downloading your resources and interacting online with you. 

Mail management

One of the most common forms of investor engagement is email. Your CRM should allow you to send out mailshots to your shareholders to keep them in the loop with developments at the organisation. 

In addition, the ideal investor CRM will provide the ability to create email lists, based on your contact segmentation. You can then send out targeted emails to these various groups, hitting on their pain points and values. 

Agenda management

An IR CRM should allow you to manage the lifecycle of your investor events from within the platform. Given the rich information you hold on the system, you can manage the process of engaging your shareholders. 

The platform provides the functionality to schedule conference calls, in-person meetings, investor roadshows and other events, inviting stakeholders based on their interests, investment style, location or whichever factors are most appropriate. 

You can also prepare for these interactions within the CRM, using the data you hold about the investors you will meet, the shareholding in general, your peers’ bases, the nature of the market and more. 

The database also helps you create detailed briefing notes to enable your presenters to understand who they will meet and what they need to know about them in order to better engage them. 

Access to market data

As well as information relating specifically to your business, the right CRM for IR would also allow you to access data from the wider market in order to benchmark your own performance. 

It should allow you to access competitors’ information, such as earnings calls. This helps you understand the context in which you are working and allows you to communicate with your shareholders about your place in the market. 

It is also helpful to understand the valuations of your company by analysts and to gain a better understanding of the market perception of your company. In addition, a CRM can provide you with an investor perception score after meetings that helps you hone your approach to engage your shareholders more effectively. 

How to evaluate investor CRM providers

During your research into CRM solutions, bear the following in mind:

FAQ

What is the difference between investor CRM and general-purpose CRM systems?

While both an investor CRM and a general-purpose CRM system share the objective of managing relationships and interactions with individuals or organisations, they target different audiences and offer distinct functionalities. 

Investor CRM systems are tailored to manage relationships with investors and prospective investors. They offer features like portfolio management, advanced analytics and reporting, compliance and security.

Can an investor CRM improve compliance and regulatory adherence?

Absolutely. Many investor CRM systems come with robust compliance and security features that can help firms fulfil various regulatory requirements. This includes storing communication records, monitoring trades and generating reports that can be useful during audits.

What are the common mistakes to avoid when buying an investor CRM system?

Some common mistakes to avoid when purchasing a CRM for investor relations include: not fully understanding your firm’s specific needs, focusing solely on cost instead of value, neglecting the importance of training and user adoption and overlooking the CRM provider’s reputation and customer support.