Study Guide: Hedge Fund CFO Appointment Generation
Brutal reality of lead creation
William Nicholls
Last Update a month ago
Study Guide: Hedge Fund CFO Appointment Generation
Quiz
- According to Maurice Watts, approximately how many calls did his team need to make to secure a single appointment with a hedge fund or bank CFO?
- What was the approximate fee charged per appointment generated by Maurice Watts' calling team?
- What was the approximate size of Maurice Watts' calling team, as indicated in the excerpt?
- What was the approximate weekly appointment generation rate for Maurice Watts' team?
- What term did Maurice Watts use to describe the process of generating appointments?
- What specific roles within financial institutions were the targets of Maurice Watts' calling team?
- What type of work did Maurice Watts' team primarily engage in to secure appointments?
- Based on the numbers provided, what was a potential challenge associated with this method of appointment generation?
- What currency is mentioned in relation to the fee charged per appointment?
- Considering the effort and output, what might be inferred about the difficulty of reaching and securing meetings with hedge fund CFOs?
Answer Key
- Maurice Watts stated that his team needed to make approximately 240 calls to get a single appointment.
- The approximate fee charged per appointment generated by Maurice Watts' calling team was just over £750.
- Maurice Watts indicated that his team consisted of approximately 10 people.
- The approximate weekly appointment generation rate for Maurice Watts' team was three or maybe four appointments.
- Maurice Watts described the process of generating appointments as "brutal absolutely brutal."
- The specific roles targeted by Maurice Watts' calling team were CFOs of hedge funds and banks (and similar institutions).
- Maurice Watts' team primarily engaged in making calls to secure appointments.
- A potential challenge was the low ratio of appointments generated relative to the large number of calls and team size, indicating inefficiency.
- The currency mentioned in relation to the fee charged per appointment is pounds (£).
- The high number of calls required to secure a single appointment suggests that reaching and securing meetings with hedge fund CFOs is a difficult and time-consuming process.
Essay Format Questions
- Analyze the implications of the statistics provided by Maurice Watts regarding the efficiency of his appointment generation team. What conclusions can be drawn about the challenges of business development within the hedge fund industry based on this excerpt?
- Discuss the significance of Maurice Watts' description of the appointment generation process as "brutal." What factors likely contributed to this characterization, and what does it suggest about the nature of targeting high-level financial executives?
- Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the appointment generation strategy described in the excerpt. Considering the number of calls, team size, and weekly output, what are the potential financial implications for a firm employing such a method?
- Compare and contrast the potential advantages and disadvantages of relying on a dedicated calling team for appointment generation versus other business development strategies in the financial sector.
- Considering the limited information provided, what further data or context would be helpful to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness and sustainability of Maurice Watts' approach to hedge fund CFO appointment generation?
Glossary of Key Terms
- CFO (Chief Financial Officer): The senior executive responsible for managing the financial actions of a company.
- Hedge Fund: A private investment partnership that uses pooled funds to trade in relatively liquid assets and often uses more complex trading strategies than traditional mutual funds.
- Appointment Generation: The process of creating scheduled meetings or calls with potential clients or contacts for business development purposes.
- Calling Team: A group of individuals whose primary responsibility is to make phone calls, often for sales, marketing, or appointment setting purposes.
- Efficiency: The ability to accomplish a task with a minimum expenditure of time and effort. In this context, it refers to the ratio of appointments secured to the resources (calls, personnel) invested.