The investment management world is tough. It’s fast moving and intensely competitive. Standing out from the crowd can be incredibly difficult. Here’s how investment management professional Coe Juracek does it.
Juracek has more than two decades of experience on the front lines of business development. As a senior managing director of Crow Holdings Capital he oversees the company’s capital formation, strategic planning, and business development activities. He’s served in roles ranging from leasing space, to acquisitions and asset management, to leading the company’s debt capital markets, and is currently head of global investor coverage and is a member of the Crow Holdings Capital investment committee.
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His decades of building relationships have taught him that standing out from the crowd is imperative when it comes to succeeding in the investment management world.
Coe Juracek: Understand You’re in a Crowded Market
The first thing to do, says Juracek, is simply understand that you’re working in a crowded market. When you’re living and breathing your firm’s products and talking every day with your colleagues, it’s easy to forget that there are other enterprises out there with products that may be just as good as yours. But it pays to be aware, says Juracek, because your clients and prospects are very mindful.
“There’s a lot of companies that are really good. They can sit in a room and explain why their results are fantastic — and they objectively are good,” Coe Juracek explains.
Every pitch is a knife fight for capital, he adds. It is a “total zero-sum game” because if you “get that dollar, somebody else didn’t. I win, you lose. There is no prisoner’s dilemma” where two firms pitching for the same business can both win.
“There are so many great companies that have great results that could all suit the needs of your prospective client,” says Juracek.
Standing out from the crowd means understanding that in a client presentation, you were let in the door because you passed an initial qualification – your numbers are good enough— but you have to prove more than that. You have to show the prospect why they should want to sign on with your company.
Coe Juracek Says Develop Your Pitch to Suit the Prospect’s Needs
For Crow Holdings, Coe Juracek has developed a tight pitch that explains his firm’s offerings well and speaks to the needs of his prospective clients. The pitch focuses on the success of his company and its great performance but also on the importance of relationships.
“Our basic pitch as a firm is that we’re a Main Street real estate firm. We’ve been in real estate since the 1940s. To become a partner of ours, irrespective of the strategy, is to get into a relationship with a firm that has been in the middle of it for real estate in the United States, since it was an institutional class. And even before,” shares Coe Juracek.
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Next, he delves into the firm’s specific strategies, highlighting their resilience in different economic conditions.
For his investment fund business, he explains that Crow Holdings has been doing it for 25 years.
“We have strong returns on investment. The flagship series has a 20+ year track record. The team has been through the global financial crisis, through the dot-com bust, through COVID, and now going through inflation. “We can show that the team checks all these boxes and knows how to measure risk and take smart ones.”
When he speaks about his real estate development proposition, he explains the markets in which it operates and why the firm has such great insight into those markets.
“Talking about our development company, I say, ‘Look, the United States is relatively unique in the world in its amount and quality of rental housing that’s purpose-built. One of the reasons for that is the Trammel Crow residential company, which is this firm. Over decades TCR, has built 275,000 units through multiple cycles. We are part of the housing solution in the United States. We’ve been doing it longer and as big as anybody else.’”
Yet a great pitch is only half the battle when it comes to standing out from the crowd. Most important, says Juracek, when setting yourself apart from the herd is your firm’s culture.
Put the Focus on the Company’s Great Culture
In the end, when Coe Juracek is pitching a new business, a win often comes down to firm culture. Prospects are attracted to good people and companies with whom they can see themselves working — and of which they want to be a part. In these circumstances, conveying a feeling of your firm’s unique culture becomes crucial.
“But it’s very hard to sit down and describe that to an investor in a meeting,” says Juracek. “It’s an interesting challenge.”
For Juracek, conveying the firm’s culture is less in the telling and more in the showing. That means carefully selecting the people in your team, getting the clients to visit your offices, and generally behaving in a way that illustrates how unique your firm really is.
Understanding the market, refining your pitch, and leaning in with your firm’s unique culture: For Coe Juracek, these are the three critical components to standing out from the crowd in a competitive investment market.
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