Conquering the Credit Crunch: Client-Centric Survival Strategies for Investment Banks

Overview

As clients react to negative headlines, economic uncertainty, and market volatility, investment banks cannot afford to keep them at a distance. In fact, they need to get closer to their clients than ever before.

Customer-centric strategies are predicated on the establishment and ongoing enrichment of customer knowledge and the need to collect and apply this knowledge intelligently at every stage of interaction. This means not only getting to know your clients better, but having the tools to help you take advantage of this knowledge where and when it offers the most value. To accomplish this, investment banks need to use CRM systems to their true potential: not just as data systems, but as the technological enablers of customer-centric business strategies.

Building up this customer knowledge begins long before an individual or organization becomes a client, from the moment they are identified as a prospect. Using their CRM marketing tools, investment banks can build out prospect profiles that combine market data and publicly available information with behavioral responses and information provided by the prospect through each interaction. Using this information, the investment bank can more effectively segment its audience and target its activities, engaging the prospective client with high personalization and relevance from the earliest stages of the relationship.

With fewer opportunities available for investment banks at this time, identifying and winning all available opportunities becomes critical. Using deep relationship information within the CRM system that clearly illustrates the complex interconnections between consultants, companies, and other stakeholders and parties, investment banks can leverage existing relationships to find the best way to get their foot in the door on potential deals. When a prospect becomes a defined business opportunity, the rich CRM profile ensures no investment banking employee need ever walk into a deal blind. With comprehensive information about the prospect, past interactions, and the lead source, investment banking personnel have the insight and background they need to position their pitch more effectively and win the business.