Best Practices for Effective Deal Sourcing

Whether you’re a venture capitalist or private equity firm, deal sourcing is undeniably the most crucial yet most challenging aspect of your job.

As such, investors spend most of their time sourcing deals.

In the past, investors relied on having a strong reputation in the marketplace or a wide network of contacts to successfully source deals. While these methods still remain important to date, they can be time consuming, limiting, and expensive.

Today, new technologies give you an edge over your competitors by providing instant access to sorted data, enabling you to identify potential acquisitions quicker and more accurately. In turn, this helps speed up the deal sourcing process.

Partnering with a reputable financial accounting firm like Pherrus Financial Services plays a vital role in conducting financial health checks on targets to help you find high-value deals and make sound investment decisions.

Here are some best practices to help you streamline your deal sourcing processes, so you can easily and quickly find lucrative deals.  

1. ​Take Advantage of Deal-Sourcing Platforms

Technology has streamlined almost all business processes, including deal sourcing. Invest in platforms attached to metrics and formal benchmarks. These tools increase the chances of building relationships that will lead to investments.

New AI-based platform provides real-time information about companies, allowing you to identify potential acquisitions faster and more accurately.

These platforms allow you to conduct better due diligence by uncovering relationships between directors and companies, and historical business activity.

Using deal management platforms, your team can keep track of all relevant and important data from one central interface. Keep tabs on data relating to deal sourcing and reporting by region, industry, and product.

Your team can also store all relevant documents to ensure everything needed to make informed investment decisions is readily available and accessible.

2. ​Follow-Up with Priority Companies

Make the most out of every investment opportunity, especially when you spot a lucrative deal. Be sure you have the right processes in place to follow up with priority companies.

Utilize digital platforms and tools, such as integrated email marketing to maintain consistent communication. These platforms help ensure that your team follows up with priority companies and keeps them at the top of your mind.

Provide value to your connections and always be thoughtful in your interactions. Not only will this show that you care about the relationship, but it will also help differentiate you from your competitors.

Be sure also to maintain a consistent conversation with key sources and prospects. This is important since good communication always attracts better deals.

3. ​Utilize Multiple Outreach Methods

Once you’ve identified opportunities, you need to reach out to the right people in the company at the right time.

Accommodate prospective investors as much as possible to be able to source the best deals. Call potential investors if they spend most of their time on the phone.

Send out an email if they are always in their inbox. You may also consider meeting them in person if they are always attending trade shows and conferences.

Combining multiple communication modes is the ultimate approach because it gives you maximum coverage of deal sources and prospects.

Catering to prospective investors increases your chance of sourcing better deals.

Conclusion

Incorporating these practices can give you an edge over your competitors, allowing you to source the best deals out there.

Be sure to leverage new technologies to streamline and expedite your deal sourcing processes.

‍