Client Origination Best Practices

Overview:

This Knowledge article provides a structured framework for capital markets professionals and placement agents to define their niche, build expertise, and originate mandates effectively. It highlights strategies around focus, relationship building, due diligence, and closing to drive sustainable success in capital raising and advisory.

Pick Your Lane:

1. Mandate type:
   a) Leverage your work experience, relationships and interests to determine your niche (Don’t spread yourself too thin with a scattershot approach).
   
   i) For bankers: industry or product type focus. 
   
   ii) For placement agent: asset class / strategy focus. 
   
   b) Look for long-term tailwinds
   
   i) Identify areas with accelerating capital flows.
   
   ii) Don’t chase the newest hot sector without taking the time to do your homework.
   
   iii) Have tailwinds in your space turned into headwinds? Be honest with yourself.
   
   c) Assess market opportunity
   
   i) White space analysis: Look for areas underserved by larger banks or crowded placement groups. However, don’t fall trap to areas that are underserved for a good reason!
   
   ii) Deal flow sustainability: Ensure there’s enough activity in your chosen lane to support repeat mandates.
   
   iii) Competitive mapping: Identify how incumbents are positioned and where your angle can be different.
   
   
   
2. Coverage:
   
   a) Distinguish yourself by focusing on certain types of prospects (insurance companies, family offices) or in a specific industry.  
   
   b) Geographic focus: Build a strong local presence. Pick a few other geographies to cover well. Network effects are important on a local level. 
   
   c) Know how your type of prospect impacts the right mandates. For example, RIAs have very different needs than insurance companies. 
   
   d) Build a focused relationship base that you can leverage to win mandates.
   
   i) Realistically you can cover <300 relationships, and your top 25-100 relationships will determine the success of your business.  Go deeper with these relationships before overextending the width of your coverage. 
   
   ii) If you effectively pick a lane, most of your prospects will be applicable for a given mandate.  If your lane is too wide, you won’t focus your relationship building.  For example, if you cover both real estate direct deals and VC deals, those relationship bases are totally different ecosystems. 
   
   iii) It’s better to pitch to potential clients that you have a narrower list of strong relationships than to over inflate that you have a huge coverage universe.  Be honest with potential clients about those relationships where you truly have influence or access (and avoid making over inflated claims about relationships you don’t truly have). 
   
   iv) Win mandates based on your own coverage universe and don’t pitch other APs potentially helping you unless you definitively know they’ll work on a mandate.

Become the Expert:

1. Voraciously consume content (books, podcasts, newsletter, etc.) in your space. Follow all the thought leaders on LinkedIn and X.
   a) Understand the deep concepts that underly a space.
   b) Know all the players and competitive landscape. 
2. Invest into building relationships with thought leaders. 
   a) Reach out (don’t be intimidated) and find ways to add value through your network (offer referrals and valuable connections). 
   b) When thought leaders post content, engage with their content. They’ll notice you. Find ways to turn these engagements into 1:1 calls/meetings. 
   c) Create your own events where you can invite them.
3. Build thought leadership
   a) Publish insights: write about your sector trends or capital market developments relevant to your lane. Leverage LinkedIn and X. Create a newsletter. 
   b) Conference & podcast presence: speak where your target relationships spend time.
4. Be discoverable
   a) Build visibility at industry events.
   b) Optimize LinkedIn presence.
   

Research Your Target Prospects:

1. Map the ecosystem: Identify potential clients (corporates, fund managers, founders, LPs, family offices) with strategic reasons to raise capital or pursue transactions.
2. Trigger events: Watch for signals like fund maturities, acquisitions, succession issues, or sector disruptions that create capital needs.
3. Client intelligence: Use databases (PitchBook, Preqin, CapIQ), news alerts, and internal CRM to prioritize outreach.
   

Outreach Strategy:

1. Mandate readiness: Be prepared with credentials decks, case studies, and compliance-ready materials.
2. Network relentlessly: Conferences, industry associations, alumni groups, and private events are fertile grounds for client origination.
3. Develop referral sources: Lawyers, accountants, and consultants often spot client needs before bankers do. Keep them close.
4. Tailored messaging: Outreach should reference a specific need or opportunity, not a generic 'let’s connect.'
5. Consistency matters: Track outreach cadence — thoughtful follow-ups often convert better than initial pitches.
   

Manage Your Pipeline:

1. Data discipline: Add every prospect into NEXUS and track your pipeline and activity. 
2. Call notes: Take digital notes (throw away paper) real-time and store notes in events in NEXUS.
3. Team leverage: Coordinate within your firm so multiple bankers aren’t approaching the same client without alignment.
   

Accelerate Dialogues:

1. Listen first: Ask probing questions to uncover client pain points and align solutions accordingly.
2. Connect in person: Zoom is a great tool, but it’s also too easy to lull yourself into thinking you can do everything from your desk. Nothing beats face time.  Break bread, grab a drink and/or make social plans with your prospects.
3. Demonstrate your expertise: Request and read all their materials thoroughly before a meeting. Read their website top to bottom (including their news). Check out their LinkedIn profile and review their recent posts.  Come to the meeting with your questions and comments organized (written out in bullet points). Your insights into their business will prove you’re the sort of person they want representing them in the marketplace. 
4. Deliver value before the mandate: Give strategic input without expecting to be paid. 
5. Broaden your influence in an organization: Find ways to extend your penetration into an organization to have direct relationships with all decision makers.  If you aren’t speaking with a given decision maker, you’re operating with a handicap.  Find ways to get in front of them.
6. Follow-up, follow-up & follow-up: Don’t give up on prospects that show positive signs and go dark. Win their attention back and learn to not let your ego get in the way. 

Dig Deep with Due Diligence:

1. Asset Managers
   
   a) Team & Organization
   
   i) Strong leadership continuity is critical. Assess the key executives, how long the team has worked together, and whether there’s a balance of experience and emerging leadership. Look for teams with a good mix of grey hair and youth. Most LPs are long term investors and want to know that the key principals will be around for multiple fund vintages and to see through another cycle or two.
   
   ii) Succession planning signals durability. Understand how the firm will manage transition if a key partner retires or departs.
   
   iii) Reputation matters in the market. Investors will view you as a reference; if you lack a long-standing relationship, speak with market participants who have known the team over a sustained period of time.
   
   b) Track Record & Performance
   
   i) Track record, while not perfect, is a key factor to help allocators validate a team’s execution capability. Compare performance to benchmarks and peers, and evaluate whether results are consistent or one-off. Has the manager ever been able to achieve their “target” returns, or are they overly optimistic? If the track record is short and hard for you to analyze, allocators will also have difficulty evaluating it. Did the team execute a similar strategy at a prior firm that can help validate execution skill?
   
   ii) Attribution tells the real story.  Break out beta (market return) from alpha (skill), and determine what factors drove each component. Identify who on the team drove key deals and exits.
   
   iii) Cash returns matter more than paper gains. Break down realized vs. unrealized results.
   
   iv) True skill shows across cycles. Review how performance has held up in different market conditions.
   
   c) Strategy & Differentiation
   
   i) Clarity sells the story. The strategy should be explainable in a few sentences.
   
   ii) An edge makes the pitch compelling. Identify whether the manager has proprietary sourcing, niche expertise, or other advantages.  Note that coming from another well credentialed firm isn’t an edge worth hanging your hat on.  Also, simply stating that they focus on smaller transactions which are less competitive is a relatively weak edge to focus on. 
   
   iii) Match opportunity set and firm size. Watch out for firms that had early wins in smaller markets and are now expanding their mandate outside their proven area.
   
   iv) Match opportunity set and return target.  Evaluate what assumptions will have to be achieved to hit gross and net return targets (total returns, cash flows, etc.). Test these assumptions for a wide range of outcomes.  Don’t rely on past industry returns to look forward; look at entry/exit multiple assumptions, growth rate assumptions, etc.
   
   v) Competition is always present. Understand who rivals the manager both for capital and deal flow.
   
   d) Market Timing
   
   i) Timing can make or break fundraising. Even great managers struggle if LP appetite or market cycles aren’t aligned.
   
   e) Operational Diligence
   
   i) Institutional investors demand infrastructure. Verify the quality of compliance, reporting, and cybersecurity.
   
   ii) Credible partners reinforce trust. Review the auditor, administrator, and legal providers.
   
   iii) Conflicts can undermine confidence. Watch for legal, regulatory, or governance risks.
   
   iv) External validation carries weight. Confirm if the manager has been reviewed by recognized diligence consultants (Albourne, Castle Hall, Meketa, Aksia).
   
   f) Terms & Structure
   
   i) Alignment drives confidence. Look for meaningful GP commitment alongside fair economics.
   
   ii) Fee structures must be transparent. Review when and how performance fees are crystallized.
   
   iii) Mismatched terms create risk. Check for asset-liability mismatches in redemption provisions. Illiquid underlying assets combined with open-ended fund redemption terms can create liquidity and valuation issues.
   
   iv) Allocation fairness is essential. Ensure there are no conflicts across co-investments or vehicles.
   
   v) Tax structure influences decisions. Identify jurisdictional or structural issues that may deter investors.
   
   g) Fundraising Dynamics
   
   i) History informs credibility. Assess whether they’ve raised before and how successful prior efforts were.
   
   ii) Loyalty shows conviction. LP re-up rates are one of the strongest signals of investor confidence.
   
   iii) Diversification mitigates risk. Gauge whether the LP base is broad or concentrated.
   
2. Corporates
   
   a) Founder & Team
   
   i) People drive the business. Evaluate whether management has relevant experience and credibility.
   
   ii) Investor rapport is essential. Consider whether the team is coachable and credible with institutional investors.
   
   b) Market Opportunity
   
   i) Market sizing frames the opportunity. Validate TAM (Total Addressable Market), SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market), and SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) — and ensure management’s market share and growth assumptions are realistic.
   
   ii) Positioning defines competitiveness. Review how they stack up against rivals.
   
   iii) Defensibility sustains growth. Look for competitive moats built on barriers to entry such as tech, regulation, or data advantages.
   
   c) Financial Projections & Unit Economics
   
   i) Credibility rests on evidence. Ensure projections are backed by customer contracts and verifiable data.
   
   ii) Unit economics drive scale. Evaluate gross margins, customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (LTV). If these don’t scale, projections are meaningless.
   
   iii) Sensitivity exposes risk. Test whether assumptions break down with small changes (pricing, churn, sales cycle).
   
   d) IP & Assets
   
   i) Intellectual property protects value. Confirm that IP is legally protected, defensible, and enforceable.
   
   e) Use of Proceeds & Capital Efficiency
   
   i) Capital should be tied to milestones. Ensure proceeds are clearly allocated with measurable KPIs.
   
   ii) Runway determines viability. Verify that the burn rate is reasonable and funding carries the company to key milestones.
   
   f) Governance & Controls
   
   i) Governance reassures investors. Check board composition, audit readiness, and financial discipline.
   
   ii) Investor protections matter. Review reporting, shareholder rights, and legal structure.
   
   g) Exit Path / Liquidity
   
   i) Liquidity is the ultimate goal. Assess whether there is a credible exit path via M&A, IPO, or strategic sale.
   
   ii) Alignment avoids friction. Confirm management’s exit timeline matches investor expectations.
   

Close!

1. Set expectations: Open discussions about commercial terms including retainers and success fees early. 
2. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em: Prospects will test your terms. Know when you’re ready to hold your ground and when you might need to walk away.  Closing is the art of tactfully overcoming objections.