Episode 91: The 4 Traits Every Great Fundraiser Has (and They’re Not on a Resume) | Story Snack Series
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Whether you’re raising capital on your own or thinking about hiring someone to help, chances are… you’re focused on all the wrong things.
The biggest lesson Stacy learned while raising $8B for boutique asset managers (which ultimately helped drive over $30B in follow-on AUM)? Flashy resumes, market hot takes, and smooth talkers don’t close deals.
The fundraisers who consistently crush it in meetings share four specific traits, and in this Episode, Stacy’s breaking them down, plus:
Why a CFA and a killer contact list aren’t enough to raise real capital
The one thing allocators actually care about (hint: it’s not your market commentary)
Why asking great questions beats delivering the perfect pitch
What BQ is and why it might matter more than IQ or EQ
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.
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TRANSCRIPT
Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
[00:00:00] Stacy Havener : Hey, my name is Stacy Havener. I'm obsessed with startups, stories, and sales. Storytelling has fueled my success as a female founder in the Toughest Boys Club, wall Street. I've raised over 8 billion that has led to 30 billion in follow-on assets for investment boutiques, you could say, against the odds. Yeah, understatement.
[00:00:24] I share stories of the people behind the portfolios while teaching you how to use story to shape outcomes. It's real talk here, money, authenticity, growth, setbacks, sales and marketing are all topics we discuss. Think of this as the capital raising class you wish you had in college mixed with happy hour.
[00:00:46] Pull up a seat, grab your notebook, and get ready to be inspired and challenged while you learn. This is the Billion dollar Backstory podcast.
[00:00:59] [00:01:00] Craving more knowledge, but don't always have time to sit down for a five course meal. Take a quick snack break with story snacks, bite-sized content to feed your funnel. Each short episode features Stacey, digging into one question. This series has her talking stories, sales, and so much more. Oh yeah, it's time for story snacks.
[00:01:26] What separates great fundraisers from the rest? I love this question and I wanna do a little old way, new way on it. So the old way of like a great fundraiser, great salesperson would be golden Rolodex, right? That every salesperson would be like, oh, like I know.
[00:01:48] Oh, you know, name and allocator. Know 'em, know her friends. Yep. Golden Rolodex. The old way would also be. CFA or some ability to [00:02:00] basically talk as if they are a portfolio manager. You know what I say to both those, eh, cancel. Okay. I mean, I'm gonna cancel the talk like a portfolio manager more than I'm gonna cancel the golden Rolodex.
[00:02:14] The only person that should talk like a portfolio manager is a portfolio manager. Okay. When a salesperson fronts, like they know what the investment team is thinking, or they wanna share their views, air quotes on what's happening in the market or with inflation, or some macro thing. Exactly.
[00:02:35] Zero people care. Okay. Exactly. Zero. People care. What they care, what allocators care about is what the fund manager or investment team, or CIO or somebody who's, that's their thing. Thanks, not the salesperson. So just let that sail away. Golden Rolodex fine. But a lot of people who play the Golden Rolodex [00:03:00] card have been doing this for like 30 years.
[00:03:03] I'm raising my hand 'cause I'm like 20 and change. But like, yeah. And also.
[00:03:09] there are new people in the game. So it's not just about who you know from 20 years ago. Who do you know now? And how good are you at making new friends to add to your Rolodex? So that is old way, which is a good job. Tail into New Way to me the best. Thing that a sales person could be expert at is actually human behavior.
[00:03:38] So it's not iq, it is eq, but I'm gonna throw a new thing out there, which is bq. Okay? Behavioral quotient. Do you understand what makes people buy? Do you understand what choice hacking is? Do you understand why humans behave the way they [00:04:00] do, why they read certain things, why they don't read others? Do you understand all of that?
[00:04:06] Buying science? Give me that person because even though this is the investment industry and it's super specific, we are still humans here. And we still buy based on human behavior and behavioral science. So that to me is like a huge thing. It's hard to find, but if you find someone who really understands human behavior or behavioral finance, scoop them up.
[00:04:33] My second thing is that, okay, this is a little old way, new way again, but it's not the person who's really slick and jazzy and like Guy Smiley and gives the really polished pitch. It's not that person because let me just tag my beef eye again. A prospect thinks a meeting is great if they speak 70% of the time.
[00:04:59] [00:05:00] 70%. That means in an hour meeting they speak for 42 minutes. What fund manager presentation have you ever been in when a prospect spoke for 42 f-ing minutes? I've never been in one. Okay, so even if you can get 50 50, it's good. Which means. The art that we need this salesperson to be badass at is asking questions.
[00:05:27] It's not what they say to the prospect. It's what can you get the prospect to say to you? Okay, so that great at asking questions. Great at listening. Gimme the introvert, gimme the B. Find nerd and the introvert is where I'm at so far. The third thing, give me somebody who wants to research stuff. Typical salespeople like to like. muck it up. Like go and talk and, you know, hit some golf balls. I want the person that's like, let me learn everything I can about this prospect.
[00:05:59] Let me [00:06:00] read everything they've written. Let me geek out on their backstory. Let me Google them and just like go down all the rabbit holes. I want that person.
[00:06:11] You know what else I want? Three things, . Give me someone who's smart, cool, and fun because all things being equal. My best friend wins. So give me somebody who's smart and intellectually curious and interested in having conversations with people about smart stuff.
[00:06:31] Cool stuff. Give me someone that, like, somebody's gonna say, you know what, I just like her. Like, I would go grab a cup of coffee with her and it'd probably be a really fun chat. Give me that person. Give me somebody who smiles when they walk in the room. All of those things are not gonna show up on someone's resume, by the way.
[00:06:51] So my challenge to everybody is to rethink what you're paying for in salespeople. 'cause salespeople are very [00:07:00] expensive. I just challenge you to rethink it. It's hard to find a great fundraiser, but these are some different things you might be able to look for.
[00:07:11] Stacy Havener: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance.
[00:07:31] All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. Manager appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacy Haven or Haven Capital Partners.
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