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Portfolio >  Copywriting

Messaging Memo | by Warren Goldie

A Technique for Developing a Brand and Marketing Materials

Related article on LinkedIn

The Messaging Memo is a strategy document that can be used to help rapidly write copy for a web page, brochure, flyer, proposal, press release, sales email, article, pitch, grant application, or any type of marketing collateral you may need.

See the example below. Parker Consulting is not the real company name, though the content is drawn from a real client engagement.

Short Company Description

  • Parker Consulting specializes in providing IT and business process improvement services to the alternative asset (AA) management community.
  • Parker Consulting helps clients plan, deploy, manage, and optimize hardware, software and telecommunications projects to reduce costs and improve performance.
  • Parker Consulting specializes in enabling technology in the alternative asset management, healthcare, medical, legal, and manufacturing industries.

Long Company Description

  • Parker Consulting provides CIO/CTO advisory services, Salesforce.com project implementation, business process analysis and automation. Parker Consulting applies proven methods and technologies to deliver reliable, high-quality results.
  • We are software and integration experts who apply SalesForce and other technologies to solve the business problems of Private Equity Funds. Our goal is to help provide “better data for better decision-making” for our clients.
  • Quote: “Technology in business should not just save money. It must create new ways of operating which enables businesses to capture opportunities that would otherwise not be available.” —Parker Consulting

Corporate Qualities

  • Trustworthy, competent technology advisor to the alternative asset (AA) market
  • Deep understanding of the needs of private equity funds and AA companies
  • Expertise in SalesForce and other efficiency technologies
  • Responsible – you can offload your IT decisions to us

Opportunity

The AA market is underserviced by IT consultants. No IT companies serve them.

Target Audience

Organizations

  1. Private Equity Funds (PEF) – vast majority of Parker Consulting’s market
  2. Venture Capital Funds
  3. Hedge Funds
  4. Real Estate Investment

People

  • Fund partners – the decision-makers
  • Analysts and administrative support personnel – feel the pain most

Client Pain Points

  • Organizations lack reliable data and streamlined processes
  • Much data moving in and out of these orgs – too many databases, lost data, time wasted, disorganization, communication glitches, errors
  • Can’t efficiently produce reports – which diminishes investor confidence
  • AA companies don’t have a CIO or IT leadership – thus lack the ability to leverage technology to best serve their business needs
  • Inefficient manual data management processes – meaning lost time, money and opportunities
  • Anxiety over compliance and possible SEC audit – many orgs don’t even know if they are in compliance, which can cost them later
  • Security is not all it can be
  • General administrative inefficiency – leads to poor decision-making

Parker Consulting Services

Overview

We automate manual or inefficient processes to streamline how organizations move data and drive information out. We can help in these areas:

  • Deal sourcing – helping expedite researching and finding investments.
  • Fund-raising – leveraging CRM to manage relationships with investors and potential investors.
  • Fund administration – automating reports and streamlining communications processes with investors.

Offerings

  1. CIO Services/IT Strategy Development —We bring technical and business experience acquired through many engagements with AA companies to help build and implement an IT strategy that can best support business functions. These services include security, compliance, technology, implementation, email management, and software selection services.
  2. Process Optimization and Automation
  3. SalesForce (SF) Development and Customization
  • Parker Consulting will implement SF to make business processes more efficient.
  • SF services: configuration, data migration, integration, training, data analytics
  • We’ll build customized functionality into your SalesForce.com platform, giving you automation tools to track deal sourcing, fund-raising, fund administration and other activities.
  • SF gives far more ROI than current, less streamlined methods. (“We have streamlined a 10-day process to a single day.”)
  1. Compliance
  2. Custom Software — We offer proprietary tools developed by Parker Consulting specifically for the AA market. (Why reinvent the wheel when we’ve already developed the tools you need?)
  3. Vendor Selection and Management — We can help you wade through the advantages and disadvantages of, say, five different technology companies and help you make the right decision. We can decipher what everyone’s talking about.

MS Excel Scripting and Reporting

Technologies designed and implemented

  • Application integration with Salesforce.com
  • SalesForce Implementation and Customization
  • Rapid Application Development platform
  • MS Access database and Excel applications
  • Web-based interfaces
  • Automated scripts and VBScripts
  • Automated processes to import fund evaluation
  • MS Access database applications used by SEO
  • Sarbanes-Oxley compliance report applications
  • Automation of workflows and supply chain

Parker Consulting – Benefits

  • We are experts in both the AA market and in IT – no one else can state this
  • We leverage the power of SalesForce for you
  • Our solutions yield lowered cost, improved efficiency, greater ROI and better decision-making ability
  • You can outsource all your CIO functions to us securely
  • Get on-demand Web technologies to help in Fund management (Web enabling) (“We harness the power of the Web to serve your company’s business needs.”)
  • Better access to better data … leads to better decisions”
  • Improved responsiveness to investors
  • More efficient approach to all IT issues
  • Accelerated sales cycle and revenue growth
  • Help in bridging the gap between technology and business
  • We can translate technical features into business advantages
  • Assistance in eliminating of error-prone manual processes
  • Better, more timely reporting (“Instead of getting your reports out just a few days before the end of the quarter, you can produce them faster.”)

Parker Consulting Differentiators

  • We are the only IT company in the market that specializes in helping alternative asset community companies
  • We are a collection of top-tier consultants with broad experience across many kinds of technology and a deep knowledge of the AA market
  • We are experts in CRM and SF technologies – using knowledge gained from many engagements
  • We have implemented and customized SF for numerous AA clients
  • Our wide ranging knowledge allows us to tie together “all the pieces”—integration, data storage, security, etc.

Implementation Methodology

  1. Business Process Review
  2. Setup, Configuration & Customization
  3. Data Migration
  4. Training
  5. Ongoing Support

Competition

Falls into 3 areas:

  1. com focused consulting companies – who lack canned applications and are focused on the general market
  1. com focused consulting companies – serve financial services and may have developed products to be resold through Salesforce.com
  1. Companies that develop and market software and services specifically for the Alternative Asset Management space. None of these products have a formal affiliation with SalesForce and their business model stands as Software as a Service (SAAS) in general

Industry players – working in SalesForce:

Astadia – http://www.astadia.com/

Acetta  – http://www.acetta.com/

Insight Consulting Service (ICS) – http://www.ics-insight.com/

Centerstance – http://www.centerstance.com/

Model Metrics –  http://www.modelmetrics.com/

Okere – http://www.okere.com/

Theikos – www.theikos.com

Blue wolf – http://www.bluewolfgroup.com/index.html

Industry players – working in Private Equity Fund Admin:

Relevant Equity Works – http://www.relevant.us/

Backstop Software – http://backstopsolutions.com/

Ideas for Leads

  • Your decisions are only as good as your data
  • Why Web-enable your fund?
  • How good is your data?
  • Do you trust your data?
  • Are you reporting to investors on time?
  • Excel and Outlook can take you so far

Tagline Ideas

  • Better data. Better decisions.
  • Better data for better decision-making.
  • Better process, better data, better decisions
  • Better access to data. Better decisions.
  • Responsible IT management for the Alternative Investment market.
  • Better data for the alternative investment community
  • Bridging the gap between technology and business
  • Consolidate. Improve your data.

Bios

XX, President, Parker Consulting

XX, Chief Technology Officer, Parker Consulting

# # #

Notes

About the Alternative Asset Market

  1. Private Equity Funds (PEF) — business institutions/entities that raise money from wealthy individuals/foundations/universities to buy companies that are undervalued or in decline, and then resell them to turn a high rate of appreciation for investors. Return is typically 20-25 percent. These are called “buy outs.”

Functions:

  • Deal sourcing – working with investment bankers to find companies to buy
  • Fund-raising –meeting with foundations/endowments/retirement funds/wealthy individuals and convincing them that the fund is a good place to put money.
  • Fund administration – reporting back to investors, on a quarterly basis, about companies bought, with a focus on the value of the investment, tax implications, etc. Keeping open lines of communication with investors.
  1. Venture Capital Funds – organizations that research, find and invest in high-potential companies that are in their infancy or that don’t yet exist. When the companies go public, the Venture Capital Fund hopes for a high ROI.
  2. Hedge Funds
  3. Real Estate Investment – raise money, buy apartments as future investment, etc.

Misc.:

  • A private equity fund typically has a 3-tier structure: partners, analyst, administrative support (“knowledge workers”).
  • Funds try to find “diamond-in-the-rough” companies, buy them, then put in new management to improve them.
  • Parker Consulting works from a list of 800 Private Equity Funds

“The Argument for migrating to SalesForce”

Salesforce.com’s flagship sales force automation (SFA) application gives businesses the upper hand with their sales data. Comprehensive and easy to customize, Salesforce empowers companies to manage people and processes more effectively, so reps can close more deals. With Salesforce, reps spend more time selling and less time on administration. With Application Experts, your company can quickly get up and running with Salesforce.com and start realizing its full potential immediately.

Benefits of on-demand SFA:

  • Point-and-click customization for SFA that fits the way you sell
  • Real-time analytics empower your business to make better decisions
  • Instant global deployment for offline and online use
  • Award-winning ease of use results in widespread adoption

SFA Benefits for Reps:

Reps need solutions that make their jobs easier, not more complicated. Salesforce gives them fast access to data — online, offline, and via mobile devices — and links easily to popular tools like Microsoft Office and Outlook.  With a user interface rated “simple and intuitive” by PC Magazine, Salesforce is the one SFA Solution every sales rep will love and use.

SFA Benefits for Sales Managers:

Managers need visibility into the activities of their reps and insight into where they stand with their pipelines. Salesforce provides powerful opportunity management, forecasting, reporting and customization capabilities, so sales managers can be confident their teams are producing at their full capacity.

SFA Benefits for Executives

Executives need accurate information so they can evaluate their company’s past performance while looking ahead to the future. They want to answer critical business questions quickly without sifting through reams of data. With the powerful analytics and customizable dashboards that Salesforce provides, executives have the real-time information they need to be effective.

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