By Jake Marmulstein
Managing your company’s relationship with investors involves more than simply gathering money from them and giving reports on profits and losses. Your company needs to create stronger relationships with your investors; it is important to think about investor relations from a human-to-human (H2H) context to drive your business forward. With that in mind, here are five ways to better manage and improve investor relations.
1. Inform Your Investors
Provide current and potential investors with solid, reliable information. But this does not mean just financial information or technical details on deal progress. To strengthen your relationship with investors, tell them about yourself, your company and your team on a personal level – the story behind the company and what motivates your team. Tell them about your passion and vision for the company, not in a dry, marketing-speak sort of way, but as one person to another. Humanize your business by giving your investors your story.
2. Involve Your Investors
Every investor wants to stay updated on how their investments are performing. Part of managing your investor relationships will require keeping them informed and involved by notifying them on your company’s progress. In addition to sending reports, add a personal touch by holding periodic all-hands conference calls where investors are invited. Relate any pertinent news, upcoming possibilities, challenges, or occasional setbacks will help to keep your business, and most importantly, your people at the forefront of your investors’ minds.
3. Communicate with Your Investors
This step involves both mass and personalized communication. For mass communication, consider using text messages and emails to keep investors up-to-date on the latest developments. Occasional texts in between the conference calls will help to avoid any loss of engagement in the interim.
Personalized communication can pose a more difficult problem. If your business has a relatively small pool of investors, this step is a bit easier. Find a way other than the generic text and email blasts to talk to your investors personally. This could be through a personal text or phone call. It could be nothing more than a letter, or it could be a lunch meeting where you can talk about the company’s progress. If you email, be sure to include a personalized snippet for each recipient – let each investor know that you were thinking of him/her, particularly.
4. Manage Your Investors’ Expectations
When you share your passion and goals for the business, be sure to also explain to your investors how your process works. Let them know how you manage risks and rewards so that they aren’t caught off-guard when your company moves in a direction they weren’t expecting. Explain to them your decision-making to increase trust and transparency in the relationship so that investors learn they can rely on you.
5. Celebrate Achievements Alongside Your Investors
Finally, take the time to celebrate victories! At the very least, keep them informed and spread the news of profits, acquisitions, expansion funds, etc. Beyond that, find a way to celebrate together, possibly through a company and investor outing or reception. Celebrating your company’s success might be the final step investors need to start seeing your company as a longterm partner and not simply a dry, one-off investment.
