Tip three: Prepare to be ‘always on’
Historically, IROs sat down at the start of the year and determined how many non-deal roadshows a company could feasibly handle. An IRO then asked C-suite members to block off a few multiple-day chunks of time on their calendars, typically after quarterly results were announced, to travel and meet investors face to face.
While in-person non-deal roadshows are still an important part of the IR arsenal, they’re happening less frequently and they’re lasting fewer days. Instead, companies are adding numerous virtual meetings with investors to their schedules – often at extremely short notice.
Caspar Tudor, Waters Corporation
With investors reaching out to IROs proactively, IR and the C-suite are no longer experiencing the same peaks and valleys of investor engagement.
There’s a new ‘always-on status,’ says Caspar Tudor of Waters Corporation, ‘that requires you to be available constantly to field questions, put together and fulfill meeting requests and then have meetings themselves, whether virtually or in person.’
Tudor welcomes new opportunities to connect with investor targets geographically farther afield, as well as to meet investors outside the orbit of sell-side brokers. ‘The barriers and friction associated with setting up a meeting have diminished,’ he explains. ‘And the result is that demand for access has increased a lot.’
As part of this new always-on reality, proactive IROs are scrambling to ensure they don’t let any investor communications slip through the cracks. This means carefully monitoring voicemail and inbound emails and texts.
It also means maintaining a highly organized calendar and communicating with executive assistants to ensure ample management time is set aside to engage with investors.
No question, increased direct engagement means a longer to-do list for IROs. For this reason, it’s important to harness technology whenever possible. Customer relationship management tools – and other technology solutions – make it easier to fulfill meeting requests quickly, as well as to arrange the actual meetings.
IROs can also compile and review meeting histories and notes; systems can even be configured to ping a professional when it’s time to follow up with a given prospect. In short, technology can relieve IR professionals of some of the administrative tasks once handled by brokers.
