Guest post by Marianne Hewitt, CEO at The Growth Strategy Group. This article first appeared on cdp.com.

Asset managers must continue to drive down expense ratios and keep an intense focus on growth by leveraging modern technologies and improving operational efficiencies. For asset managers to deploy that technology, they need to invest in the marketing technology (Martech) stack of the future.

The Asset Management MarTech Stack Insights and Trends research, in which I collaborated with Synthesis Technology and Sondhelm Partners, identified operational efficiencies as the largest influence for shaping MarTech Stacks in the next two years. Delivering an effective customer experience and generating business insights were also priorities that will influence the construct of the future MarTech stack.Read More

Insights by John Toepfer, CEO and Chris Ruppenstein, Director of Sales at Synthesis Technology

Today, nearly every segment of the economy is seeing an increase in wage pressures and tighter labor markets. As a result, asset management executives are looking to efficiently allocate resources amongst already capacity-constrained teams and business units. This means manual, time-consuming tasks should and must be automated.

Deloitte’s 2022 Investment Management Outlook report showed 45% of survey respondents see operational efficiency as a top driver for digitization. Similarily, Synthesis Technology’s 2021 Asset Management Martech survey also showed operational efficiency as a top driver in terms of Martech stack changes over the next two years (82%). And while most asset management firms have some automation in place, they still are not investing enough in data management solutions. Only 24% of responding firms reported having a data management solution for product data, and even fewer (13%) reported having an integrated product data management and content automation system.

The lack of efficient data processes negatively impacts managers’ efficiency, bottom line, and competitiveness. For example, taking a month after quarter-end to update and distribute marketing and sales materials is costly, puts marketing and sales teams at a disadvantage, and may lead to investors and prospects looking elsewhere.

Managers also face increasing data governance and compliance scrutiny from the due diligence requirements of potential investors and consultants as well as internal stakeholders.

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In the world of financial product sales, the quality of your pitchbooks can either make or break you. In order for salespeople to deliver great presentations, it’s important to have an effective pitchbook strategy that runs like a well-oiled machine.  If your strategy isn’t refined, you run the risk of sending out sloppy presentations that can damage your brand image, or worse, result in non-compliance.Read More

It’s tough out there for investment management sales teams and only getting more challenging. Today, pitchbooks must be customer-centric, created or changed on a dime, on-brand, compliant and have digital output and tracking options. That’s like trying to make a delicious, vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, and sugar-free wedding cake in 10 minutes.

If that hits home, then this article is for you.

(If you didn’t find that amusing, you’ve clearly never tried to make a cake in 10 minutes.)

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