War Stories Archive
This is a true story told to us by a veteran institutional salesperson. His firm, let’s call it Global Insights (GI), did not make the finals for a presentation to a small Midwestern public fund. But at the last minute another firm dropped out and GI was invited to fill the empty slot. GI could have declined to serve as filler — or could have acted like filler during its presentation. But it did neither.
Global Insights not only showed up but, thanks to its diligence and humility (and the arrogance of the front-runner) won a nice long-term piece of business for the firm. Here’s what happened:
The finals were running late, but the potential client wanted to ensure that all finalists were able to present for the previously agreed-upon 45 minutes. Before GI entered the meeting room, the GI salesperson took the trouble to leave a note for the competitor next in line: “The presentations are running late, but your company will still be allotted the full 45 minutes.” Apparently, the firm next in line did not see this note, or chose to ignore it, because here’s what happened next: In the middle of GI’s presentation, a beautiful, impeccably dressed young woman swept into the room decked out in, the GI team speculated, thousands of dollars worth of clothing and jewels. This lovely vision then interrupted GI’s presentation by announcing, “Rampant Ego Company* is here from New York City.”
All present gazed at the young woman with a mixture of awe and irritation. How could she be so rude? Didn’t she know that she was interrupting a competitor? And how much do clothes and coiffures like that all cost anyway? After she left, the head of the public fund’s selection committee summed up the feelings of many in the room when he said, “And there we have the audacity of a New York City money manager.”
The impression of her company in the minds of these hard-working Midwesterners became forever that of opulence and insensitivity — an impression totally overshadowing any of the merits of Rampant Ego’s investment process.
The members of the Global Insights presentation team to this day have not forgotten how a front-runner won the business for them.
Moral: Arrogance may inspire awe — but it rarely wins business.
* A well-known New York investment firm legendary for the hubris of its professionals.
For more on why the dark horse often wins, click here. Also see a related Art & Science article, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Investment Marketing.“