Equity crowdfunding campaigns such as Regulation A+ and Offering Memorandum are growing in popularity, and connecting with hundreds and thousands of retail investors is critical to the success of any capital raise. However, without an efficient investor communications infrastructure – it can be challenging. An outsourced investor relations calling desk is the perfect solution for early-stage, public companies, and even IR firms that are looking for a service to reach a large number of prospective investors.
What is an Investor Relations Calling Desk?
The IR Desk consists of investor relations specialists responsible for communicating key messaging and recent developments on behalf of the company at a high calling volume.
This solution serves to complement the existing IR functions of a company, rather than replacing its service offerings. There are many benefits of investing in an outsourced investor relations calling desk solution.
- Managing Large Volumes of Calls
One of the greatest advantages of an outsourced investor relations calling desk solution is its ability to reach large volumes of retail investors and harness their collective potential to support capital funding efforts. Connecting with a large number of investors individually is critical for the success of Regulation A+ and many other equity crowdfunding campaigns. However, it is a time-consuming process that can detract valuable time from a company’s operations. Responding to all investor inquiries in a timely manner can be challenging especially when experiencing large volumes of calls. With an outsourced investor relations calling desk solution, these calls can easily be handled as there are multiple IR professionals operating behind the calling desk. Moreover, incorporating a data-driven approach, technology-enabled communication, and targeted analytics ensures the needs of prospective investors for a rapidly growing firm are supported, without affecting the service level provided by the outsourced investor relations calling desk.
- Eliminating Costs & Resources
Another advantage of an outsourced investor relations calling desk solution is that it eliminates costs and resources associated with handling both inbound and outbound calls in-house. Hiring a senior IR professional can be expensive, as they traditionally focus on conducting outreach towards high net worth individuals and institutional investors. They also require longer periods of extensive training and onboarding, which can detract firms from focusing their attention and resources towards other primary day-to-day operations. On the other hand, the outsourced IR calling desk solution assigns multiple IR specialists to make hundreds of calls to the everyday retail investor. Incorporating defined training systems to maximize communications and efficiencies, the outsourced IR calling desk offers a much more cost-effective approach to support the capital funding efforts from retail investors.
- Professional Investor Relations Support
Organizations often fear that hiring an outsourced investor relations calling desk solution would eliminate the personalized touch an in-house IR professional provides to investors. In reality, most investor relations representatives are juggling multiple other responsibilities, or even companies. This can prohibit them from supporting shareholders and carrying out their main responsibilities to their fullest of abilities. Meanwhile, an outsourced investor relations calling desk handles more than just phone calls; it develops call scripts, escalation metrics for the management team, sets up the telecommunication infrastructure, and delivers monthly call disposition reports including funding commitments. The purpose of an IR calling desk is to complement and support the existing IR services of a firm, rather than replacing its service completely. In most cases, outsourced investor relations calling desk solutions offer a dedicated IR manager for each representing firm, with built-in infrastructure to track communications and other metrics to maximize investor engagement and tailor efforts towards organizational needs.
- Increased Service Availability & Flexibility
An outsourced investor relations calling desk solution assigns multiple investor relations specialists solely dedicated to supporting the capital raise of a client firm. The IR calling desk representatives are situated in various time zones across North America in order to support both inbound and outbound calls from different regions. This enables an increase in the service hours available for investors, which is highly crucial especially during a time of crisis. Additionally, an IR calling desk offers great flexibility in terms of providing service through Omni-channel communication platforms (phone, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal, Telegram, WeChat, AI Chatbots) to quickly adapt to the changing needs of an ever-growing business.
Learn more about the PYC Investor Calling Desk Solution or book a demo.
