Episode 165: What Asset Managers Can Learn From the Greatest Sales Deck Ever
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Ten years ago, Andy Raskin wrote a piece called "The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen."
And Stacy Havener is still thinking about it.
Not because you need to build a SaaS deck, but because the structure underneath it works on allocators too.
Too many pitch decks start with some version of: "Let me tell you all about us."
You go into a long spiel about your fund’s process and performance. Meanwhile, the allocator is sitting there with a very reasonable question: "Okay... why should I care?"
That's the gap Stacy digs into in this Story Snack.
Listen in to learn:
What a decade-old SaaS sales deck can teach fund managers about raising capital
Why allocators move faster to avoid pain than to chase upside
How to frame old way vs. new way without accidentally insulting the allocator
Why "better" might not be the word you want, and what to say instead
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized series for fund managers who want to get better at strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.
TRANSCRIPT
Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: Craving more knowledge, but don't always have time to sit down for a five-course meal? Take a quick snack break with Story Snacks, bite-sized content to feed your funnel. Each short episode features Stacey digging into one question. This series has her talking stories, sales, and so much more. Oh, yeah. It's time for Story Snacks
[00:00:26] I wanted to talk a little bit about one of my favorite storytellers. They're not really in the capital markets per se, but more in like the venture startup community. So there's a lot, like he works mostly with Series B firms. You know, firms write pretty big checks to him to do their narrative. Um, but his name is Andy Raskin.
[00:00:47] He used to be much more active on LinkedIn. He's really not so much anymore, and he also used to have like a podcast. I don't know if he's still doing that. So he-- I haven't seen him as much, but Mary and I were walking and talking [00:01:00] yesterday, and I said, "Gosh, I'm just thinking about Andy Raskin." So nine years ago, Andy Raskin wrote a piece called "The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen Now remember that this is somebody who's steeped in narrative storytelling messaging in the startup VC, you know, sort of Silicon Valley space.
[00:01:24] And a sales deck for firms like this is slightly different than like what we do in a pitch deck. But there's, I think, some good lessons for us here to learn about communicating something that answers the sort of why should I care? A lot of times when we do a pitch deck in our space, it's like, "Let me tell you all about us."
[00:01:47] And that's basically the gist of every slide. And what is often missing is the piece of, okay, great, this is all about you. Why should I care? [00:02:00] What's in it for me? Obviously the returns are, you know, what's in it for them. Mm. But it sort of has to be more than that. And so this sales deck, this would be more like I'm a software company and I'm gonna go try to get a new client to hire us for s- whatever software or SaaS thing we have.
[00:02:22] Okay? So that's kind of this idea. I frequently go back to this piece, which you can Google. So he goes through five things that he likes to see in a sales deck, and the, the first two are very related, um, for me, and it sort of answers this like what's in it for me? And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about how he words it.
[00:02:44] So he words it, point number one, he says, "Name a big relevant change in the world." And point two is show there'll be winners and losers. When you look at this [00:03:00] example it's gonna be so esoteric because it's literally about subscription economy, which is like so up in the ether and you're like, I don't know, I'm not defining a whole new category here, right?
[00:03:10] So don't get too hung up on the fact that this particular example is like there's a whole new way of doing everything and if you don't get on the train you're gonna get left behind. I don't think it has to be that big, but it needs to be that painful. Loss aversion, pain, those are really bigger behavioral motivators than gain and return.
[00:03:39] People respond to pain more than they react to the potential of pleasure. But generally speaking Loss aversion is a bigger behavioral motivator or solving a pain point, which is why people talk about like poke the bear, is a bigger behavioral motivator than, "Hey, you can get this nice shiny return over [00:04:00] here.
[00:04:00] Wouldn't that be cool?" I wanna fix what hurts more than I wanna harness what's, you know, happy and amazing. And so when we think about this, this can be done in one slide, by the way, and it almost has to set the stage at the beginning. A new-- I, I like the idea of like a new way, right? 'Cause remember, you want it, so let's go back to what Raskin said.
[00:04:24] What was his phrasing? A big relevant change. Big relevant change doesn't require better, it requires different. It requires new. So we think the big relevant change in the world is one type of loan product is not going to work. You need multiple. And what's the pain that the allocator has felt if they were in the old way?
[00:04:50] So this is very much old way, new way, not necessarily worse or better. It is subtext, but it's old way, new way. And so [00:05:00] one of the things that happens when we say better is if the allocator has been using the other way, we are inadvertently knocking them. Like, "Oh, you're using that old shitty way? Oh, you're still doing the broken thing?"
[00:05:15] And so we want to say, "No, this is how everyone was doing it, and that's, that's fine. And maybe that still has a place in some ways, shapes, or forms, but there's a new way that can complement even that old way, and it's different." But you don't say better, in my opinion. You let them get there, uh, when they get there.
[00:05:38] You just sort of say, "This is different Let's be real. No one wakes up and says, "I can't wait to build some operational infrastructure today." You're here to manage money, to build something that lights you up, not chase down reports across five systems and 15 service providers. That's where Ultimus Fund Solutions comes in.[00:06:00]
[00:06:00] They're your ops dream team, consolidating all your middle and back office chaos into one clean, scalable setup. Registered funds, private funds, SMAs, all integrated. One team, one tech platform, one rock solid source of data. But here's the real differentiator: service. I know that fund in a box sounds convenient.
[00:06:26] It's also a box. Know what you can't put in a box? A human who picks up the phone when you call and need help, real life people who know your name and your fund, and they care about getting it right. Ultimus was built on people doing business with people. You get institutional strength combined with boutique level service without getting stuck in a phone tree of doom.
[00:06:52] If you're ready to simplify, scale, and start working with a team that feels like an extension of yours, check out [00:07:00] billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus. That's U-L-T-I-M-U-S. You've got the investment strategy, the vision, the track record. Now it's time to upgrade the engine behind it all with Ultimus. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
[00:07:22] The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment values may fluctuate, and past performance is not a guide to future performance. All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm.
[00:07:42] Managers' appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacy Havener or Havener Capital Partners
[00:07:51]
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