How Compound Marketing Helps Win Deals

"We need more leads."

It's the refrain you hear at every board meeting, every sales pipeline review, every time growth hits a wall.

The problem is, the vast majority of firms that will eventually buy from you aren't looking right now. They're mid-contract with a competitor. They're too busy with a fundraise. Their systems work well enough that change isn't worth the hassle.

This is what LinkedIn's B2B Institute calls the 95-5 rule: at any given time, only 5% of your potential buyers are actually in-market. The other 95% will be eventually, just not today.

Purchase cycles in the capital markets are measured in quarters and years, not weeks. You don't switch your LP reporting platform the way you switch coffee brands. If your entire marketing strategy only targets the 5% actively searching today, you're fighting over a tiny slice of your market while ignoring the 95% who represent your future revenue.

The Two Memory Systems That Determine Who Wins Deals

When your firm made its last major purchase, the winning vendor wasn't the one with the best cold email. It was the name that came to mind first.

That's brand recall - and it's different from brand recognition.

Brand recall is what happens when a CFO says, "We need a new fund administrator," and someone immediately responds with your name. No prompting, no list, your firm is top of mind.

Brand recognition is when that CFO sees your booth at SuperReturn and thinks, "Oh right, they do fund administration." They know you exist. But you didn't come to mind unprompted.

Most firms settle for recognition when they should build for recall. Sponsoring events and sending newsletters are table stakes - they maintain familiarity. But familiarity alone isn't enough. When a GP is evaluating platforms and generates their initial short list, you need to be on it. That requires something more than periodic visibility.

The distinction matters because recognition is easier to achieve, but recall drives revenue. Recall requires consistent presence paired with clear differentiation. Your firm needs to own a specific buying situation in prospects' minds, and when you do show up in those situations, make sure you're talking about their problems, not your features. When someone thinks "how can I collect KPIs from my Portcos more efficiently?" does your platform come to mind first? When a GP considers "switching fund admins," are you the immediate answer?

What Actually Works

The most successful investment technology firms and service providers remain consistently visible. They don't just show up at conferences; they consistently produce educational and thought-provoking perspectives.  They share insights from their work, and stay active in the channels their buyers frequent.

This doesn't mean expensive brand campaigns. It means being strategic about building memory. A fund administrator who only pushes content sporadically struggles with a lumpy pipeline. A tech platform that goes silent for months between announcements loses mindshare to competitors who maintain presence.

Here's what most firms miss: when a prospect finally enters the market, they don't convert on the first interaction. The partner who had a good conversation with you at SuperReturn or at a Family Office conference still needs to see your case study. The GP who read your thought leadership still wants proof points. The decision committee needs multiple exposures across different contexts before they're comfortable committing to your solution.

This is compound marketing in action. Each touchpoint, whether it's a conference conversation, a LinkedIn post, an email with genuine insight, or a reference from a peer, doesn't just add to your visibility; it also helps you build trust. It multiplies the impact of every previous interaction. The firm that maintains an active content presence and shows up in buyers' LinkedIn feeds with valuable perspectives doesn't just have higher recall. They've built compounding credibility, making each subsequent touchpoint more effective than the last.

Think of it like compound interest: a single conference appearance has limited impact. But that same appearance, reinforced by consistent thought leadership, followed by relevant case studies, amplified through media presence is the key to building real momentum. The eighth time a prospect encounters your brand is exponentially more powerful than the first, but only if you've been consistently present in between.

Invest in capturing the 5% actively evaluating today. But invest more in ensuring that when a GP needs to solve a problem or an LP asks peers for recommendations, your name is already familiar, and they've already encountered your message multiple times in multiple places. That's how you win the 95%.

The Real Competition Isn't Who You Think It Is

Your biggest competitor isn't the firm with better features or lower pricing. It's the firm that prospects think of first when they need what you sell.

The buying process in private capital starts long before the RFP. It begins with accumulated impressions over months or years. Most invest-tech firms will keep chasing the 5% actively shopping today. A few will realize that the best time to influence a decision is before anyone's made the decision to decide.

Want to build recall instead of just recognition? Quadsight Partners helps PE and invest-tech firms develop compound marketing strategies that position you in buyers' minds long before they enter the market. Drop us a note to see how we can put our expertise to work for you.