When we talk to influential people in our industry, frequently the interest Fancamp has in the conversation is for the other person to consider spreading the word about us (directly or indirectly) to the retail investor community. I’m reasonably confident, we do some of this. However, to me at least, it’s obvious we’re not doing this according to a rationalized and carefully laid out plan.

I’m not pointing fingers. I’m not refraining from finger-pointing out of politeness. Any failing you surmise is there is not, by any stretch of the imagination, limited to the leadership of Fancamp. I more than suspect, the main parts of the kind of initiatives I’m advancing are, also, neglected by virtually every company in our industry.

So, if we make a great improvement in these areas, it’s not merely to get up to par. This is not only about fixing deficiencies. With just a little imagination and initiative we can be number one in our industry when it comes to attracting the interest of retail investors in what we’re doing.

I am advocating, essentially, that we adopt enhanced techniques of business-to-business sales or, as they say, business-to-business development. What we need to do is one person separated from a direct sale; or one media outlet removed from directly communicating with investors using our website or our advertising. Also, what this should be (as one facet of our business) is building serious, ongoing, and growing business relationships.

We, certainly, could make good use of all the help we would get from having behind us more influential investor organizations and more investor publications and more people associated with such businesses. I am asking that we apply some conscious thought as to how to make this happen as often as possible.

This is not the same as simply selling something or the same as closing a sale. But getting out there and spreading the word about us is not far different than selling our virtues to the investing public. For the most part, that investing public (the retail investor) is unsophisticated. It follows the investment advice it gets. It’s our best business to cultivate the respected advice-givers.

This is not on the scale of a hit-or-miss sale. The difference is on the order of magnitude of the difference between making a one-shot lucky sale compared to having ongoing discussions regarding both new and residual business with investor organizations. We must never neglect the sources of multiple-time investor support.

To be continued.