Coronation Fund Managers goes live with ProFundCom

“Ultimately investors make decisions based on the way you interact with them. The more professionally and efficiently this is done, the more likely they are to invest. With all else being equal, investors will favour fund managers that distribute pertinent information effectively and whose salespeople follow-up in the most professional manner. We have achieved this using ProFundCom.”

Charles Barnick, CEO, Coronation International - AuM USD 1.2 billion

The Problem

Coronation Fund Managers manages over US$1.2 billion in global funds of funds via Coronation international, its London arm. Naturally some funds have spare capacity, and new funds are regularly created. To attract new investors and additional funds the company has a sales and marketing team to cross-sell new funds to existing investors, motivate and support a network of 3rd-party distribution partners, and regularly communicate with about 3,000 existing and prospective investors via its database.

Like most hedge funds and funds of funds, the company spends a lot of effort producing monthly newsletters worthy of the funds they represent. Unfortunately:

• Nobody knew how many people actually read them – there was no ‘hit rate’
• Salespeople naturally worried that they may be missing opportunities
• Salespeople wasted time chasing non-productive prospects

The ProFundCom Solution

Coronation began designing and sending its emails using ProFundCom. ProFundCom is web based, so no desktop installation is needed.

There was no disruption to existing contact management software because ProFundCom is designed to work with such systems.

Result: ProFundCom took the guesswork out of the sales and marketing process. Now the sales team receive daily and weekly reports revealing which prospects have read the information distributed – and which products they are most interested in.

The benefits to the sales and marketing process are:

• Sales approaches are based on good market intelligence
• Continually developing profiles of all prospects and clients
• Time saved by focusing follow-up on the most profitable prospects
• Effectively exploited cross-selling opportunities
• Fewer overall opportunities missed 

There are administrative, I.T., and regulatory benefits as well:

• Streamlined design: the team can measure response rates to different email designs and content
• Clean database: address-correction technology means email ‘bounce-backs’ have been virtually eliminated
• Assured delivery: ProFundCom’s sending methodology means emails are less likely to be treated as spam
• Compliance: ProFundCom maintains an audit trail of all activities – and an optional unsubscribe’ link allows recipients to opt out at any time

“ProFundCom took the guesswork out of the sales and marketing process.”

Business Profile

Coronation International Ltd. (CIL) is the London arm of Coronation Fund Managers, one of the largest asset management companies in South Africa. From its base in Cape Town, CFM manages more than $12 billion for a primarily institutional client base. It has offices in South Africa, Botswana, and Ireland as well as the UK, plus a presence in Namibia through a strategic partnership.

Established in 1996, Coronation International manages over US$1.2 billion in global funds of funds from its offices in London and Dublin.

Industry

Asset management including hedge funds and funds of funds.

Location

Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Dublin, Gaborone and Windhoek.

Website

www.coronation.com