Last quarter, a Fund Manager missed out on a buying opportunity when two large deals had closed for a company he was considering. Additionally, a major holding collapsed when the company announced that a new product was cannibalizing sales. Seeking to avoid repeated failures, the Fund Manager hires Verbatim to conduct quarterly interviews with 4-8 Sales Vice Presidents at each of several companies. Further validation comes through interviews of at least 2 competitors and customers, thereby uncovering events in time to buy or sell. For the final degree of comfort, Verbatim sets up six follow-on interviews that the Fund Manager conducts on his own.

Analyst With Minimal Raw Data

Seeking to understand whether a retailer has finally turned around after several false starts, an Analyst can only look at monthly same-store sales and speak periodically with the tight-lipped CFO. He has no time to interview Store Managers about mid-month trends – nor ability to get many of them to talk. So, the Analyst has Verbatim’s seasoned staff speak to the Managers, using their decades’ worth of interview experience to get the Managers to openly discuss their monthly outlook. Verbatim’s multi-lingual staff also speaks to mid-level executives at the store’s French parent company. Result: the turnaround is confirmed to be in place.

Research Director Flooded With Research Requests

Three of a Research Director’s top Fund Managers rely on every word from her “outsourced” research team of former Analysts. When the Managers give her 12 research assignments in a two-day period, she is overwhelmed. Supported by a virtual staff of at-home MBA students, these outsourced Analyst firms tell the Research Director that it will be two weeks before they can begin work. Worse, one of the outsourced Analysts unexpectedly plans to take a month off. Frustrated with the limited bandwidth, the Director hires Verbatim’s staff of 80-plus researchers that finish all research assignments before the other firms would have started.

Data-Poor Company or Product Line

A Fund Manager concedes that the market he’s analyzing has large
information gaps that he wants to exploit, so he tasks Verbatim with interviewing key individuals in the supply chain: distributors, resellers, and corporate buyers. Within weeks, the Portfolio Manager can closely monitor the industry. Further, the knowledge he gains from reading the company-specific responses obtained by Verbatim enables him to gain credibility with a company’s CEO and CFO – and ask questions that are beyond the standard Q&A drill.