Edgemont, a boutique healthcare M&A firm, has been on the frontline of healthcare-focused business transactions for over two decades. With a dedicated team of 50 full-time bankers, the company assists healthcare companies through critical transitions such as mergers and acquisitions.
Edgemont’s Head of Business Development, Ben Hughes, elaborates on how Grata’s platform transformed the firm’s business development processes.
The Challenge
As Head of Business Development, Ben Hughes needed to reach out to numerous companies every day. Initially, Hughes’ outreach efforts relied on Amazon Mechanical Turk and manual workflows for digging up contact information online and assembling spreadsheets.
Hughes quickly realized that these efforts weren’t scalable.
“My main goals were to reach a larger set of contacts more efficiently—whether it was reaching out to a prospect or trying to arrange meetings for Managing Directors at conferences. I wanted to be able to pivot as quickly as possible based on the Managing Directors’ needs to help facilitate their business development efforts,” Hughes explains.
This led Edgemont on a quest for a more streamlined solution that could cater specifically to its unique business model within the healthcare sector, where niche companies are abundant but often hard to pinpoint due to their smaller digital footprints.
Grata's Innovative Solution
Enter Grata. The platform's user-friendly interface, powered by its AI search capabilities, made it an obvious choice for Edgemont.
"The fact that Grata was already focusing on AI before it became a widespread trend shows they're ahead of the curve, positioning AI as the future," Hughes says. With this forward-thinking approach, Grata offered a solution tailored to Edgemont’s needs.
Grata’s AI-driven search capabilities and robust database were particularly valuable, providing Hughes and his team with the specificity required in the healthcare sector, where many companies maintain a low online presence.
"These businesses have a smaller footprint. So the fact that Grata can pick those up for us to compile a list of those companies in a relatively short time through their AI searches allows me to do my job more effectively," Hughes states.
Grata’s Impact
Grata’s integration with Edgemont’s CRM system also played a crucial role in the team’s success, streamlining processes further and enabling a more efficient workflow through CRM intelligence that keeps contact and relationship data continuously in sync.
“We’re definitely relying on the integration of our CRM system. So the fact that they have a DealCloud integration was also a selling point for us and adds value because I don't have to manually export and import contacts into our CRM,” says Hughes.
With the efficiency that Grata’s CRM integration has created, Hughes says he and his team have seen a significant increase in new meetings: “We’ve been able to up the amount of calls, up the amount of meetings, and we’ve been able to drive new business to the firm as a result of using Grata’s platform.”
‘A Pipeline for the Future’
The impact on Edgemont's business development activities was undeniable. Grata’s platform enabled a significant increase in the number of calls and meetings, laying the groundwork for future business opportunities.
As Edgemont continues to leverage Grata's capabilities, the firm remains at the forefront of technology adoption within the investment banking sector. The platform’s focus on AI and automation not only positions Edgemont for sustained success but also heralds a new era of efficiency in business development activities within the healthcare M&A landscape.
Hughes adds, “I often say that we are building a pipeline for the future, a concept I believe resonates with many. Through the use of Grata, we have indeed constructed a pipeline that extends into the future, significantly reducing the time required to identify the right companies to target.”
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