Blog · Forecast and pipeline · Investment banking
How an investment bank's coverage and product groups measure pitch-to-mandate conversion from the pitch log and the mandate register: pitches made per sector team and product, mandates won, conversion by count and by estimated fee, the senior hours per pitch from time or calendar records, fees won per senior hour by cell, and the sectors and products where the bank pitches most and wins least.
A coverage team pitches constantly and wins some of it, and the relationship between the two is measured in anecdotes. The pitch log joined to the mandate register measures it by sector team and product, and the senior hours per pitch turn it into a cost. This guide sets out conversion, the cost, fees won per senior hour, and the cells the bank should pitch less.
Per pitch:
Won if a mandate for the same client and product was signed within the window Senior hours, from calendar or time records
Per sector team, per product:
Conversion by count = mandates ÷ pitches Conversion by fee = estimated fees on won pitches ÷ estimated fees on all pitches Fees won per senior hour = Σ mandated fees ÷ Σ senior hours on pitches
Client and banker identifiers only.
every mandate in the window joins to a pitch, or is listed unsolicited
Unsolicited mandates are real and good; they are also the ones a pitch log would miss, and they are shown separately so conversion is not understated.
| Sector team | Product | Pitches | Mandates | By count | By fee | Senior hours per pitch | Fees won per senior hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrials | M&A | 44 | 9 | 20% | 24% | 38 | $18,000 |
| Industrials | DCM | 31 | 14 | 45% | 41% | 12 | $61,000 |
| Technology | M&A | 62 | 4 | 6% | 5% | 52 | $2,900 |
| Technology | ECM | 28 | 8 | 29% | 33% | 20 | $34,000 |
| Healthcare | M&A | 38 | 10 | 26% | 30% | 40 | $22,000 |
Technology M&A: sixty-two pitches, four mandates, fifty-two senior hours each, under three thousand dollars of mandated fee per hour of managing director time. Industrials DCM wins nearly half at a third of the hours. The bid discipline is per cell, and Technology M&A needs a written case per pitch.
Pitches to a client with no mandate in three years, and the senior hours spent, is a second list. A client that takes a pitch every quarter and mandates elsewhere is a price-check client at a bank's cost scale.
Pitch count as the measure. The busiest team is the least converting.
No hours. Conversion without cost; the expensive cell looks like the ambitious one.
Unsolicited mandates merged. Conversion overstated; the pitch log looks better than it is.
Cells too small. Four pitches, one mandate, 25 percent. Show the count; grey under a floor.
Mapped once, the pitch log, the mandate register and the calendar records produce conversion by count and fee, the senior hours and fees per hour per cell, and the client list every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The investment banking page describes the setup, and the fee wallet guide covers where the mandates won sit against what the client pays everyone.
The coverage group's pitch tracker, or the CRM's opportunity records for pitches, with client, sector, product, date and the estimated fee. Where no log exists, the pitch book repository's metadata is a proxy: one book per pitch, with the client and date.
Calendar entries tagged to the pitch, or a time record where the bank keeps one, at a stated rate per managing director or director hour. Approximate is fine; the ratio across cells is what matters, and it is usually large.
The join is on client and product within a stated window, twelve to eighteen months. A mandate won later is attributed to the most recent prior pitch in the window, and the window is on the report. Mandates with no pitch in the window are listed as unsolicited or unlogged.