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Diane Harrison This article was authored by Diane Harrison, principal and owner of Panegyric Marketing, a U.S.-based strategic marketing communications firm specializing in the alternative assets sector.

Forget the fact that the industry is salivating over Congress looking to roll back Reg D under the JOBS Act, allowing hedge funds and private equity groups to advertise their offerings like any other investment product. Ignore the visions of ridiculous advertising war chests assembled by the private placement industry to launch ad campaigns that will rock the alternative world. It all misses the point: alternative products are sold through relational marketing that takes place over time. Alternatives are bought by professional investors (institutions) and sophisticated individuals (family offices, high net worth people) as a means of capturing upside gain and minimizing downside risks across an overall portfolio of holdings. Always has been, and likely always will be.

What’s really important to the scads of alternative managers vying for a piece of the wealth pie is to serve the customer, first, last, and always. To gain access to this money, a manager must first earn the investor’s trust. This tenet will not change no matter how the government tries to jump start our small business efforts. Managers in the alternative space are much better served by paying attention to what influences investors to change alloca......................

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