When we started this blog, our first entry was something called The 10 Commandments of IR.  You can read it at <insert link here>.

Here’s a little more color on the one of our 10 Commandments, which reads:  “You’re going to have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.”

Wouldn’t it be great to walk into a room full of investors who were familiar with your story and were anxious to learn more?  Who asked good questions . . . who then showed up on conference calls with still more good questions?

That’s the dream of anyone who works in sales.  We would all like to walk into rooms full of warm prospects.  In investor relations, as in many other fields I suspect, that is simply not, nor will it ever be, the reality.

The reality is, you may need to kiss as few as 10, and perhaps as many as 50 frogs before you get a prince.   And you need more than one prince.  In any given small or microcap stock there are about a dozen investors who are disproportionately influential.   Now figure these princes come and go, and as a result, you’ve got to start kissing early and often.

It might be helpful to gain some insight on why your leading edge technology, improving margins, earnings growth and all around great story doesn’t command more attention. Here’s a couple likely reasons:

• You are marketing to an audience known for their short attentions spans and high incidence of ADD.

• In most cases the people who make up your audience already own 80 to 100 “unbelievable” stories and at any one time and some of them are tanking.

• The investor you are talking to is having a bad year or quarter and s/he is more concerned about how they are going to attract new investors.

• The investor you are talking with would have to own your entire float before a double in your stock would rise above the level of a rounding difference in his or her performance.

• The investor you are talking to already had a very bad experience in your industry (anyone remember telecomm equipment maker Lucent?)

This list could go on and on. But hopefully the point is clear.   Get ready to pucker up.  Then go out there and find your prince.

When we started this blog, our first entry was something called The 10 Commandments of IR.

Here’s a little more color on the one of our 10 Commandments, which reads:  Love your analysts.  Even when you don’t like them . . . It’s true.  Many chief executives don’t really like securities analysts.  And why not?  Look what they do: downgrade the company, second guess senior management, offer unsolicited opinions on all material corporate developments, ask nettling questions on conference calls, and set incorrect expectations on earnings and guidance.

But like it or not, an analysts’ point of view is the prism though which most institutional and individual investors look at your company.  Sure there are a few stray wolves out there who do their own analysis and invest on their own.  In fact these investors like it when there is no analytical opinion on a company. But you cannot build a strong liquid market for your stock with lone wolves.

To do this you need institutions or a pack of retail investors lead by a securities firm. And the truth of the situation is this:  no matter how much the finance industry promotes independent thinking it’s anything but.  The last thing investors want to be is alone in a stock.  They rely upon and want an opinion, if only so they can disagree with it.

So even if you don’t love securities analysts, it behooves you to like them, because without one or more of them talking about your stock, the world for you as a public company becomes a very lonely place.