From getting management buy in to running an IR audit and building an investor pipeline – a break down of the essentials that elevate the IR program
Investor relations has come a long way. What used to be a compliance checkbox is now a strategic discipline that directly impacts your cost of capital, liquidity and valuation. The question isn’t whether IR adds value anymore, it’s whether you’re building the function correctly. This evolution changes how you build your team for success – whether you are expanding the IR department, coming in fresh, building out the team from scratch or growing it at a newly public company.
Why IR matters
At its core, IR is about connection. You’re bridging internal strategy with external expectations, managing market perceptions and feeding investor intelligence back to the C-suite. Done right, this closes valuation gaps and reduces perceived risk. Done poorly, it’s just noise.
Phase I: Laying the foundation
Get executive buy-in first. IR needs to report directly to the CEO or CFO, with regular board access. Build credibility through a weekly IR report: track your stock and peer movements, summarize equity research, flag industry news. Use this to secure a standing board slot where you brief on market sentiment and provide strategic counsel based on investor feedback. Market insights should inform planning and capital allocation, not sit unread. If you’re newly listed, train executives on quiet periods and disclosure protocols – they’re not used to the spotlight yet.
The companies that get this right fundamentally lower their cost of capital and win in the market over time
Write down your strategy. What are you actually trying to accomplish? Fair valuation? Better liquidity? Higher-quality analyst coverage? Define your target investor profiles – institutional value players look very different to growth funds. And yes, integrate ESG into your IR strategy, but only the material stuff that strengthens your investment thesis.
Here’s what most companies skip: building that internal awareness of what IR does. When finance, legal and your business units understand that IR drives value, collaboration happens naturally.
Audit where you stand. Before you scale anything, benchmark yourself. How does your disclosure compare to peers? Where do sell-side models diverge from reality and why? Who owns your stock versus your competitors’ stock? What does your existing IR framework look like? Do you have proper CRM, an informative and updated IR website, clean and comprehensive earnings materials? Start with data, not assumptions.
Assemble the right team. You need people who understand capital markets, can analyze financials and, most importantly, know how to tell your equity story. Define clear ownership across investor comms, consensus management and event execution.
Phase II: Market engagement and execution excellence
Invest in infrastructure. Get proper tools: an investor CRM that is potentially powered by AI, shareholder ID systems, live consensus tracking. Integrated platforms matter because scattered data means lost insights.
Build a robust investor pipeline, not a touring schedule. Treat investor development like enterprise sales: first meeting, follow-up, due diligence and conversion to holder. Map your peer group’s shareholders, because that is your prospect list. Know your investors isn’t a philosophy, it’s pragmatism.
Establish guidance discipline. Decide what you’ll guide on (revenue, margin, free cash flow or a few critical non-GAAP metrics), over what timeframe and who delivers the message. Track consensus actively and close gaps before they widen.
Get an independent third party to verify how the Street perceives your strategy and credibility
Make the sell-side job easier. Clean model packs, clear KPI bridges and access to management. Better inputs lead to better research, which leads to better investor understanding. It’s a flywheel.
Don’t ignore debt IR. Bondholders and rating agencies need the same transparency: liquidity, coverage ratios, covenant compliance. Your treasury team should already be aligned on this.
Phase III: Market feedback and strategy refinement
Become an intelligence agent. Track stock price and liquidity, volume, trading patterns, ownership shifts and estimate dispersion. But pair the numbers with qualitative feedback – structured notes from every investor meeting, periodic surveys.
Your job is spotting what investors care about before it becomes a problem, then bringing that intelligence back to management. But intelligence only matters if it drives action. This is where walking the talk becomes critical – ensuring management doesn’t just listen to market feedback but visibly acts on it. When executives follow through on commitments and address investor concerns in measurable ways, credibility compounds. When they don’t, you’re managing a widening trust gap.
Commission perception studies. Every 12 to 18 months, get an independent third party to verify how the Street perceives your strategy and credibility. Use consistent questions so you can track movement. Then adapt and recalibrate your strategy based on what you learn from the perception studies results.
Measure in financial terms. Qualitative feedback is useful, but CFOs want numbers. Calculate your cost of capital reduction. Measure valuation multiple expansion. Quantify liquidity improvement. When you can show IR’s impact in dollars, you stop being a cost center.
The path forward
Strategic IR moves markets by shortening the distance between insight and action. With real executive commitment, honest self-assessment, proper infrastructure and relentless measurement, you turn IR from an expense into a competitive advantage and business asset.
The companies that get this right don’t just achieve fair value, they fundamentally lower their cost of capital and win in the market over time.
Stefano De Caterina is a senior investor relations manager with cross-industry experience spanning Europe, the US, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. He is also the author of IR Intelligence, a LinkedIn newsletter for IR and finance professionals.
