Imagine logging into a database that identifies wealthy investors, determines liquidity of individuals and spotlights leaders who work in publicly traded corporations.
Imagine no more. The Golddigger Wealth Identification and Tracking System from Prospector Technologies can simplify prospecting for well-to-do investors.
Andrew Paur, founder of Prospector Technologies, came up with the idea for Golddigger while working in the aviation industry. “The program started out as an effort to find people who could afford our product,” he says. “And I realized that brokers would be in need of something like it, too.”
An online subscription database, Golddigger enables you to analyze what a prospect earns in any given year. The executive compensation aspect of the program provides the salaries and bonuses of about 50,000 corporate managers of publicly traded companies. The information is acquired from periodic filings required by the SEC.
“You can go grab the information at will, instead of taking weeks to filter through all the muck,” says a PaineWebber broker. “Time is everything around here, and this is basically a timesaving device. It helps me not to waste my time with money that is not there.”
Detailed Information
In addition to using salary and bonus information to qualify prospects, Golddigger helps analyze potential investors' executed trade data to determine financial wherewithal. Daily updates in the database make it possible to track movements of wealth, which is useful in determining when a prospect is liquid.
The service also helps you figure out the current paper net worth of a prospect by looking at the current value of his equity holdings. It does this by taking the number of shares owned by any given prospect and multiplying it by the current market price of the stock.
In addition, the program tracks insider trading by executives at public firms by compiling required SEC reports. The shares owned by an executive at any particular corporation must be disclosed within 10 days after each month in which the insider actively trades stock in the market.
The Web application, located at www.prospectortechnologies.com, permits authorized users to search the database by city and/or state, net worth, personal phone availability, and the date of the most recent record/transaction.
Simple to Use
If you lack the needed support to effectively execute new business development campaigns, no problem. The Golddigger system helps with the marketing aspect as well. You can run complex queries to narrow potential markets, download desired data and then print contact sheets, mailing labels and form letters at the touch of a button.
You may also elect to have the data that results from a query e-mailed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or text format. And if you want to keep paper records of possible prospects, you can build and print contact sheets including names, addresses and phone numbers.
The PaineWebber rep says the variety and flexibility in Golddigger's functions makes the program useful for veterans as well as rookies. “I think this is a great prospecting tool that people who are no longer prospecting could use to help grow their business by leaps and bounds,” he says.
Subscription prices for Golddigger range from $100 to several thousand dollars, depending on the features included. Users can purchase a regional subscription or have a customized region designed for their individual needs. Of course, the more information you want, the more expensive the service.
Brian Hook is a freelance journalist based in St. Louis.