Deal origination is the part of the business every firm says it is good at and almost none can evidence. Proprietary is the word of choice, and it is used to mean anything from a genuinely unbanked approach to being called early by a banker who called four other people the same morning. The distinction is worth money, and it becomes visible with one field recorded at entry. This page sets out what proprietary actually means and how to measure whether yours is.
Proprietary means nobody else was asked
Not early access, not a warm introduction, not a banker who likes you. If a process exists and others are in it, the deal is intermediated however friendly the introduction was. Firms that hold that line find their genuinely proprietary share is smaller than they thought, which is useful rather than discouraging: it is the number that can then be grown deliberately.
Record it at entry, not in a review
Two months into a live deal nobody remembers accurately how it arrived, and the retrospective answer is systematically flattering. One dropdown at the moment the opportunity is created is the whole discipline, and it is the cheapest high-return field in the record.
The conversion difference is the reason to care
Proprietary approaches and banked processes convert at different rates and command different terms, and a funnel that mixes them produces an average that describes neither. Split the measurement and the resourcing question answers itself: whichever channel converts better deserves more of the partner time it costs.
Originating is a slow investment with a lagging return
The relationships that produce proprietary deals were warm years before the opportunity existed, which means the investment and the return are separated by long enough that neither gets attributed to the other. Recording who introduced what, with dates, is the only way a firm ever sees that attribution.
Questions people ask about deal origination
What counts as proprietary?
Nobody else was asked. Early access and a warm introduction into a live process are intermediated, however good the relationship.
How do we measure it?
One dropdown at entry, recorded before anybody forgets. Retrospective answers are systematically flattering.
Why does the split matter?
The two channels convert differently and cost different resources. A blended rate describes neither and misdirects partner time.