Smart Lemming Diary: First Marketing Meeting
September 15, 2005
Fast Start off the Blocks
After a fast and furious three days in our office, Jonathan hit the ground running. It was great to see him in action, as I prepared him for his first meeting with our CEO (Tom), who has very high expectations of him.
After Tom returned from a business trip, he immediately told our COO to set up a War Room for the Sales and Marketing team. This room will also be the place where Jonathan gets to work while he’s in the office. Although Tom was tired, he still met with us late yesterday to review our progress for the week. I asked Jonathan to brief Tom on his projects and action items, showing Tom that he’s competent and knows what he’s doing. Tom appeared to be very impressed.
Dependencies cause Delays
It’s hard to be dependent on others in your work. You can’t progress since someone else must get their stuff done first. This is what we’re experiencing in the cleanup of Salesforce.com data. Jonathan can only clean up after Amanda goes through the data by identifying what she has grandfathered, keeping those contacts, and what will be transitioned to Jamie. While we’re waiting for this work to be completed, I’ll start other work as we wait. We’re supposed to have an email campaign go out ASAP with a call to action being a Webinar. We’ll have to delay it to the first week of October rather than our goal of the last week of September.
Kinds Words from the other Co-Founder
I never forget that the second most important person in the company I work for is Tom’s partner, who likes keeping a low profile. She’s a crucial voice in the bigger hiring decisions. I had produced all the sales reference guides on Monday. Tom was back in the office Tuesday. I sent the sales reference guide home with him, since she’s doing our proposals to pitch in and will need it. I emailed her today letting her know that she could call me if she had any questions. I was delighted to get the following response back:
I don’t even know where to begin with questions. Let’s start with:
- How the hell did you get this beautiful piece completed so quickly?
- Why are you so much smarter than every other marketing person we’ve employed including myself?
- How did we get so lucky to have you on our staff?
I’m sure as I read through this I will have many more questions. Until then, I remain . . .
Yours in awe…
Very kind words indeed. I like the fact that she copied my boss, her partner Tom on this email string. While I know it’s the honeymoon stage and of course, Tom and his partner are happy to have me. I love the fact they actually share their thoughts with me.
The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here.
