October 5, 2005

Big Meeting with Mr. Investor

Most of this week was spent on making sure that Tom was prepared for this meeting with the right strategy in handling the meeting to the right slides for the presentation. Little did I know that I was also participating in this meeting and representing Marketing to Mr. Investor.

Dry Run at 8:30 am

The day started with a dry run at 8:30 am to go over the presentation. It was mostly for Controller’s benefit since he created his slides at the last minute. Correction, he created his content, but I created his slides. Controller’s kind of old school. He doesn’t know PowerPoint very well so I offered to do his slides. Besides Tom, Controller had the toughest job of delivering the facts that we weren’t hitting our numbers or at least the ones that Tom sold to Mr. Investor to get additional funding. Tom was slightly anxious and ready for the worst.

9:30 am Last Minute Prep for Mr. Investor

We were done with our second dry run so Tom asked if someone could go get coffee and pastries from Tully’s or Starbucks. Controller and I volunteered. I wanted to ride shotgun with Controller so he could settle his nerves. He was visibly nervous during the dry run as his voice was tentative and a little shaky. You know how it is in presentations if you’re not used to presenting. Your voice gets all weird. Poor guy. Controller and I went to Tully’s picked up the staples we needed. I asked Controller some questions about Mr. Investor. It turns out he represents a VC firm, so it’s really the VC firm that’s the major investor, but he does their bidding.

10:00 am Meeting Starts: Sales & Marketing Update

Here’s our Management Team: Tom, Controller, CTO, and COO with Mr. Investor. It hit me early on that I’m the only woman here. Frankly, I never think about women in business issues, but for reason I did yesterday. Tom goes over the agenda and Mr. Investor agrees with the outline. Tom launches into the sales and marketing update, putting emphasis on the fact that his Sales and Marketing team have all worked together before and is a “self-contained unit” that’s hitting the ground running. All the while, the environment is still tense. Mr. Investor hasn’t warmed up yet as he’s looking, stiff and guarded.

The Gift that keeps on Giving: My ROI Financial Dashboard

By the time Tom gets to the marketing slides, he goes over my accomplishments by highlighting my 100-day plan, sales reference guides, sales trainings, etc. He proceeds to explain how he found out about me. “When I heard she was on the market, I couldn’t wait to call her. She wanted to take time off, but I convinced her to come early so she started on August 1st.”

After glowing comments about me, Tom loved handing Mr. Investor the sales reference guide. Finally, I was up because we now were on the ROI Financial Dashboard sales tool. “I’ve been in product marketing and product management for ten years, but this is the first time I’ve worked with a product that has a clear ROI.”

Ice Breaker

I took him through the ROI Financial Dashboard, earlier I had handed him a color copy of the ROI presentation that I’m presenting on a sales call at 11:00 am. Then, all of a sudden, Mr. Investor is engaged and the ice is broken. “I love this! This is exactly what CFOs want to see. They want to know what their ROI is and that the product is giving them a return.” The whole meeting changes now because Mr. Investor is happy. I take him through the ROI. The CTO’s explains how he only developed the ROI Calculator, but I had given it the Dashboard. Everyone else relaxes as Mr. Investor, CTO, and I do a deep dive into my sales tool. I gracefully make an exit to go to my 11:00 am sales call where I’ll discuss my ROI findings with a prospect for Amanda.

11:00 am Sales Call: Speaking with Confidence

My 11:00 call could and should have been stressful, but I was coming off a high note from the Mr. Investor meeting. I had the Prospect’s CFO and his minions on the call. All of whom were stunned by the results I was showing, so they proceeded to try to poke holes in the methodology. I confidently went over the ROI Calculator that CTO had development, and then my summary or the Dashboard view of the key ROI metrics. After they realized the methodology was sound, they wanted to know if I could run additional scenarios. I offer to run their three additional scenarios so the can sell the ROI to various committees. I offer to change terminology like changing “revenue” to “cash.” The call is a success. I go back into my meeting with Mr. Investor.

Tom Halts Meeting for Me

When I get back into the Boardroom, Tom stops the meeting asking me how the sales call went. I gave a summary, saying it went very well. CTO gives me a high five and we start discussing the details, both of us proud of our ROI contributions to the sales tool. Mr. Investor again, chimes in saying the tool is great.

Breaking for Lunch: I’m really on the Management Team

I have to say, that is was during lunch when it hit me. “I’m really on the Management Team. Not only that, I’m interfacing with the lead Mr. Investor. Wow.” As we went to lunch, this was the first time all of us interacted as a team. We’ve sat in our weekly P3 meetings together, but not really behaved as a team until yesterday. We were all on the hook and circled the wagons around Tom, making sure we held ourselves accountable for our performance and having the confidence that we can hit our revised numbers. When we return from lunch, it was time for the big discussions: Strategic Options.

12:30 pm Impact on Valuation

We knew we had to deliver bad news about not hitting our sales figures. But once we were done with our financials, the meeting paused as Mr. Investor was ready to say something. “It’s clear after looking at your figures that by the end of 2007, you are where you should be. I don’t see anything wrong. In fact, if you trend like expected, your valuation could increase from x to y.” Now, I’ve know that our valuation was 43% of what my former company was sold at a few years ago, but I didn’t expect Mr. Investor to say that Tom’s company could have a valuation of 71% of what my company was sold at.

Mr. Investor Wants to Do it All and He’s Ready to Give More

After going over the options, it was time for a strategy session between Tom, Mr. Investor, CTO, and Controller. Today we have another meeting with the California company that wants to “align or merge” with ours. After the meeting, Controller and I talked about the results. “You won’t believe this, but Mr. Investor is prepared to give us another round of funding, so we can pursue the additional two products in development.” Finally, a weight had been taken off Tom, off the Management Team. Now we can sign the pilots for the new product line extension product with a December beta release and the other pilots for the new product that has a June general release date.

Yesterday was a Good Day

Not only did our first meeting with Mr. Investor go really well, but also my ROI Financial Dashboard sales tool stood up in its first sales call with a CFO. This sales tool is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s established my reputation in the company and positioned me well with Mr. Investor. This along with all the other tools in the sales reference guide gives everyone, including Mr. Investor, that the money was well spent in hiring me.

I didn’t expect to be in awe of the fact that I’m really on the Management Team. At the end of the day, we had a full staff get together and again that’s when I was aware of my position. It’s as if I could see myself from the knowledge workers’ perspective as we (Management Team) were going over the highlight from our meeting with Mr. Investor. How ironic. I wasn’t looking for this job with Tom and then it turns out the be a directorship position. Unexpectedly, the job also includes being on his Management Team (again, I didn’t expect this). Now it also means having direct interaction with the key Mr. Investor. I guess it pays to manage your career like I have. Thank God.

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.

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