The phrase "cut to the chase" means to stop wasting time and get to the point. It's an expression that has its origins in film, where it means to dispense with the slow-moving dialogue and get right to the good stuff—usually the chase scene.
In some respects, board meetings can be a lot like movies. When they're bad, they can be short on substance, run way longer than they need to, and leave the audience disappointed and feeling like they've wasted their time. But when movies (and board meetings) are good and people are engaged, everybody leaves energized and excited. That's what you want because your meeting with the board of directors is your chance to get the buy-in and backing you need to move business forward and make your number.
Are You Missing Your Moment?
There are critical moments (1:1s, forecast calls, QBRs, and more) during every week, month, and quarter that determine how you execute sales. At Clari, we refer to these recurring points in time collectively as the sales operating rhythm.
At each juncture or sales moment, there are key questions you need to be able to answer quickly to drive your opportunity-to-close (OTC) process and ultimately close more deals predictably. The board meeting is one of those moments, and Clari can help you ace it.
You have a lot of ground to cover with your board in a relatively short amount of time. Ideally, you want to keep your presentation brief, highlight the key opportunities, flag the at-risk deals, and explain with confidence where you think you'll land at the end of quarter. You also have to be prepared to field questions about deal specifics, rep and customer engagement, historical performance, and more. It's a tall order, and one that successful sales leaders don't take lightly.
If you're like most, you agonize over your presentation to the board, pulling spreadsheets, making calls, and scrambling right up until the eleventh hour to get the most accurate picture about the health of the pipeline and the forecast. What if instead of pasting numbers into charts and polishing your PowerPoint you could walk into your board meeting armed with every data point you need in real-time to present with confidence?
Bringing True Visibility into the Boardroom
To run a successful board meeting, there are several key factors to consider. But at the core, it's really all about the data and how you organize it. What your board would like to see is:
- How you're tracking against your goals on key metrics such as net new logo velocity, upsell and renewals, ARR/MRR, ACV/TCV, and churn.
- How the current quarter is progressing in terms of closed business and pipeline generation and where there might be risk.
- And, finally, where you think you might land for the quarter and what they can do to accelerate critical deals to help you get there.
So how do you deliver? Today, successful sales execs enter the boardroom equipped with real-time sales execution data instead of relying on BI reports that provide only rear-view mirror insights. They have visibility into the true state of the pipeline based not only on CRM data but also a variety of other sales signals including every email exchange, meeting, and call. And with access to artificial intelligence-based insights, they're better prepared to identify potential risk and predict future outcomes, too.