7 HAB ITS OF HIGHLY EF FECTIVE EXECUTIVE BRIEFINGS

Executive briefings are a valuable tool for Fortune 1000 teams to meet and evaluate relevant emerging startups that address new

business opportunities and solve enterprise painpoints. For startups, these briefings are a foot in the door with a potential

customer through a trusted partner who can help elevate you beyond the noise. The catch: this is a first impression and time is

limited.

After more than 150 executive briefings with enterprise technology buyers and observing thousands of startup pitches here at

Work-Bench, we’ve noticed key patterns that lead to the most successful meetings. We’ve compiled 7 Habits of Highly Effective

Executive Briefings that you can use as a guide to own the room and land your next enterprise customer.

AU T H O RE D BY: KE LL E Y HE NRY KE LL E Y MAK

Communications 
 Principal
& Community
1. A LITTLE CHARISMA GOES A LONG WAY
[ EX A MP L E ]

Your pitch begins the moment you open the door. Take ownership and control In a recent executive briefing we hosted
between vArmour and a large media
over the room by introducing yourself, your company, and your role right away. company, Tim Eades, vArmour’s CEO,
Presentation setup doesn’t always occur as planned, so don’t wait until you set made it a point to greet and learn about
all 12 participants around the table, share
up AV and pull up your slides to start the conversation; at that point you’ve quick information about himself, and ease
the tension with a little British humour — all
already wasted time and missed an opportunity to connect.
within a few minutes.

Starting the mood off strong, he was

Remember that your potential customers are humans. Don’t underestimate the intentional and deliberate about building
impact of making a genuine connection beyond just a sales pitch. It may sound a relationship, which made a huge
difference moving forward.
simple and obvious, but showing your personality and charisma eases everyone
in the room not only in that moment, but it also sets the temperature for the rest COMPA NY VA RM OUR

of the meeting. WE BS IT E WW W.VAR MO UR .COM

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2. M A K E IT A CO NVE R SAT I ON
[ EX A MP L E ]

One of the worst mistakes you can make is failing to sufficiently involve your audience. Treat the As an example, Semmle is a software
briefing like a conversation, not a presentation. To start, ask questions that set upfront engineering analytics company that provides
software engineers and IT leaders visibility into
expectations and ensure that you’re speaking to the exact needs of the participants. Even if their software, engineering processes, and
you have an idea of their painpoint, inviting participants to express their problem on their own teams to create reliable and secure products
without slowing down. The technology has
terms will provide insight that you’d be otherwise blind to. This information will come in handy
several core use cases across software security,
later when mapping potential use cases and next steps. On the other hand, this can help qualify team performance, and code quality. In order to
whether or not it’s really the best opportunity for both of you. Use your customer as your guide. identify what is most helpful and relevant to their
buyers, the Semmle team immediately starts a
dialogue to set the appropriate context and
At the same time, you should try to understand your buyer just as much as you are pitching to determine which area to focus on according to
the background of those in the room. This tactic
them. Nothing says “fail” quite like inadequate preparation in regards to your audience. Aside ensures the briefing is smooth and relevant for
from closing a deal, the next-best (extremely valuable) outcome is to bring insight back to your everyone.

team about your buyer’s needs. By inviting them to explain their painpoint, you’re setting yourself
up for the remainder of the conversation; you’re in the prime position to “connect the dots” and COMPA NY S E M ML E

provide a clear roadmap of your product as their solution. Additionally, your audience is more WE BS IT E WW W.S E M MLE .COM
likely to stay awake (ahem) and alive (ahem ahem) if you’re talking to them, not at them.
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3. P RE PA R E F OR T HE T E C HNICAL
[ EX A MP L E ]

Corporates that we bring into an executive briefing are ready to dig into the
Algorithmia’s CEO Diego Oppenheimer is
weeds; they can see right through a “salesy” pitch. If they wanted the sales pitch, a prime example of a technical founder
they would just call you on the phone. Always bring a senior leader that has the who can explain the grand vision of how
their platform that enables large
technical aptitude, knows your product inside and out, and can tell the company’s enterprises to productionize their machine
story in a meaningful way. Of course, it’s always best to send your CEO/Founder if learning models fits into the broader future
of enterprise AI, as well as provide deeper
you still have a single digit total customer count. details on their tech stack and what
features to be excited about in upcoming
releases. He speaks to the technical side
However, if they can’t make it, ensure that your sales lead is accompanied by a while still telling a compelling story.

senior-level technical product person. When in doubt, err on the technical side,
and be able to provide solid business use-cases. Remember that you’re talking to COMPA NY A LG OR I T H MI A

people who are very familiar with the technicalities of their problem; you need to WE BS IT E WW W.A LG OR IT H M I A. COM

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4. NO FLUFF ZONE
[ EX A MP L E ]

Dialpad’s CEO and Founder, Craig Walker,

We could go on and on about creating your perfect pitch always shares why they’re uniquely
positioned to bring the best cloud
deck. Be specific and tactical, focus on why you’re the communications experience to large
enterprises by providing their unique

right team for the job, use graphics, and don’t add fluff or
filler. Ultimately: tell your story. Case studies and
customers are great references because it proves you
have the capacity to support large enterprise customers,
background. They previously founded the
technology behind Google Voice, and now
they’re addressing the needs for the
“anywhere worker” for large companies like
Uber and Motorola.
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5. DON’T DANCE
Don’t dance around questions, especially if they poke holes.
There are few things worse than sitting in a meeting with a
presenter who is clearly avoiding questions. If you don’t have
an answer, or your product doesn’t solve the specific issue that
they’re inquiring about, it’s better to be candid and say
something to the effect of, “that’s on our radar - here is another
way we could be helpful.” Trying to be a sneaky wordsmith
never works and ends up diluting your overall pitch. Don’t
undermine yourself.
[ EX A MP L E ]
Your audience knows you’re a startup and
it’s okay to admit you don’t have everything
built out. Be transparent about what you can
solve for now and what is on your roadmap.
Tim Delisle, CEO of Datalogue, whiteboards
to help align his audience with the greater
vision. Highlighting the excitement in the
room, Tim shows his team’s thoughtfulness
in focusing efforts on particular challenges
in data prep and uses visuals to explain how
it plays out in his broader view of data
operations.
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6. BE M INDF UL OF THEIR TIME
Stick to the schedule and don’t go over your allotted
time. It’s tempting to rush through those last few points in
“just a few more minutes,” but this is actually more
harmful than helpful; it’s disrespectful and leaves a poor
impression. Instead, even if you don’t quite finish your
pitch...
Try and split your time between company overview and
leave ample time for discussion.
[ EX A MP L E ]
Veteran executive briefers Tamr have the
pitch on lock. They know their presentation
inside and out, have conducted research on
their audience prior, and make a point to
feel out the room with prep questions. The
Tamr team know what to highlight about
their solution for data unification, such as
key metrics for ERP reduction at the largest
industrial firms, and when to wrap up with
questions and follow ups.
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7 . END WIT H A P L A N F OR NE X T ST E P S
Always end with a verbal plan for next steps. It can be as simple as
taking their card and making a plan to follow-up via email, or even
setting a date for a second meeting. Whatever the plan is,
explicitly state it in the room out loud at the end of the meeting.
This will give your audience a chance to provide feedback,
express interest, and ensure everyone is on the same page so that
these next steps are actually executed. Not every conversation will
lead to a follow up with contract potential, and it’s best to assess
the fit early on to save time for everyone.
[ EX A MP L E ]
The Merlon Intelligence team is a prime example
of how to best put follow ups into action. We’ve
seen them wrap up meetings pinpointing the key
areas where they can immediately start working
with corporates, such as augmenting or
supplanting current KYC efforts for AML
compliance, and identifying the right people to
carry the conversation to the next stage. At the
same time, not all financial services are mature
enough to begin to modernize their regulatory
practices and it’s good to establish this before
spending hours back and forth.
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