The Interview

Kluster's Take

Josephine spoke with Lawrence Meyer, Geo Vice President, Enterprise Sales at BlackLine. He explains his approach to predictable forecasting.

Lawrence’s leadership philosophy is about listening, understanding and always being curious. He’s all about putting people first.

Lawrence includes metrics in forecasting, ensuring that there's a measurable output. It's not about just forecasting and going through the motions. He ensures that it's a structured and repeatable process. The final step is to verbalise and reference this work.

Lawrence carries out what he calls a Bob (Book of business) review. Every rep walks through their remaining opportunities. This allows him to talk to executive management with certainty about what's ahead. He's listening to the weekly cadence of what's going on in the team and their specific deals.

Predictability of business is a critical goal from forecasting. Removing slippage is also important. It's key to not waste time and ensure that sales cycles are appropriately staged. 

Lawrence builds a practice on a month-by-month basis. He treats every month as important as the end of a quarter. This provides 2 dry runs of what’s going on in the quarter. To ensure success, he's tightly honed in on what's going on in the quarter. He's able to hold effective conversations due to a weekly process.