Once I had to present a pricing proposal to a C-suite person from a billion-dollar tech company. I had done similar meetings before. I knew how to present it. Yet, I was still anxious.
Anxious because it was premature to talk about numbers. Pricing is usually discussed after multiple conversations, but with this company, we had a total of two (only!) calls within two months. We had not even done the full demonstration of the platform. Too early. Too soon.
Anxious because I did not typically talk to C-suite people. The highest titles I engaged with included Directors and Vice Presidents. This guy was the Chief Financial Officer, no less. Such executives operate differently and care about top-level things in an organization. To him, I was just another annoying salesperson – what did I know?
It all started with the CFO tasking for pricing via email.
I got burned on it too many times, building pricing proposals and happily sending them left and right in emails, only to be ghosted after that, only to lose deals without the official – “thanks, we pass.” It is so much easier to ghost a salesperson than show up on a meeting and reject them with your camera on.
So, when this company asked for pricing via email, I said no. I pushed for a meeting. I called, I left a voicemail. I offered to meet on Zoom multiple times. Finally, the CFO texted me back, agreeing to meet and sending a meeting invite.
Even though he did not turn on his camera, I calmly presented my pricing. He did not push back, did not sound shocked by the numbers, and did not try to negotiate. He seemed “to get it” – our value and price point. He told me he would present it to the CEO the next week and try to get it approved.
Yes! Fingers crossed!
When we were about to jump off the call, he said one last thing: “I appreciate your time today. And…good girl. You chased me and refused to give pricing without a meeting. That’s how I teach my sales team. Good girl.”
The meeting ended, but I kept looking at the screen. I felt my face turned red while my mind kept repeating, “good girl, good girl.” I rushed to my husband’s office:
– How did your meeting go? – My husband asked.
– Not bad…I presented the pricing, but…well, he praised my tenacity and then he called me “a good girl.”
– What?! Did he actually say that?
My husband looked uncomfortable, and I did not know how to process the weird comment. It was the first time in my sales career that I had been called a good girl – in tech, in 2026. A good girl who was actually in her mid-30s and had another career behind her.
Suddenly, this important CFO man stopped looking so important to me. I saw him as a human being, rather than a title for the first time.
According to him, I did everything right – I chased him the way a great salesperson would. I was a good girl.
Now, in my view, it was his turn to do the job.
To present the business case to his CEO.
To get the pricing proposal approved.
To find the budget for the project.
And ultimately, to be a good boy.
OUT OF OFFICE 