I met Lan at a conference here in Perth. We shared a group table where the discussion was sales and CRMs. Hearing Lan talk about her sales processes and how she manages her CRM inspired me and I quickly realised I needed to soak as much knowledge from her as I possibly could. I organised a coffee meeting with her and my co-founder John Nguyen and we struck up a true and lasting friendship with Lan.
Her knowledge and wisdom definitely helped us, but we both realised that what we really needed was Lan herself. In the board room discussing us potentially making her an offer, I was posed with the difficult question of "how can we afford her?" Truth is, at the time we couldn't. My response: "how can we afford not to?" I would have sooner quit in disgust from my own company if had missed the opportunity to hire Lan.
This intuition proved to be 100% correct. Lan is a machine. With her help, we quickly doubled, tripled, quadrupled our revenue. She brought more potential clients through the door than we could even handle.
I love watching Lan network. She has a preternatural ability to locate and charm the most valuable and interesting people in the room. Without fail. She does this without ever upsetting anyone. Deftly moving through the room with grace and style. Her charm and wit only matched by her sense of style and fashion sense.
Quickly, on that, whenever John or I needed a new outfit, we would always go to Lan for help. Might seem silly, but we needed it.
Lan is a true asset to any company and founder. She is a skilled communicator that builds genuine and lasting relationships with ease. This natural charisma and charm make her an absolute joy to work with, and her drive to succeed is contagious.
I don't even know why I'm writing this recommendation. Lan doesn't need it. There is always a school of hungry piranha like company founders ready to snap her up. I can't wait to see who she ends up working with next. My advice to them is to give Lan the freedom and latitude to do things her way and give her the time and space to work her magic. She gets results.