Fiserv, Inc. is a leading provider of Financial Services technology solutions. Fiserv acquired CheckFree Corporation, a leading provider of financial e-commerce services and products in December 2007 as the two organizations had complementary technology, services and business models. The acquisition enabled Fiserv to deliver a wider range of product and service offerings for customers, as well as provide opportunities for improved growth and enhanced efficiency, including the ability to bring new solutions to market faster.
CheckFree was a founder started and led (Pete Kight) company that went public early in 1997 as a Financial Software and eCommerce billing and payment company. The company survived the dot com bust but did not become profitable until the end of 2004. I was hired in February 2004 before the company was profitable. At the time, the company was experiencing growth issues and was struggling particularly in the area of e-commerce adoption of the online bill payment products.
I was initially hired as VP Sales by the president of the software division to drive growth and profitability via added process and top-grading of skills in the division. Once the organization acquired CheckFree, I was promoted to run the largest division ($420 million+) of the newly combined Fiserv/CheckFree as Senior VP Sales and Account Management to instill the same practices I created in the software division that drove growth and profitability.
Senior VP Sales & Account Management (Electronic Payments/Digital Channels)
I was hired at CheckFree Corporation because of my specific expertise in sales and business development in high growth and turnaround companies, which was the result of 30 years of sales experience as a sales management professional at all levels, across both public and private companies. I’ve worked in sales and sales transformation from the ground up, and/or in turnaround situations, with a particular focus on team building and employee buy-in. new growth technology companies and subsidiaries of large public companies, private equity backed and venture backed start-ups and mid-market stage companies.
After assessing the organization and market, we established the initial critical action plan to add value in the following areas: (1) top-grade the existing sales organization; (2) create more collaborative sales, marketing, and product management functions; (3) design, develop, and implement a custom “Sales Excellence Methodology” and install a Sales Force automation system (custom and the SF.com); (4) create and implement an effective forecasting and metrics model in sales and business development and marketing for a SaaS high-growth company; (5) significantly enhance current client relationships and grow the revenue base via proper account management principles.
After Fiserv acquired CheckFree in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $4.4 billion in December 2007, I spent the next three years working as an integral team member as part of the total transformation of the new Fiserv, working from both a sales standpoint and overall company standpoint. I’m proud to say the strong and stable baselines our team established during my tenure at Fiserv are still all in place today, and as of 2021, Fiserv is valued at $83 billion.
My contributions working with leadership, people, and by employing a repeatable execution process we successfully transformed Fiserv/CheckFree and the company sales organization by adding a deep, growth-minded playbook across a broad array of sales initiatives, including effectiveness, enablement, strategy, operations, talent management and marketing alignment.
