“Alright, Derrick. I’m counting on you on this one.”
“Aren’t we always counting on me,” Derrick mumbled to himself before looking up at his boss with a smile and saying, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this!”
His boss clapped him on the shoulder and strode out of his office, causing Derrick to roll his eyes. He turned to his computer for a few minutes, clicked through a few screens, and printed three sheets of paper.
With a grin on his face, he walked to his secretary’s desk outside his office door, and said, “Susie, can you grab that document I just printed and bring it to me in the conference room in about five minutes.”
“Of course,” she replied. “You need it prepared in any way?”
“Nope?” he replied. “Just like it is, is fine.”
Derrick buttoned the jacket to his suit and walked down the hallway to the conference room. When he walked in, his boss and two other men were waiting for him.
“Ah, here he is,” his boss said when he walked in. “Derrick, I want you to meet Mr. Bradford and his associate Mr. Travis. They are with Gallant Prosperity.”
“It’s great to meet you, Mr. Bradford,” Derrick said, nodding toward the man before turning to the other. “And Mr. Travis. I appreciate you coming to meet with us today.”
Mr. Bradford looked down at his watch and frowned. “I’m afraid today will be a rather short visit. We have other obligations ahead of us this afternoon.”
“Not to worry,” Derrick said. “I don’t plan to take up much of your time. I mainly wanted to ask you a few questions to ensure we have all our goals in alignment with one another.”
“What type of goals are we talking about?”
“The ones where I save your company a lot of money,” Derrick said. “Oh, and the ones where I make your company a lot of money as well.”
“Money talks, I suppose,” Mr. Bradford said, “but I’m not sure how you can help with either of those. Our current investment company does a really good job maximizing our profits and getting us in the right portfolios.”
“I’ve taken a look at the information you’ve sent over,” Derrick said, “and I agree they do a pretty good job.”
“Pretty good?” Mr. Travis said. “We’ve averaged 11% returns on our portfolio this year and the market has been in a pretty heavy downturn.”
Before they could continue, Derrick’s secretary Susie tapped on the door and brought in the paper Derrick had requested. “Thank you, Susie,” he said when he’d taken the papers from her.
“As I said, they do a pretty good job,” Derrick said, “but I believe we could do better.”
He handed the papers in his hand to Mr. Bradford and let him review the information found there. When Mr. Bradford finished, he handed them to Mr. Travis.
“Tell me what we are looking at here,” Mr. Bradford said.
“This is a scenario that we’ve tried with a business similar to yours over the past year,” Derrick said. “I personally have hand-picked their investments and spent ample amounts of time determining which are a great fit for them.”
“And you’ve seen some success?” Mr. Travis asked. “What types of numbers are you seeing with this scenario.”
“A little stronger than what you are seeing,” Derrick said. “This scenario netted our clients an 18% return.”
“That is impressive,” Mr. Bradford said.
“My apologies,” Derrick said with a smile, “but that 18% was just in the first three months. Over the past year, we’ve been averaging roughly a 25% return.”
“That’s impossible!” Mr. Travis said.
“As you said, Mr. Bradford,” Derrick said with another smile. “Money talks.”
“And you can do this for us?”
“I have a detailed strategy ready to show you,” Derrick said and opened a laptop on the table. The screen appeared on the projector behind the men, and they turned to peer at it. Before he continued, he said, “Of course, this might interfere with your other obligations if we were to go over it now. I’d hate to hold you up.”
“Bob,” Mr. Bradford said to Mr. Travis, “please alert my secretary that we need to push my appointments for the afternoon. In fact, just push everything I have for the rest of the day. This is more important.”
Bob stood to leave the room and Derrick gave Mr. Bradford another smile. “I certainly appreciate your confidence, Mr. Bradford.”
“Please,” the man said as he stood to shake Derrick’s hand. “Call me Michael.”
***
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