For Francesca DeMartino, Pfizer’s Chief IRO, earnings prep starts with the story, not the questions.
Francesca moved away from traditional Q&A prep (which is organized around the questions investors are likely to ask). Her team builds a message map instead. It’s organized by topic, with the key messages and proof points for each.
We recently listened to her conversation with Mark Fasken on the Winning IR podcast. (This was a fantastic episode full of nuggets for IROs). This week, we’re sharing the three ideas that stood out to us.
This is the idea at the heart of the episode. For Francesca, investor communications should start with a story, not a list of answers.
“You really shouldn’t approach your investor communications as Q&A…. you’re not just there to answer (anticipated) questions. You are there to tell a story…”
That doesn’t mean skipping question prep. “We still brainstorm questions, don’t get me wrong,” she says. Her team just doesn’t let those questions become the structure of the prep.
Think about the usual exercise. Everyone gets in a room and lists every hard question they might get, with an answer under each one. It feels thorough. But according to Francesca, it trains executives “to be in a reactive mode.”
So about 10 years ago, she stopped using traditional Q&A documents. Here’s what her team builds instead:
It’s a living document. Her team builds it between quarters, sharpens it right before earnings, uses it in prep, and then starts again.
As Francesca puts it, “It forces you to really think about your talk points, your proof points, your data points.”
The payoff is that executives are ready for the topic, however the question is phrased.
Her example makes it click. Say an analyst asks for market share (which isn’t something they disclose all the time).
You’re still answering the question. However, you’re providing context that you believe investors need to hear.
Our take: This is the one we’ll be thinking about for a while. And the idea is worth borrowing even if you keep your Q&A doc.
Pull up the questions your executives actually got last quarter (not the hypothetical ones). Which themes keep coming back? Those are your topics. Build a clear and proactive story, with proof points, around each one.
“You’ve got to be able to tell a story at a 30,000-feet view… [and] go very close to the science and explain the mechanism of action.”
In complex industries like pharma, you need both, because generalists and specialists are sometimes in the same room.
With generalists, Francesca keeps it simple. In oncology, that means explaining first-, second-, and third-line treatment (what happens when a patient moves from one treatment to the next) “in simplistic language so you don’t lose that generalist.”
Specialists want more. “You’ve got PhDs, you’ve got MDs now sitting on the investment side, and they will be interested in going down to that molecular level.”
For them, Pfizer doesn’t rely on separate decks. It relies on “the people we have in the room.” With Wellington, one of Pfizer’s top holders and an investor that goes deep on the science, CEO Albert Bourla opens with strategy. When the questions turn technical, he can hand over to Chris Boshoff, Pfizer’s head of R&D.
That handoff is planned. Francesca’s team takes “copious notes” in every investor meeting. Before the next one, they brief executives on what that investor has asked before and recommend who should attend. Meeting someone new? Ask them ahead of time: “Where have you left off on the story?”
Otherwise, “if you were to walk in blind and go deep on science and they’re generalists, you’ve lost an opportunity.”
Our take: The tailoring happens before the meeting, not in it. Look at what the investor asked last time, decide who needs to be in the room, and if you’re unsure, ask them.
Knowing your audience also means deciding which executive should meet them.
Francesca’s point is that once you tier your investors, you should “really think about marrying those tiers to executives,” something she says is “often a thing that is not sort of thought through.”
At Pfizer, the highest tier is a small group of priority investors who get time with the CEO and CFO. The next tier gets senior leaders such as SVPs and VPs. Tier three stays with IR.
That changes the conversation with management. When a top-tier investor asks for time, the question isn’t, “Should we put the CEO in this meeting?” It’s already been answered. As Francesca puts it, “When you see a tier one… we vetted it, and this is a good use of your time.”
Our take: The idea worth borrowing isn’t Pfizer’s exact tiers. It’s the rule behind them. Turn investor priority into a clear decision about executive access, and get management to agree to it. Then you’re not deciding from scratch every time a meeting comes up.
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