Building trust through storytelling is a critical part of investor relations (IR). As market and business conditions constantly shift, IR pros face the need to communicate their company’s performance and vision in a transparent, authentic and compelling way — helping to impact market perception.
The art of storytelling is something that Belinda Overdeput, Senior Director of Investor Relations (IR) at PROS Holdings, Inc. — a leading provider of AI-powered SaaS pricing, CPQ, revenue management, and digital offer marketing solutions — is especially passionate about. In our latest “Profiles in IR” feature, Belinda shares how her broad background, as well as prior roles in different areas at PROS, helps her create well-rounded, informative and engaging narratives. Read on to hear how she develops and prioritizes impactful communications — enhancing awareness, trust and shareholder relationships.
Q: Tell us about your background. What led you into investor relations?
Belinda: My career path has been a bit untraditional. Typically, you’ll find IR professionals have extensive finance backgrounds, often coming from the buy side, sell side or within finance organizations. I do have a degree in finance from Tulane University and initially considered a career in investment banking. However, I chose to pursue opportunities in the tech industry, which was very rewarding. I enjoyed learning all about software and how to code.
In 2013, I started at PROS as an implementation consultant, assisting clients across industries. This helped me understand both our products and our customers’ needs, inside and out. I transitioned to finance in 2019, working on an internal initiative focused on how we price and package our solutions. During that time, I worked closely with our finance leadership, and a year later, an opportunity opened up for me on the IR team. I jumped at the chance. Now, heading up IR, I absolutely love this role and appreciate that PROS took a chance on me.
My background and diverse experiences across the company — in implementation/professional services, customer success, digital commerce, etc. — have been an asset. Investors can ask IR pros questions about any area of the company, and because I understand so many facets of our business, and have picked up related skills along the way, I can speak from a place of real knowledge about how things work.
Q: What is one of your favorite parts of being in IR?
Belinda: Storytelling! It’s important to be able to speak in-depth, accurately and passionately. I really love our company, how we operate and our customers — and I try to make all that shine through.
I also love offering investors a deeper understanding of the company. I can demo our product to investors and show exactly how customers use it and the value they gain. Some investors never see the software they invest in, so I focus on bringing our story to life with real examples. It’s a powerful way to connect them to what PROS is doing in the market.
Q: What 3 adjectives would you use to describe IR?
Belinda:
- Dynamic. The field, the market and your business are always changing, and you really have to stay current.
- Relationship-oriented. So much of IR is about building connections with people and telling a compelling story.
- Challenging… but in a good way! I tend to get bored if I have to do the same thing every day, and one reason I love my role so much is that I always have new things to do. My job keeps me on my toes because I’m constantly adapting to new market conditions and investor needs, while making sure I present an honest, factual narrative that resonates.
Q: How big is your IR team? What is the goal of PROS’ IR function?
Belinda: You’re looking at the IR team: It’s just me. I’m fortunate, though, to have significant support within the organization — working closely with our CFO, head of finance, accounting and legal. We’re all collaborating across various aspects of investor relations. I also really appreciate the team at Q4: They’re an extension of my own team and help us out a lot.
Ultimately, the goal of PROS’ IR function is to grow our shareholder base. As PROS expands, we need to ensure that our IR efforts and programs grow alongside it.
Q: What are some IR challenges you face?
Belinda: One of the biggest challenges is how dynamic and fast-paced our work is. Markets shift quickly, and it’s crucial to stay on top of what’s happening within the market and our shareholder base. Technology plays a critical role in that — providing insights and helping answer questions like, “What is driving the stock’s performance?” or “What’s driving engagement among our investors?” It’s impossible to manage all of this if you don’t have technology that allows you to move quickly, along with teams of people who can help analyze and summarize the data so I can report back to the board and management team.
Another challenge, especially in recent years, has been telling our AI story in a way that differentiates us from the broader AI market hype. PROS has always been grounded in AI — it’s the core of our platform, not just a buzzword. Over the years, AI has undergone a marketing evolution — being rebranded with terms like “big data” and “machine learning” — but for us, AI has always been the product. A key challenge has been communicating this with authenticity and credibility in a market flooded with AI talk. While others are still figuring out how to monetize AI, we’ve been doing it for decades, which adds unique value to our story. And getting that story out has been a fun challenge the last couple years.
Q: What led you to consolidate your IR tools on a single platform? What has the impact been?
Belinda: Disconnected tools would be really hard to manage, and I love having everything in one consolidated platform. PROS sells our solutions this way too, and like Q4, we strongly believe the combination of capabilities isn’t a “1+1=2” proposition; it’s “1+1=3” because users realize so many more synergies and benefits.
We use Q4’s IR Ops Platform for website hosting, engagement analytics, an investor CRM and surveillance. It gives us a full picture of how investors view PROS, what content drives the most engagement, and how investors move through the shareholder base.
Having all this data connected makes me a more informed IRO. While IR will never be a perfect science, and you may not know with 100% certainty what’s happening, the more data you have, the better you can make informed decisions and keep management updated. With disconnected tools, it would be much harder to gather insights and stay ahead of investor behavior.
Q: What role does accessibility play in your IR website?
Belinda: We went through a website rebranding in recent years and are currently updating the site again to ensure it’s accessible to all audiences. Accessibility is crucial, especially in IR, and the guidelines around it change quickly. Having Q4 advise us on the best ways to present data and design experiences while complying with accessibility standards — and still engaging investors — has been really important.
We’ve simplified a lot of our materials to make our story as clear and clean as possible, cutting down on unnecessary noise. This has led to great engagement with our website and IR materials, but it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous improvement as content evolves. Staying on top of these changes is key.
Q: If there were one part of your IR role you could automate or make easier, what would it be and why?
Belinda: Q&A prep is a huge part of the job. A lot of time goes into anticipating the questions investors might ask based on where the business stands and the information we’re sharing. Ensuring the management team is set up for success when marketing to investors is critical. While this involves a lot of human insight — understanding how people think, their emotions and personalities — there are definitely opportunities to automate certain aspects of the process.
For example, if we could automate more of the analysis on how information drives specific questions, it would be a massive value-add. This would allow us to better prepare our materials, build our story more strategically, and create more tailored engagement opportunities with our current and prospective investors.
Q: How do you define success in IR for yourself, as well as at a company level?
Belinda: For me, success is about fostering trust and ensuring we’re communicating clearly and transparently about how the business is performing so investors and shareholders can make informed decisions. I want to see our story resonate with investors and give them confidence in the information they’re getting from PROS.
On a company level, success ultimately ties to improvements in valuation and creating shareholder value. Another important aspect is making sure the management team, especially the CEO and CFO, have the time to focus on all their responsibilities. IR is one piece of what they do, and our management team is transparent and always willing to spend time with investors. But I want to protect our team’s time too, and the more I can be a strong resource for our shareholder base, the more I can help free up our leaders to address their broad range of responsibilities.
Q: How do you see IR evolving in the coming years?
Belinda: Our access to technology and information continues to expand. AI is making data and insights more readily available and accessible, which presents both opportunities and challenges. The market is already dynamic and fast-paced, and now, IR professionals have to stay on top of even more — with instant, actionable and important data about how investors analyze stocks and interpret information.
So, there’s immense potential for transformation in how technology is used across the buy side, sell side, and within the IR function. Staying informed about these changes and opportunities is crucial. At PROS, we view AI not as a job replacer, but as a tool that frees up time to focus on strategic work and makes people more strategic in their roles. Understanding how AI impacts our interactions with both the buy side and sell side — and acting on this — will remain critical moving forward.
Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew when you started your investor relations career?
Belinda: It goes back to storytelling again: The importance of storytelling is something I probably didn’t appreciate enough coming into the role, and I rapidly came to see how core it is to what we do. You need to distill what’s happening in the business in a short period of time — creating compelling, succinct narratives that capture current conditions and what to expect in the future.
I started IR during a challenging time — in the middle of the pandemic — and we rapidly had to adjust and evolve our narrative. I learned that investors latch onto what you say, so it’s important to really focus on the top three things you want them to take away from the conversation.
Q: What advice would you give to professionals just starting out in their IR career journey?
Belinda: Connect with other IROs. This profession can sometimes feel lonely, especially if you’re part of a small or one-person team, which is common in many organizations. The challenges we face in IR are unique, and often others — if they haven’t been in an IR role or aren’t on the management team — may not fully understand the scope of what we do. One of the best things I’ve done for myself is connect with other IROs I could lean on and brainstorm with. Having this kind of network can be incredibly beneficial for your success and growth.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
Belinda: I’m a puzzler! I love doing different types of puzzles, especially word puzzles. I have to keep this hobby in check, though, because it’s so easy to get sucked in. I’ve been playing Wordle for about four years now and am passionate about keeping my streak alive.
I also find it funny and interesting how similar puzzling is to my work in IR. In both cases, you have a lot of information to sift through, and you need to create a strategy and piece everything together. So, I guess you could say that my love for puzzles also reflects my passion for strategy and storytelling in my professional life!
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Stay tuned for more insights from leaders like Belinda Overdeput in our “Profiles in IR” series!
