Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hi Roy,

blanalytics makes an excellent point with knowing something about the world of finance and its language. At least the CFO will know you’re making an effort. This is a hot issue and I think it represents a sea change in that CMO’s will have more respect in the boardroom and marketing accountability will have to improve. I don’t have any specific experience to share regarding client side CFO’s. However, I have begun adding CFO’s to our firm’s informational broadcasts and I have included content about the CFO’s and their management functions relative to marketing.

Also, here’s a link to “Running the Numbers” an article that discusses the very topic you have posted. I found it very informative.


“But many marketing groups still experience a curious disconnect between their spending decisions and a commitment to increase shareholder value. That's in part because they have little interest in financial analysis (a weakness that accounts for marketing's low status in many companies). It's also because accounting standards persist in treating money spent on marketing as a cost, to be expensed in the current financial year, rather than an investment like R&D that pays back over several years.”


https://www.cmomagazine.com/read/030105/running_numbers.html


Hope this helps,

- Steve

Be buttoned up by having quantitative measures ready to back your marketing programs.

Same with budgeting. Have a rationale behind the numbers so you can help the CFO see how the programs will positively impact profit.

Roy Young,

having cut my teeth in the financial side of the business coming right out of college working in the Accounting industry I would suggest the following answers to your questions.

What works for building a good relationship with a CFO?

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CFO's GOALS... and how you can help them accomplish those objectives must be the number one way for creating a substantial good and long term relationship with your CFO. In my experiences in financial circles I found that when I was able to pinpoint (exactly) what was important to them and provide that resource my relationships improved dramatically. Trying to see the world from their vanish point is crucial as it is in developing any relationship and the bummer is when we want geniune relationship but it eludes us. Helping your CFO accomplish their objectives only improves your success rate. I discovered that financial people opened up in a way that most people fail to see them when I satisfied meeting their needs based on objectives that were important to them. Dealing with people who are involved in roles of financial leadership from the CFO all the way down has been some of the most delicate relationships I ever had and now I understand why. CFO's and other financial people have such a burden upon them that is purely identifiable numerically and there is no skating around the numbers when they truly say you are not hitting them.


How can we marketers make our CFO's life better?

PROVIDE POSITIVE INFORMATION AND DETAILS...
that reflect our marketing is making improvements in Revenue (lol). Seriously Roy when I worked in Accounting and then moved to Sales I was prepared for the hard core *BPM..."Bottomline Paradigm Mentality". Having majored in Accounting where the *BPM is all it's about 24-7-365 from breakfast till dinner I had to learn how to keep a very open minded perspective about the relationship side. Because to me more than anything the world is about relationships (developing them and retaining them) and it's not to say that this is not the same for CFO's because relationships are important to them too. In financial circles ( and here's my disclaimer "this is from the 100's of relationships I had with financial people up close and personal") everything was about the "Bottomline" staying in the Black and getting out the Red. As a matter of fact Roy this was one of the few times in my life experience where the color Black is not associated with something negative (lol). And being the only Black professional in your Accounting department made you feel good to say "We're in the Black". But this is life in the real world where dollars and cents commands the thought life of the people who direct the corporate ship from the CFO side. Is there anything else I can do for you boss?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Jim,

I agree that serving down is Great leadership but the truth is in most American corporations we fail to use the marketing perspectives of W. Edwards Deming and this is without a doubt one reason why we struggle. We have a top down mentality. Employees will only model what they see emulated from the top.

You say "Why do you want to do that?" because it's the right thing to do. "Rebellion only brings Rebellion" and along with rebellion comes his twin brother Resentment. In America we need to learn how to be willing to serve more and that's why our companies are hurting and our customers are hurting and our employees are hurting.

Now how can we get back to making better relationships for our CFO's? Sure we can...It's really quite simple "Serve Them with Passion". When you feel like it "Serve Them with Passion" and when you don't feel like it (get over it!) and "Serve Them with Passion" again. A farmer gets back far more than the seed he planted...whatever we plant in the life of a CFO or any human being will bring us back a far greater return than the seed we planted. Is there anything else I can do for you? You're worth it!

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Let me recommend Ned Herrmann's book, "The Creative Brain." (Info at www.hbdi.com)

It deals with the various thinking styles of people who tend to gravitate toward certain functional roles. Once you understand the characterisitics of the four main thinking styles, it becomes much easier to communicate and work effectively together.

CFOs tend to be very left-brain, and they have been trained to follow the rules, stay inside the box, measure everything and quantify whatever can be quantified. They are probably uncomfortable with qualitative data, uncertainty or breaking new ground.

Marketing folks are often very strategic, creative, and analytical -- jumping between big picture stuff and analysis of market data, focus group input and advertising copy, consumer habits and trade issues, etc.

It's no wonder the two have to work at communicating better and understanding the differences in their respective thinking modes.

Herrmann, in his book, suggests some ways to bridge the gaps and understand each other. If this is really an important question for you, I would recommend picking up a copy of his book.

By the way, he also wrote a book called "The Whole-Brain Business Book." It has a lot of the same information, only very focused on business issues. It's not as complete and thorough, but it will give you the same good information.

Herrmann, by the way, was a VP at General Electric and a solid researcher. The book is a serious work that's also fun and easy to read.

Hope this helps.

In today's "hurry up" culture, I still think relationships take time.

If you think back for a moment - if you are married, what was that magic thing you said in the first 5 minutes to convince your wife to marry you?

Thinking of your best, longtime friends, how did you know within the first week that you would be long time buddies?

The marketing ideas above are fine, but the missing ingredient in many "relationship" building programs is ELAPSED TIME.

There are probably 1,000 folks in various industries I could easily get an appointment with with a single phone conversation - because I have called on them and stayed in touch for YEARS. I believe there is value in persistence.

CFOs are risk averse. They are looking for long-term solutions to important and strategic problems. They will want to know that you (or your client) are not a "fly by night" organization. One way to help create this impression is to avoid "attention defecit marketing" - by putting together a program to educate and inform them - and by sticking with it over time.

Good luck.

oops... I was assuming you were marketing to CFOs who are outside your organization...

... in re-reading your question, I'm a bit unsure... does your question deal primarily with marketing a company's goods or services to CFOs in other organizations, or are you most interested in building a relationship with the CFO of your own organization, or are you most interested in positive relationships with CFOs of client organizations?

Reading through this thread I was surprised nobody had mentioned the link between the CFO and the CEO, who matters even more... Then I got to Richard's post (above) and fully endorse his recommendations.

The CFO in most organisations is not acting alone, they are carrying out their duties to meet the corporate objectives set by/endorsed by the CEO.

You need to fully understand the CFO's operational rationale in meeting the corporate objectives. Does your organisation use strategy maps? They are a great way to articulate and communicate strategy - and allow departments to share their objectives with other departments.

Are you new to the company? If so, you might want to ask around about how alignment is achieved throughout the organisation. If they ae using Startegy Maps and/or Balanced Scorecard, you may be able to access the whole strategic profile for the business and get the full story on who in the organisation is driven by what objectives.

Hope this helps.

ChrisB