Categories: Sales Planning | Sales Process
Each player on the executive team has a different perspective. The CFO is the ears of an organization. They combine everything they hear from leadership to create a balanced plan. They want to yield healthy growth. They go for accuracy.
Sit in the Seat of the CFO
On the Revenue Builders podcast, hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon interview Hope Cochran, Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group, and the former CFO of King Digital, the video game developer behind Candy Crush. Leverage Cochran's perspective to sit in the seat of the CFO. Gain insight you can use to partner with your CFO on the path to drive healthy revenue growth. Here are some top takeaways from their conversation.
Define the strategy to apply funding to growth accelerators:
Every cross-functional department requires its share of the budget for its own initiatives, goals and KPIs. If you're looking to implement a sales transformation initiative to improve performance, you need other leaders to care about it. With the right strategy and approach, you can get your peers to prioritize your sales initiative over other initiatives that are competing for budget.
Define what's needed to improve revenue numbers and minimize company-wide inefficiencies that can be traced back to the sales team. Start with your CFO. Come to them at the idea stage and discuss how you would leverage funding to turn sales challenges into growth accelerators for your company. Gain their perspective and insight.
Approach your CFO early when defining your plan to drive sales growth:
If you’re trying to gain budget to support a sales initiative, approach your CFO early and leverage their perspective.
Use this time to articulate sales challenges and their impact on the company as a whole. Define your plan to adjust course and the positive business outcomes that your company would see as a result of funding and executing your sales initiative. This early action will help you gain support from your CFO, which will be crucial when it comes time to capture cross-functional buy-in for your strategic sales initiative.
Prioritize forecast accuracy:
As a sales leader or a Chief Financial Officer, it's no surprise that improving forecast accuracy is always top of mind. On the Revenue Builders Podcast, Cochran touches on this topic, saying, “Being in the seat of the CFO, overachievement is great. But truly, I want to be accurate.”
Take spirit in this perspective, and help your sales organization provide the most accurate revenue forecasts. Establish an accountable sales culture and environment where your entire customer-facing organization knows how to efficiently qualify, progress and close sales opportunities. Improve forecast accuracy by getting your sales team to speak the same language, where everyone understands how to qualify a deal and what it takes to move to the next stage. Dig deeper, with these five steps to improve your sales organization's approach.
Take Your Sales Organization and Your Career to the Next Level
When it comes to accelerating sales growth and getting to the next level in your career as a leader, it helps to learn from those who’ve been there, done that and achieved results. Take insight from leaders who've played a key role in improving their company's growth trajectory. Get this guide and empower your sales organization to achieve healthy, consistent revenue growth.
