Getting the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the IT leaders, two important decision-makers, on the same page is important for enterprise sales success. Purchasing decisions are made more quickly, budgets are better aligned, and implementations are more successful when finance and IT leadership collaborate. These two executives, however, often deal with different issues, languages, and goals. In order to close this gap and develop unified marketing campaigns, this article explores achievable strategies.
Understanding the Different Perspectives
Finance managers prioritize spending planning, cost control, and return on investment. They want to see exact numbers that show how a purchase will result in income or cost savings. On the other hand, long-term scalability, security, system integration, and technical capabilities are given top priority by IT leaders. They require solutions that won’t result in technical debt and connect easily with the current system.
Major technology purchases require the approval of both managers, which presents an issue for business sales. If finance fails to see the value in a solution, it can be technically perfect but fail during the approval process. Likewise, if IT finds integration issues or safety risks, a cost-effective solution won’t proceed.
Building a CFO Email List Strategy
Building a focused CFO email list while creating your outreach strategy requires understanding what matters most to financial leaders. Every month, CFOs get hundreds of sales pitches, so your message needs to show financial effect right away.
The way you speak to the CFO email list needs to highlight benefits that can be measured. Start with results, such as the percentage of cost savings, time saved, income potential, or risk reduction, rather than features. Use financial terms such as budget optimization, ROI, time to payback, and TCO (total cost of ownership). CFOs value providers who communicate with them in their native tongue and use well-known formats when presenting data.
Filter your list of CFOs by industry, organization size, and current issues. The challenges that a CFO at a major financial services company and a mid-sized manufacturing company experience are different. Compared to generic outreach, personalized messaging that targets specific industry pain points performs much better.
Leveraging a ServiceNow Customers List
A ServiceNow customer list can be very useful if you are selling solutions that connect with or improve current systems. Companies that already use ServiceNow have invested heavily in process automation and digital transformation. They recognize the importance of technology solutions that are interconnected.
You can develop highly focused ads that address particular implementation situations when you deal with a ServiceNow customer list. These companies are more open to complementary solutions since they have already passed their early refusal to digital transformation. You can mention their current ServiceNow investment in your messaging and show how your solution adds value to it.
You can also find companies where IT and financial alignment is already taking place by using a ServiceNow customer list. Companies that use ServiceNow for enterprise resource planning, financial planning, or IT service management have shown that they are dedicated to integrating various company operations via technology.
Creating Messages That Resonate with Both Leaders
Creating marketing materials that appeal to both audiences at the same time is essential to alignment. Write executive summaries that highlight both the financial advantages and technological skills. Provide an economic explanation of the business impact of each technical feature you highlight.
Make use of case studies that prove cost savings as well as operational benefits. A finance leader wants to know how much money was saved when they notice that a project reduced processing time by 40%. An IT leader is interested in knowing which technical savings allowed a 25% cost reduction.
Facilitating Joint Discovery Conversations
Leaders in IT and finance should be brought together early in your sales process. Establish shared discovery sessions rather than individual meetings where each executive hears a unique proposal. This strategy encourages both leaders to listen to each other’s priorities, express concerns, and offer questions.
Act as a link between the two perspectives throughout these discussions. Talk about ideas for delayed adoption with the IT leaders when the CFO brings up budgetary issues. Ask the CFO how much it would cost to continue using the current manual methods when the IT leaders bring up integration issues.
Providing Tools for Internal Advocacy
Finance leaders and IT need to convince different groups to buy your solution internally. Give them ROI calculators, presentation materials, and customizable and shareable implementation timetables. Make it simple for the IT leaders to communicate technological advantages to their team and for the CFO to make the financial case to the company.
Make unique sets of resources for every audience, but make sure they are all the same. The metrics used in the IT leader’s technical proposal have to align with the figures in the CFO’s meeting presentation.
Conclusion
It is not about choosing one audience over the other when it comes to aligning finance and IT leaders in enterprise sales efforts. It involves developing integrated strategies that take into account both points of view and show how your solution supports both priority areas. You can convert possible issues between IT and finance into strong purchasing agreements that shorten your sales cycle by creating targeted lists, developing dual-perspective messaging, and encouraging cooperative conversations.
