Now, maybe more than ever, business unit leaders are required to prove the return on line items in their budgets and OpEx reports. The age old question from the CFO of “What are we getting from this expense” is more prevalent than ever.
This post is not about how to dissect a budget. It’s about how we, as sales and marketing leaders, can help our customers defend the value of the products and services we sell to them. We need to put ourselves in their shoes and visualize the conversations they are having with their CFOs. How do we ensure they are equipped to answer the question of “What are we getting from this expense”?
As a sales and marketing leader I live on both sides of this scenario. I’ve been on the receiving end of that question and I also talk with customers who get asked the same. This post focuses on the customer side, but weaves in my experience as a buyer of sales and marketing tools and services, having these same conversations with my CFO.
“What are we getting from this expense?”
-Every CFO, Everywhere
Investment vs. Cost
Let’s first get some terminology out of the way. Investments are dollars that go into certain areas of a business that are expected to provide a measurable return. Costs are typically seen as a necessary evil to just run the business. That’s an over-simplified explanation, but in the context of this post an important distinction to frame customer conversations with their internal stakeholders.
Now let’s transport ourselves into the customer’s headquarters. Our buyer walks to the CFO’s office for the “What are we getting from this expense?” meeting….
How will they defend their investment in your product or service?
Data.
CFO’s are left brain, numbers driven animals. The first thing they’ll look for is a black and white, backed by numbers, explanation of what a particular line item is producing for the business.
What data will your customer have prepared to share with their CFO to ensure the investment is one that makes sense, and more importantly, one that will gain agreement in the importance of maintaining. Or, better yet, increasing over time.
There may be data points your customer inherently tracks on the output of your service, but what can you proactively arm them with? Not only for this critical meeting, but ongoing? Are your CSMs providing regular ‘value updates’? What is your business equipping them with to do so? Are there reports your customer may not be aware of? How do you know?
I started with data because it’s the most defensible tool a business leader can have when proving the business value of an investment they’ve made with their company’s precious resources ($$).
Content.
Not as powerful in a meeting with the CFO, but content can add color to any data your customer has. Case studies, white papers, analyst research, and so on. In instances where data is not available, different forms of content are the next best thing in helping your customers defend value.
What types of content and at what frequency are you delivering to your customers to ensure the value to their business is loud and clear? If, as salespeople and marketers, we’re constantly thinking about helping our customers defend the value of our services, what would you do differently to help them with that?
Would you create different types of content? Would you change your cadence of when you’re sharing content? Would you think about your content distribution channels differently?
Is the content you’re delivering today helpful across many different scenarios? What are the gaps?
Exec-Level Relationships.
Whether it’s in the C-suite or other executive-level/decision maker-levels, make sure you and your team are building the right relationships within your customers business so that you can call on the right people when it comes time to defend the value of your product/service. If your CFO has a relationship with your customer’s CFO, just think of how much weight that level of a conversation can have for the partnership.
Sometimes it will not be enough for your frontline sales rep, CSM, or even their managers to have those value defending discussions.
Get the right people involved early and have a plan and a cadence where these touchpoints happen deliberately. Consider having executive sponsors assigned to your most valuable customers.
Wrapping Up.
These are just a few ways for your sales and marketing teams to think about helping your customers — The people at the businesses that chose to make an investment in your product or service — Defend the value you deliver them. This is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully one that sparks ideas for your sales, customer success, and marketing motions. Remember to picture your customer/buyer in a meeting with their CFO. How equipped are they to answer the question of, “What are we getting from this expense?”.
