Sean Brophy, the Head of Global Sales at Pigment joins our host, Ray Rike to discuss selling the Return on Investment of Financial Planning, Modeling, and Forecasting Software to both the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Revenue Officer.
Topics discussed during the conversation include:
- The challenges of selling to the CFO & CRO as economic buyers
- How the business perspective on the value of planning, modeling, and forecasting has evolved
- Proving value and ROI to the CFO as the economic buyer
- Top Sales Performance Metrics
Sean has spent 20+ years on helping companies turn data into information that empowers more informed decisions. The first topic we covered was the unique challenge of selling to finance and revenue executive decision-makers. Pigment started solving problems for the office of Finance, and learned that integrated planning impacts not only finance but also the other functions, including Sales, Human Resources, and Supply chain to name a few. This requires the sales hires to be business-focused first and have the ability to effectively move across functions during the sales process.
Top-down or bottom-up sales to the office of Finance? Sean prefers the initial entry point being with the CFO anchoring upon the unique value that aligns with their top objectives and biggest challenges. CFOs are typically looking for at least a 2x - 3x return on investment, which requires a hypothesis aligned to the metrics the CFO is targeting for improvement.
Next, we discussed the rising importance of FP&A, and where we are in this department's maturity? Sean highlighted that more FP&A teams are acknowledging the fact that the current FP&A tool set is not meeting today's business requirements. FP&A today goes beyond reporting and is being asked to iterate financial plans in real-time using the latest data and then modeling different scenarios to be able to adjust the financial plan based on the latest data and trends.
Then I asked Sean if FP&A has a seat and strategic role at the executive leadership table? Sean said FP&A is more strategic than ever, and a big part of that is their role of being able to leverage the most recent data and provide insights and recommendations on the latest financial trends - not those from multiple quarters ago.
CFOs are prioritizing solutions that drive increased efficiency and more profitable revenue. This includes helping executive sales leaders build better revenue plans that increase productivity and increases revenue growth efficiency. This begs the question of selling value, which Sean says should be part of every Sales 101 model. Sean suggests that every sales process begins with asking what is the business value to the potential customer, and what metrics they will use to measure the return on investment of any new technology solution. Beyond selling, Value engineering will create a "value hypothesis" that is conservative and then shared to be validated by the buyer's champions who will typically start collaborating on the value hypothesis which is often increased from the initial "conservative" ROI presented.
What the are primary metrics Sean uses to measure Sales Productivity and he presents to his CFO and CEO? Sean highlighted top line ARR growth as the top metric, but also Customer Acquisition Cost efficiency including the average Cost per Acquired Customer to ensure efficient growth trends. Sales Productivity as measured by the cost of the seller measured against quota delivered is the other TOP efficiency metrics Sean uses.
If you are responsible for marketing and/or selling solutions to the CFO and/or CRO, this conversation with Sean Brophy, Head of Global Sales at Pigment is a great listen!
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