---

Guest post by: Steve Grodzinski Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

"While a CFO should not take control of sales or marketing,” according to Larry Caretsky, CEO of Commence Corporation, “I do believe they should play a role in helping to insure a structure is in place to maximize sales and marketing expenditures as well as insuring their company's ROI (return-on-investment) and profitability.”

There is a fundamental disconnection between sales and marketing and the CFO may serve as the moderator in the conversation about the efficacy and effectiveness in Advanced Contact Management (ACM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Business Intelligence (BI), and Customer Service and Support (CSS).

The Role of the CFO in the Marketing Department

Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on trade shows and marketing promotions, but almost never close the loop to determine the effectiveness of marketing outreach efforts. Caretsky insists, “They have no information regarding how many leads the program provided, how many of those leads turned into customers, and how much revenue was generated from those customer that they may have closed. As such, ROI from costly and significant marketing expenditures cannot be determined. They simply establish a marketing budget for the year and perhaps increase it or decrease it the next year based on the performance of the business.”

While a strong vice-president, Marketing Director, or CFO should be paying close attention to these data, without a CRM (customer relationship management) solution and the appropriate reporting it becomes an impossible task. The result: instead of using vital (often limited) funds to drive additional business from profitable marketing programs, companies just continue with business as usual repeating the same programs without measurement of success.


The Role of the CFO in the Sales Department


Companies that have renegade sales teams, cut deals because they can get away with it; they know that if they sign a deal, the company will most likely accept it. This volatile and unstructured practice leads to all kinds of problems that, according to Caretsky, “Drive CFO's crazy because of the inability to keep control of margins, lack of business integrity, and lost profitability.”

A CRM solution can help address wild sales force practice by deploying a structure that does not allow the sales team to take control the business. The structure tells the representative what margins are required and what discounts they are able to offer the customer. The results are pricing integrity, sustainable profitability, and more accurate sales reporting. Ultimately these are CFO functions and overseeing the structure to ensure these corporate practices is part of effective technology selection to enforce better sales behavior.


CFO’s Prefer SaaS CRM as Monitoring Method of Sales and Marketing


CRM On-Demand or SaaS (software-as-a-solution) is a web-based CRM solution that enables businesses to manage customer relationships in an organized and efficient manner. An intuitive set of ready to use applications automates the customer facing aspects of your business that directly impacts sales execution and customer service.

CFO’s prefer this type of technology solutions because Web-based hosted solutions are both fast and easy set up, while allowing the management of sales, marketing, and customer service. Errors, including simple data entry of customer contact information, are reduced because there is one central system for all customer information and detailed and powerful reporting and analytics. Given the expanding and expansive nature of the sales force, only SaaS CRM solutions effectively support remote and mobile users.

Commence Corporation, celebrating their twentieth year in the CRM sector, advises CFO’s, “The more you know about prospects and customers, the better you’ll be able to optimize your strategy for customer acquisition, retention, and cross-selling.” Only when CFO’s implement a comprehensive, easy-to-use solution for marketing automation, will they enable the efficient management of multi-channel campaigns, task management, budgeting, list management, and campaign analysis and reporting.

Related Articles

  60 plus
  Supply Chain Management Certificate/Course USA/CANADA
  Sales VP's and Marketing VP's - Should the Roles be Combined?
  Is There a Difference Between a Material Requisition and a Purchase Requisition? (A PI Q&A)
  Are Your Sales People Guilty of This Sales Crime?
  Profitable Supply Chain?
  3 Good Reasons Marketing Should Qualify Leads Before Passing to Sales
  Is Your CFO REALLY a Chief Financial Officer
  Marketing Tip: If You Only Do One Thing, Qualify Your Leads
  Manage Change- Smartly!
  The curse of the BDM
  Whos Sabotaging Your Sales and Marketing Efforts
  How Many Salespeople Shouldn't Be in Sales
  HOW TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE GET LIFE CUSTOMERS
  How to Succeed in Business in 52 Steps
  Multilevel Marketing: 4 Tips To MLM Success
  What would your sales-role and business be like with less fear?
  Dramatically Increase Sales Conversion Rate Using Education Based Marketing
  How Voice Mails Can Increase Marekting and Sales Results
  Current Trends in Working Capital Management

Related Forum Posts

Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
niche forum categories
Different Hats
Any ideas for potential partner sites?

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Five Ways to Show Honest Appreciation

Am I a Leader?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.