FINANCE
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Confessions of a power couple Repairing the finance and sales relationship in business is key to success, writes Kirsten Levermore
Sales won’t listen to me, whines Finance. Finance doesn’t understand me, retorts Sales. It’s a classic relationship problem. And it may be why half of US chief financial officers and executives believe inadequate sales talent is the number one barrier to revenue growth in 2018. Coming to light as part of the 2018 CFO Sentiment Study, an annual survey by The CFO Alliance of senior financial executives in the US, the conclusion that more than 50% of finance executives lose sleep over sales could serve as the first step in reparations between the departments, and improved collaboration and top line revenue.
Trust issues
According to the 2018 CFO Sentiment Study: More than half of top-level finance executives believe current performance, lack of competency and ‘thin’ bench strength of existing sales talent is the key barrier to overcome in order to meet or exceed revenue growth objectives in 2018 Two-thirds of US finance executives would like to upgrade current sales talent and sales support staff Some 77% feel their enterprises are less than effective at converting qualified leads to sales Only 36% of respondents find their enterprise is ‘very effective’ at securing and ensuring the loyalty of their current customers and clients
Yet finance departments’ underwhelming opinion of sales divisions is balanced by a thriving hope for better performance. The survey also reports an overwhelming majority of finance executives believe better hiring and motivation of sales talent is critical to success. Dialogue Q3 2018