Finance and Sales

1. Smart Gold Business
Solution
Smart Gold
FINANCE vs SALES IN
AN ORGANIZATION
Its incredibly
important for
Finance department
to understand the
startegic nature of
the work the Sales &
Marketing team
does. To understand
this relation or
correlation, I
described three
important points
that makes the two
marry together in
the organization and
this is as follow:
The role of Finance department to ensure sales effectiveness in
a business
1. Finance funds you!
Finance sits at the most strategic level
in an organization. They work closely
with the managing team and the
strategic leaders across an
organization to decide exactly which
initiatives make financial sense and
which don’t. Finance team determine
how much money a department
receives, and whether the investment
will grow or shrink and at what rate.
Take for instance, at the point of the
board meeting the CEO ask finance
why the company is been investing
too much in sales; - based on the
strategies set with the Sales manager,
Finance is able to advise the board
why they have put XXX amount
Kwacha to build new online
community, XXX amount of Kwacha
to build brand’s awareness in a new
market segment or XXX amount of
Kwacha to buy that new marketing
platform.
It’s vital that finance understand the
reason the Sales director want its
department to be funded and the
need for additional funds next year or
other years to come to make specific
hires or invest in new marketing
initiatives and generally understand
the impact those investments will
have on the business. If sales want to
get the resources, they need to
realize the strategy set ahead and
must get tight with finance.
this article
Finance Fund You P.1
Finance Keeps you Budget P.2
Finance think like you P.3
Trends & New Software P.4
IS S U E
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20 18
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2. 1. Finance keeps you
on budget (and
helps you keep
your job!)
Finance is your partner here.
They can teach you how to
track and forecast your
expenses in a methodical and
accurate way. The major
purpose of the finance
department is to develop
operational budgets. Finance
employees use the projections
of the sales department to
develop short-term and long-
term forecasts. Although
credit policies benefit the sales
department and the
organization as a whole, the
finance department must deal
with the organization’s
accounts receivable account
and uncollectible debt. If the
organization's revenue comes
primarily from credit sales, it
may experience cash flow
problems in the future.
Nevertheless, finance will
ensure sales stay compliance
with accounting best practices.
Almost every
salesperson, at one
time or another, has
fallen into the trap of
selling the features of
a product or service,
rather than the benfit.
However, it’s the
benfit and not the
feathers that make a
sale. You should
always remember to
describe how a
product and service
can help improve a
prospect’d life or
business when trying
to close a sale.
Therefore, sales team must
leverage the finance team to
make sure they stay on track
and avoid big financial and
possibly uncertain mistakes.
Most sales personnel spend
their lives thinking about how
to design and execute highly
effective marketing
campaigns. That’s what sales
enjoy and that’s where they
put their energy. But sales
often have another
big responsibility; - they
often manage a significant
amount of money for the
business. Outside of payroll
costs, marketing program
spending is often one of the
largest expenses for a
company. Therefore, finance
has a responsibility to manage
the budgeted effectively
within sales. However, the
challenge of over spending
arises mostly through when
sales thinks outside the box of
strategies set, if sale have
ZMK100 to spend in one
quarter, they better not spend
ZMK200 or its “game over’’
they get off budget.
Thereby, finance must ensure
that departments set strategic
plan that will run within the
organization’s annual
expenditure and thus will be
the inputs of the budget by
submission. However, working
through the budget enables
the organization maintains its
profitability or otherwise loss.
Falling into losses may affect
departmental funding and
organization’s product
development may fail and may
be kicked out of the market.
3. Finance thinks like
you (Sales)
Well, finance thinks like the
analytical side of sale; - as a
sales person you might not go
to your finance person to ask
for the next creative campaign
idea. Most people in the
finance team wouldn’t know a
creative campaign if it hit them
upside the head. But finance
professionals have other super
powers that sales people need.
They think analytically. They
think logically. And, they think
about strategic business
If you do not develop the
hunger and courage to pursue
your goal, you will lose your
nerve and you will give up on
your dream.” – Les Brown

3. Recommendation
Organizational leaders must focus on improving the relationship between the sales and finance
departments. Effective leaders can facilitate communication that department heads cannot because
of conflicts of interest. According to an article on American Express Open Forum’s website, some
companies find success by allowing lower-level sales and finance employees to team up, because
they are more open to ideas of improving communication. Companies should therefore focus on
developing sales strategies that yield the highest profitability. Sales and finance departments play
significantly different roles in a company, but leaders must reconcile the roles to focus on the
bottom line.
Further, finance can also help educate sales managers redesign sales incentive compensation plans
by better linking rewards with the salesperson’s achievements and the company’s strategic
objectives. However, there must be a mutual understanding between sales and finance of what
success looks like so that incentives line up with the organization’s performance measurement
systems. Lastly, effectiveness and efficiency can be created if the two departments understand their
task in implementing projects and through planning together within the organization.
Recommendation
Finance thinks like you (Sales)
Conclusion
As the guardians of the
company’s finance data,
the finance function is in a
better position to supply
salespeople with the
information they need to
take a more strategic and
data-driven approach to
winning over customers.
Finance is able to provide
more analysis, more
insights and more
recommendations so that
people are aligned with
what drives the business
forward. Thus with quicker
and better information, as
well as accurate forecasts
and targets, salespeople
are empowered to make
more informed decisions
about which customers to
target and interact with.
Therefore, as sensibly as
the sales function may plan
and implement its strategy,
it will not produce better
leads to attract more
customers and generate
higher profits if the data is
not used dynamically by
finance. Finance ensures
the timeliness of sales and
sales-activity reporting.
Finally, finance has the
capability of responding
quickly to changing
business situations with
relevant reports and
analytics.
issues like “does the
investment make financial
sense?” They can help you
model the analytical side of
the marketing business. Good
sales people have to think
about what makes sense for
the business, what will
improve the bottom
line? What will deliver the
highest ROI? That’s how
finance thinks too; -they’re
analytical, and they’re logical.
They actually have the same
DNA that an effective
salesman needs to have.
Sales also rely on the finance
department to develop credit
policies that meet customer
demands, and to provide
efficient invoicing and quality
customer service. Yet finance
departments focus on earning
profits while limiting costs.
Taking advantage of its
analytical skills, the finance
function can assist sales
people obtain the most
relevant information about the
company’s customers which
ultimately helps transform the
selling process and
cultivate new relationships
with the right customers. For
any organization, sales costs
are a major component of the
expenses hence the
importance of managing sales
processes and improving sales
performance. It is therefore
imperative that you improve
the way your company gathers
and uses sales activity data in
your planning, budgeting and
forecasting processes.

4. ggg
Smart Gold Business
Solution
Reference
2010, Christopher J. Skouse; Larry M. Walther- Cost analysis
Managerial and cost accounting
https://jobs.telegraph.co.uk/jobs/sales/manager
https://www.inc.com/john-boitnott/6-effective-ways-to-enhance-
workplace-productivity.htmlProfessional
Development
Its necessay that you align
yourelf with people and
attract people into your
business tht are hungry.
People that are hungry are
unstoppable and
unreasinable. It’s necessay to
get losers out of your life if
you want to live your dreams.
‘Les Brown’
Issue 20 DEC 2018
By Tiza Silavwe
(BAccy, ZiCALic, Cert-InvtAd & StBr)
EMAIL: TIZSILAVS@LIVE.COM
CELL: +260-966400559