Nick Gunn as our featured speaker, with over 30 years’ experience working at HP/HPE he will be sharing his Tips on how FP&A can use analytics to get the attention of the C-Suite
Sales & Marketing Alignment: How to Synergize for Success
Why using analytics is the only way to sell savings opportunities to the C-suite
1.
2.
3. Topic: Tips to Getting the C-Suite to Listen and Take Action
When you get an opportunity to have an executive’s undivided attention, make the most of it. Presenting to
executives can be, simply put, a challenge. Here’s some of the valuable information and positioning you can gain
by attending.
1. VALUED EXPERTISE: The expertise and knowledge you possess are Highly Valuable!
2. DELIVERY: Create urgency, show priority and be brief.
3. TIMING: Always think about the bigger picture of what’s going on right then.
4. ANTICIPATION: Here is what’s happening, here is the solution, and here is what we gain.
5. SUPPORT: Hold your data until you are asked.
6. FUTURIZE: Create an interest in cost savings by giving them a peek into the future.
7. STORY-TELLING: Turn data analytics into a compelling story of how the company will benefit.
8. TEAM: Achieving cost savings is a team sport, championed by the C-Suite.
4. • Please mute your phone for the first part of the session and only unmute in the Q&A
• Feel free to put comments in the chat window during the session
• Feel free you use your camera – its always good to see who’s out there (just remember its on)
• We will send you links via email to the presentation and the recording within 24 hrs
• You can network while stuck at home
• Please complete our survey on FP&A technology and trends (more info after the Nick session):
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/James2020
6. Staff Augmentation
Experienced Finance professionals supporting your teams to
plan, manage and execute your process transformations
Technology Integration
Training
Planning: Anaplan; Data visualization: Power BI; Data
modelling: Excel, DAX & M; Data: SQL
Using our competencies assessment tool, we improve finance
skills through online or classroom training and/or mentoring
Exec
Dashboards
Cash
Management
Forecasting &
Budgeting
Performance
Reporting
Long-Range
Planning
Predictive
Modeling
Finance Technology Partnering
Ongoing support with developing and maintaining planning,
modelling, dashboard and analytic solutions
10. They have mobile devices to distract them while
you’re speaking!
Each member of a company’s C-Suite
has an important and unique role to
perform.
They aren’t typically interested in things
they might consider to be distracting;
you need a compelling hook!
10
1
Be careful with surprises...
2
3
They often get measured on KPI’s that
may not be aligned with your objectives.4
They probably don’t spend much time thinking
about your area of responsibility once outside of
the meeting.5
They always have something top-of-mind, that
they’d rather discuss with you; they’re
maniacally focused on their accountabilities.6
7
8 ….They have bosses too.
11.
12. Be Flexible: You may have to jump around and
go off on a tangent, that’s ok, bring the
discussion back when you can and move on.
Research: Do your research and understand
what issues are important to the C-Suite.
Interest: Create a story to communicate your
vision with an interesting and compelling (for
them) future state.
12
1
Relevance: Frame your idea in their terms…
portray benefits in terms of EPS, cash-flow, time-
to-value, time-to-market improvements, or
customer / employee experience improvements.
2
3
Facts not Emotion: Use data analytics to
support and drive the business case, not
anecdotes.4
Articulate: Be succinct and relevant. Less is
more!5
Be Authentic: Answer questions honestly and
directly, if you can’t, tell them so and that you’ll
follow-up with the answer.6
7
Don’t Oversell: Learn to recognize when they
have agreed to your proposal in full or in part,
then stop talking, thank them and leave!8
16. Provide a clear roadmap to show them what you’re going to do and
how you’re going to take them from the current state to the future state.
- Use an ROI based approach, outlining what resources are required,
from whom and by when.
- Be clear on what you are asking from them
Clearly articulate the current situation
- Issues, challenges, consequences of inaction, impact to the business.
- Explain where the data comes from and why it’s accurate & reliable.
16
1
Describe an attractive future state
- Positive impact to results and metrics that are important to them.
- Talk about the benefits to customers, shareholders and employees
- Outline the intangible, soft benefits, as well as the hard, tangible ones
2
3
17. Tell Them What
You Told Them
Summarize the
opportunity, benefits, and
what you need from them.
Tell Them What You’re
Going To Tell Them
Have a clear Exec Summary,
outlining the both the ROI
and the consequences of
inaction.
Tell Them
Ensure the body of the
presentation covers the
relevant points clearly and
concisely… no extra material,
only what you need to tell the
story, put the rest in back-up.
32. View result online: http://bit.ly/FPASURVEY19
• Executive perception of FP&A Strategic importance is up: Executive perception of strategic
impact made by FP&A has increased 9pts to 69% from prior year
• FP&A walks from Excel: Excel is down, and Cloud solutions are up. Cloud is driving down the
usage of Excel during planning from 72% to 54%
• Not enough time: FP&A teams feel they should be spending at least 33% more time on high
value activities but don’t have the time.
• Forecast accuracy falls short: A significant amount of time is spent on forecasting, yet 59% of
FP&A teams are concerned about the accuracy of their forecast results
• The elusive single source of truth: 32% of FP&A teams believe the biggest issues they face
with data is no single source of truth
• 46% of FP&A teams have no plans to leverage AI or ML soon.