The days of meeting budgets through containing fixed costs are dwindling, and there are only so many non-core segments firms can sell off in a move to “get back to basics,” according to Cyndi Greenglass. If marketers stop focusing on increasing their revenue, they will lose the opportunity to grow.
Greenglass, president of Burr Ridge, IL-based World Marketing Integration Solutions, posited that investment in a database can both contain costs and provide growth opportunities in a session at the 36th Annual Direct Marketing Days Conference in New York. According to Greenglass, the best way to get top level buy-in is to involve a chief financial officer (CFO) in the initial numbers-justification process.
CFOs, she said, are increasingly taking an active role in companies. Most top-level executives recognize that growth is necessary to increase a firm’s value, and that a CFO’s responsibilities include ensuring growth while mitigating a company’s risk. Furthermore, CFOs are increasingly responsible for corporate planning.
Knowing this, a database advocate can argue that investment in a CRM database provides a measurable return, and that such a system can enable as business to understand process changes that drive revenue. One tactic in getting a CFO to back a database project is to challenge them in generating numbers that could stem from its use.
To make a financial justification credible, Greenglass stresses that all costs, including maintenance, training, consulting, and licenses, be included in the figures. The CFO, she noted, will ask these types of financial questions. But the CFO can also be part of the benefit calculations, including how its use will generate more and better leads, how customer satisfaction and retention rates can increase, and overall customer profitability will benefit, as applicable.
“If you walk in with a willingness to co-calculate, you will walk out with more of a buy-in from the CFO,” Greenglass said.
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