Make marketing more productive by leveraging financial disciplines and strengths. Learn how in this 4-Step approach, with a case study to prove its effectiveness.

1. Summer
11
08
Marketing
and
the
CFO:
How
Financial
and
Accounting
Professionals
Can
Add
Value
to
Marketing
Services
Don
Metznik
In
this
7-­‐page
article,
financial
and
accounting
professionals
will
learn
how
to
increase
their
overall
contribution
to
a
company’s
success
by
sharing
numerical
and
analytical
techniques,
skills,
and
disciplines
with
their
marketing
counterparts.
Creative
Logic
Marketing
|
Copyright
2011
Donald
A.
Metznik
|
Small
Business
Advisory
|
metznik.com

2.
HOW
FINANCIAL
AND
ACCOUNTING
PROFESSIONALS
CAN
ADD
VALUE
TO
MARKETING
SERVICES.
An
unnecessary
and
unproductive
tension
often
exists
in
small
to
midsize
businesses
(smbs)
between
marketing
and
financial/
accounting
services*.
It
obstructs
a
synergistic
relationship.
This
tension
is
fed
by
conflicting
perceptions
of
each
department’s
roles
and
responsibilities,
and
by
some
classic
stereotypes.
Removing
this
tension
and
creating
a
complementary
relationship
will
yield
significant
business
benefits.
This
is
how
it
can
be
done.
STEREOTYPES
You’ve
heard
the
stereotypes:
marketing
is
creative,
unstructured,
emotional,
liberal
in
spending,
and
speaks
a
funny
language.
You’ve
heard
that
Finance/accounting
lacks
imagination,
is
too
highly
structured,
too
…marketing
types
analytical,
too
conservative
in
spending,
and
speaks
a
funny
measure
almost
language.
These
stereotypes
are
often
supported
by
nothing
while
characterizations
that
marketing
types
measure
almost
nothing
financial/accounting
while
financial/accounting
types
measure
virtually
everything.
As
types
measure
to
roles
and
responsibilities,
finance/accounting
exists
to
rein
in
virtually
everything.
marketing
and
save
the
corporate
treasury,
while
marketing
exists
to
breathe
life
and
vitality
into
a
department
that
has
no
grip
on
consumer
reality.
A
DIFFERENT
CORPORATE
REALITY
The
reality
in
large
corporate
suites
is
different.
Marketing
MBAs
are
highly
analytical,
fond
of
metrics,
and
rational
to
an
extreme.
“ROI”
is
always
rolling
off
their
tongues.
Similarly,
the
finance
and
accounting
department
is
embedded
in
marketing
activities
from
their
onset
and
can
be
effective
analysts
of
consumer
data.
It
would
be
a
positive
development,
therefore,
for
smbs
that
depend
upon
marketing
success
to
duplicate
the
large
corporate
There
will
always
be
environment
where
marketing
and
finance/accounting
work
tension,
but
this
collaboratively
toward
corporate
objectives
rather
than
tension
will
be
antagonistically
and
at
cross-­‐purposes.
There
will
always
be
constructive…
tension,
but
this
tension
will
be
constructive,
based,
for
example,
on
different
interpretations
of
data,
not
on
the
credibility
and
reporting
of
the
data
itself.
1

3.
TOWARD
A
MUTUALLY
CONSTRUCTIVE
RELATIONSHIP
Four
steps
are
required
to
remove
inter-­‐department
tension
and
align
the
efforts
of
marketing
and
finance/accounting.
STEP
1:
DEFINE
MUTUALLY
SUPPORTING
ROLES
The
first
step
is
to
establish
a
mutual
acceptance
of
roles
for
marketing
and
finance/accounting.
Department
Old
Role
Perception
What
Was
missing
New
Role
Marketing
Propose
and
manage
Rationalization
of
cost
Produce
business
customer
and
sales
and
ROI
success
through
programs
(narrowly
considerations
financially
focused
on
customer
(appreciation
for
rationalized
and
marketplace)
financial
analysis)
customer
and
sales
programs
Finance/Accounting
Resist
important
Appreciation
for
Facilitate
business-­‐building
customer
and
responsible
marketing
spending
competitive
realities
spending
on
(narrowly
focused
on
programs
most
analysis)
likely
to
contribute
to
business
success
As
the
above
table
shows,
each
department
needs
to
expand
its
focus
by
accepting
the
realities
of
the
other
department;
marketing
should
share
its
customer
and
marketplace
orientation
and
finance/accounting
should
share
its
financial
stewardship
orientation.
This
role
redefinition
moves
the
two
functions
into
a
complementary
relationship
focused
on
business
success.
2

4.
STEP
2:
DEFINE
A
COMMON
APPROACH
Having
brought
the
two
roles
together,
the
next
step
is
for
The
initiative
should
finance/accounting
and
marketing
to
agree
on
a
common
come
from
the
approach
that
will
become
a
sustaining
formula
for
business
finance/accounting
success.
This
approach
most
likely
should
begin
with
the
side
because
it
is
finance/accounting
department
demonstrating
how
analytical
closer
to
the
skills,
techniques,
perspectives,
and
disciplines
can
contribute
to
numbers…
the
marketing
process.
The
initiative
should
come
from
the
finance/accounting
side
because
it
is
closer
to
the
numbers,
has
credibility
with
the
numbers,
and
generally
has
a
closer
relationship
with
the
CEO/owner.
WHAT
FINANCE/ACCOUNTING
CAN
SHARE
WITH
MARKETING
• Comfort
with
and
appreciation
for
numbers,
quantitative
reporting,
and
analysis.
• Familiarity
with
reporting
formats
and
conventions
that
help
to
produce
understanding.
• Passion
for
accuracy
and
a
fear
of
sloppy
numerical
work
that
can
discredit
an
entire
presentation
or
waste
valuable
corporate
financial
resources.
• Ability
to
find
the
story
within
the
numbers-­‐to
interpret
the
data
for
meaning.
• Understanding
of
concepts
like
ROI,
Breakeven,
and
Lifetime
Value
and
how
they
can
be
meaningfully
applied.
• Appreciation
for
reporting
and
analytical
standardization
that
speeds
interpretation.
• Facility
with
using
graphs
and
tables
to
help
uncover
relationships
and
trends.
• Knowledge
of
how
data
can
be
manipulated,
intentionally
or
through
ignorance.
3

5.
STEP
3:
IDENTIFY
WAYS
TO
INCORPORATE
FINANCE/ACCOUNTING
INTO
MARKETING
Here
are
the
specific
steps
finance/accounting
can
take
to
begin
to
incorporate
its
various
contributions
to
the
marketing
mindset:
• Identify
the
type
of
information
marketing
needs,
and
take
responsibility
for
gathering
and
reporting
it,
or
at
least
for
setting
up
reporting
templates.
I
try
to
analyze
o For
example,
I
try
to
analyze
program
results
by
program
results
by
comparing
data
four
ways:
actual
vs.
budget,
actual
comparing
data
four
vs.
prior
year,
actual
vs.
recent
trends,
and
actual
ways:
actual
vs.
vs.
control
or
benchmarks
(such
as
categories
often
budget,
actual
vs.
have).
prior
year,
actual
vs.
recent
trends,
and
• Teach
marketing
how
to
present
and
analyze
numbers.
actual
vs.
control
or
• Listen
to
unmet
needs
and
frustrations
of
marketing
and
benchmarks
determine
if
these
can
be
solved
with
data
and
analysis.
• Define
standards
and
analyze
for
spending
recommendation
levels
e.g.
expenditures
over
$XXXXX
must
include:
o A
breakeven
analysis
o Optimistic-­‐expected-­‐pessimistic
scenarios
o Return
based
on
1
year
and
lifetime
expected
contribution
(used
to
help
judge
risk
and
reasonableness)
• Where
appropriate,
introduce,
explain,
and
use
statistics,
e.g.
tests
of
significance.
• Be
a
partner
with
marketing
to
understand
the
new
areas
of
web
metrics,
particularly
as
they
apply
to
social
media.
Learn
what
metrics
exist,
where
and
how
they
can
be
applied.
o This
is
especially
helpful
with
the
sales
funnel,
conversion
metrics,
and
ROI
from
marketing
and
sales.
Finance/accounting
STEP
4:
STARTING
THE
PROCESS
should
start
the
process
with
a
Finance/accounting
should
start
the
process
with
a
conversation
conversation
with
the
with
the
business
owner/CEO.
Use
it
to
explain
your
objective
(to
business
owner/CEO.
improve
decision-­‐making
and
ROI
of
marketing
dollars)
and
4

6.
strategy
(introducing
finance/accounting
skills,
experience,
disciplines,
etc.
into
marketing
where
appropriate).
Propose
to
do
the
following:
• Conduct
an
audit
of
marketing
reports
already
generated
and
determine
if
improvements
can
be
made.
• Identify
marketing
initiatives
that
should
have,
but
currently
don’t
have,
appropriate
analyses
and
reports.
• Identify
the
gaps
in
analysis
that
exist
in
quality
and
quantity.
• Identify
the
areas
where
a
finance/accounting
treatment
can
help
marketing
projects
and
reports
create
better
decisions.
DO’s
And
DON’Ts
Finance/accounting
should
tread
lightly;
marketing
people
(especially
creative
people)
can
have
their
egos
bruise
easily.
NOT
DO
• Become
an
advertising
expect
• Critique
creative
work,
except
for
how
it
conforms
to
stated
creative
objectives
• Overwhelm
marketing
with
minutia
DO
• Look
for
opportunities
to
collaborate
and
co-­‐present
• Learn
qualitative
nuances
in
the
work
that
marketing
does
to
better
understand
where
and
how
to
contribute.
PERSONAL
STORY-­‐
HOW
I
MERGED
MARKETING
AND
FINANCE
I
inherited
a
hard
working
staff
that
had
Early
in
my
corporate
career
I
became
VP
Marketing
at
a
large
few
analytical
skills
restaurant
company.
This
company
had
an
advanced
sales
and
a
department
reporting
capability
and
a
large,
professional
finance
and
with
a
reputation
for
accounting
department.
The
president
had
risen
from
corporate
having
mistake-­‐ridden
finance.
reports.
5

7.
I
inherited
a
hard
working
staff
that
had
few
analytical
skills
and
a
department
with
a
reputation
for
having
mistake-­‐ridden
reports.
In
other
words,
there
was
little
analysis
to
support
recommendations,
and
what
little
there
was,
was
not
highly
thought
of.
Part
of
my
job
was
to
provide
strategic
guidance
for
a
marketing
budget
over
$30,000,000.
To
be
effective
I
needed
insights
from
To
be
effective
I
business
data
and
recommendations
that
were
logically
needed
insights
from
generated
and
well
supported
by
facts.
business
data
and
recommendations
that
Initially,
the
president
would
meet
with
my
department
and
were
logically
include
the
finance/accounting
department,
which
was
also
the
generated
and
well
keeper
of
the
data.
My
staff
would
present
their
supported
by
facts.
recommendations.
Too
often,
finance
would
find
errors
of
commission
or
omission.
These
would
be
embarrassing
at
the
least,
and
unproductive
at
worst.
Part
of
the
problem
was
that
finance/accounting
had
all
the
raw
data,
and
my
staff
did
not
think
or
analyze
like
finance/accounting.
SOLUTION
My
solution
was
to
make
finance/accounting
a
partner
with
My
solution
was
to
marketing
and
not
an
adversary;
finance/accounting
and
I
would
make
finance/
agree
on
the
nature
of
the
reports
needed
and
the
extent
of
accounting
a
partner
analysis
required.
They
would
generate
reports
and
take
with
marketing
and
responsibility
for
accuracy.
To
formalize
this
arrangement,
I
not
an
adversary…
The
created
a
sub-­‐department
called
Marketing
Financial
Analysis
that
result
was
an
had
the
blessing
of
Finance,
Operations,
and
The
President.
immediate
improvement
in
IMMEDIATE
IMPROVEMENT
quality,
speed,
and
acceptance…
The
result
was
an
immediate
improvement
in
the
quality
of
work
presented,
speed
of
delivery,
and
acceptance.
In
fact,
the
standardization
of
reporting
formats
enabled
macros
to
be
built,
and
they
became
standard
operating
procedure.
This
enabled
more
advanced
analyses
and
clearly
contributed
to
better
decision-­‐making.
We
were
able
to
focus
on
the
task
at
hand
and
not
be
sidetracked
by
support
services.
By
working
with
This
model
can
be
finance/accounting,
marketing
made
better
presentations,
sold
its
reproduced
even
in
ideas
more
effectively,
and
saved
a
lot
of
tedious
number
small
companies.
crunching.
This
model
can
be
reproduced
even
in
small
companies.
6

8.
MOVING
TOWARD
A
BETTER
MARKETING-­‐FINANCE/ACCOUNTING
RELATIONSHIP
There
is
and
always
will
be
a
difference
between
marketing
and
finance/accounting.
Both
are
separate
and
equally
important
components
of
business.
Marketing
should
not
report
to
finance/accounting,
nor
should
finance/accounting
stifle
the
creative
and
customer-­‐centric
responsibilities
of
marketing.
So
why
am
I
suggesting
that
finance/accounting
should
initiate
a
sharing
of
its
skills,
disciplines,
techniques,
and
perspective
with
marketing?
The
simple
answer
is
that
numbers
are
the
language
of
business,
…numbers
are
the
and
smb
marketing
must
learn
this
language
well
in
order
to
language
of
business,
optimize
its
contribution.
I
believe
the
initiative
to
do
this
is
best
and
smb
marketing
taken
from
the
finance/accounting
side.
By
having
mutually
must
learn
this
supporting
roles
and
speaking
a
common
language,
the
language
marketing-­‐financial/accounting
combination
will
greatly
aid
decision-­‐making
and
contribute
to
a
more
competitive,
growing,
and
prosperous
business.
ABOUT
DON
METZNIK
|
CREATIVE
LOGIC
MARKETING
Don
Metznik
|
Creative
Logic
Marketing
discovers
hidden
business
opportunities,
educates
owners
of
small
and
midsize
businesses
how
to
develop
these
opportunities,
and
develops
strategies
and
programs
in
marketing,
sales,
and
the
Internet
consistent
with
owner
goals
and
values.
And
he
likes
financial
types.
Useful
information
may
be
found
at
www.metznik.com.
*
The
expression
“financial/accounting”
is
used
to
reflect
the
highest
level
of
financial
control
within
a
company.
This
level
varies
by
size
of
the
business,
and
may
reside
at
the
accounting
level
for
smaller
businesses.
7