How to Speak to the CFO If You're a Software Company

Here are a few points of advice to companies looking to sell into CFOs.

1 - Everyone is selling to the CFO, especially if you are a SaaS provider moving up-market. Even if you are not selling to the CFO, you are selling to the CFO. Guarantee it runs across their desk.

2 - Don't have just a cost savings story. Have a revenue/customer AND a cost savings story. It always floors me when people try to save companies small amounts of money. Many companies knowingly waste hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars per year, and the CEO knows it. These same companies don't need to implement a new software solution to "only" save money. (Read these last 2 sentences many times until it sinks in - corollary: stop whining that your prospect doesn't get it) They are looking for growth too.

Having both a revenue (I put customer initiatives in here too) and a cost story helps getting to the top of the stack rank. Most founders dismiss CFOs who reject proposals, but don't realize that these same CFOs see dozens of such proposals. You need to be something special and strategic to get to the top of the stack.

3 - Have a real champion within the prospect that is trusted. Without a champion -- in particular you need one to PREP you before this CFO call -- you don't have a chance in the cfo meeting anyway because of backchannel before and after the meeting.

4 - Have a model. Any model. Not only for your pricing, but also for your revenue gains, cost savings, or customer experience benefits. If you show how you affect your prospect's P&L, you are speaking the language of an important decisionmaker. The prospect may dial up or down your assumptions, but having a model sets the frame on your own footing.

Don't try to do this too soon though! Unless you know more about the prospect, the model looks too generic to be real.

5 - Understand your prospect's strategic priorities. I would generally say, if your primary value isn't in the top 3 strategic priorities of the target company, you should move on. You will save your time and their time. Being able to frame your company journey in terms of an important long-term initiative at the company is super-important.

It's easier to tie your product to something that has support already. It's harder to get the prospect to change their priorities on the fly.

Talk to the CFO about how the economics line up with the company's direction.

6 - Don't expect them to move quickly. Most CFOs have a million priorities, highest of all is their Board and CEO relationship. This takes the majority of their time. A software vendor has to have significant internal support, often across multiple departments, to reach the CFO's radar.

Many SaaS companies are focused on time to close. If you are moving up-market, your number one need is to slow down the sales process. Why? Mostly you haven't learned enough yet about the real fit.