The Social CFO: Collaborating with Marketing, Sales & HR – Part 2

By Ernie Humphrey, CTP

In Part I of The Social CFO: Collaborating with Marketing, Sales & HR blog series, I shared the underlying building blocks for establishing and building relationships with your fellow leaders. Each function has different challenges that the Social CFO needs to understand to build those relationships.

In this post, we are going to explore how CFOs can collaborate effectively with marketing leaders to drive growth and deliver a competitive advantage.

1. Champion a better understanding of customer and prospect behaviors.

• • Ensure that marketing professionals have the resources and tools necessary to understand both prospect and customer behaviors and needs.
  • Create a framework with marketing to measure and monitor prospect needs and behaviors.
  • Create a framework to measure and manage customer satisfaction to ensure customers are receiving the value they are being offered.

2.  Advocate for a data-driven and analytics culture in marketing.

• • Provide frameworks to measure the ROI of each marketing program investment.
  • Ensure there is an analytics guru in marketing.
  • Communicate the value of analytics acumen and offer your expertise to marketing.

3. Corroborate the importance the company’s brand has on the value of the company.

• • Acknowledge the brand-related risk exposures and opportunities of marketing programs, both online and offline.
  • Create a framework with marketing to measure and monitor the impact of brand on the value of the company.

4.  Become a brand advocate for your company

• • Contribute thought leadership on behalf of the company so your own network sees you attest to the company’s products and services.
  • Engage with decision-makers on their turf:  Conferences, podcasts, webinars, LinkedIn Groups, online publications.
  • Support relevant professional associations.
  • Ensure communications with prospects and customers have a purpose.

Next up, I will offer specific advice for CFOs to leverage in collaborating with Sales leaders.