How do I increase revenue "financially"? - Scott Geller

Scott Geller – The CFO Perspective

Episode: Do I really need a financial model? 

Date: February 1, 2021

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INTRODUCTION
I have 20 years of experience in the finance realm that started with the Federal Reserve Bank as a bank examiner, moved on to 7 years at a Fortune 300 insurance company, and then a 50-70 person spin-off technology firm under the Allianz umbrella of companies. I was with the spin-off from day zero all the way until the unfortunate end and I had to close down the business. I am now a financial consultant serving primarily as a fractional or part time CFO for companies that range from start ups to young and scaling to established with stable growth. I take over from the accountant as a lean cost effective option for Profits Engineering, Cash Optimization, Strategic Acceleration and Executive Partnering committed to your success. Please contact me at scott.geller@capitisadvisors.com.

Show Objectives - The Why
Sales owns Revenue and Finance owns the numbers ... or Finance works within the business to create revenue or find pockets of revenue "financially." Revenue has multiple levers that can all be manipulated from internal and external sources. However, your CFO or finance function should be quantifying those levers outside of the traditional "sales rep" performance. The result is increasing your revenue "financially" with collaboration across the organization.

What You Need to Know - The What

1. Knowing your Sales Pipeline
   1. Lead Qualification - Bad leads mean no or bad sales
   2. Lead Nurturing - Proven processes
   3. Total Lead Time - Revenue multiplier from shortened Lead Time
   4. Filling the Pipeline and impacting the flow
2. Power of Retention and Churn
   1. Churn - Churn means a lost customer, user, or any other way you track paying entities.  Your customer signs up for a product, service, subscription, etc and decides to later leave you.
   2. Calculating Churn = (Lost Customers in X Period) / (Previous X Period's Customer Balance)
   3. Counts vs Revenue
   4. Quantify the Impact and Potential
   5. Retention - Expansion vs Downgrade
   6. Time Frame or Time to Churn is the wild card in churn equation
   7. Recurring revenue is key regardless of business model
3. Plan. Do. Check. Adjust ... try something for 90 days
4. Great customer service
5. Marketing Discipline and Plan
   1. Digital Marketing
   2. Print Marketing
   3. Social Media
6. Pricing
   1. Cost Plus Pricing
   2. Competitor Based Pricing
   3. Value Based Pricing
   4. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) versus Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
7. Value of Date
   1. Data on customers and competitors
   2. Developing higher quality products

What You Need to Do - The How

1. Sales Pipeline, Data, and Churn
   1. Sales Pipeline - Quantify, calculate, and take action
   2. Create Value from Data - Mine your data for trends, analysis, and insights
   3. Churn - Client pain points, feedback loops, churn/renewal rates ($/volume)
2. Invest in Marketing
   1. Chief Marketing Officer or outsourced
   2. Target Audience
   3. Brand Strategy & Value Proposition
   4. Put it in the budget
   5. Calculate the return
3. Pricing
   1. Current situation
   2. Assess age, increases, market/industry competitiveness 
   3. Perform Rate/Volume Analysis
   4. Make changes and quantify results
4. 90 days of change, learn, and reassess

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NEXT: Episode 6 - 2021_02_08_ Should my CFO be involved in my tech and innovation efforts?


Resources (optional):
You can connect with Scott via his website or LinkedIn
Connect on LinkedIn
See Scott’s Website

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