👋Hey there,
Stories tell how a business performed in the past, currently, and the future.
These stories can be fun to tell (crush revenue, generate more cash, hire like crazy).
Or not so fun to tell (missing budget by a ton, making cuts…no end in sight).
Regardless of the story’s outcome, you can help your business tell AND influence it.
By connecting the story to everyday operations where the doers live.
Huge shoutout to our:
- Plant line workers
- Engineers
- Sales reps
- Marketeers
- Customer support
- Any other doers we missed
Step out of your spreadsheet and listen on:
Show Notes
- 01:30 – AI is powerful when you have good thinking frameworks in place
- 00:55 – Shout out to quality and practical FP&A content
- 01:35 – IR (aka Investor Relations) is the story of your businessShout out to Secret CFO post on IR and operations, keep the great content coming
- 02:35 – Talk is cheap, get your hands dirty in the operations, and help improve them
- 04:25 – Your business’s story should be about what it does today, and what it wants to do in the future
- 05:30 – Customer counts, customer segmentation—all metrics that help you manage your business🔥TIP: Here’s how to analyze customers
- 06:25 – We respectfully disagree with Secret CFO’s take on IR; the (IR) story helps enable operational improvement
- 08:20 – Stories provide clarity, especially when numbers (aka metrics) support it🔥Tip: Here’s how to create KPIs (and metrics)
- 09:52 – Do investor relations reports matter? Heck ya they do—especially the transcript
- 11:05 – Learn from the best business communicators, like Warren Buffett (hint: he always keeps messaging insanely simple and created a not-so-small company in the process)Check out Warren Buffett’s insanely simple shareholder letters on an insanely simple website
- 13:01 – Big finish—keep writing great content Secret CFO, it’s interesting and practical 👊
Get stuff done that helps the business
That’s all that matters in FP&A (and being a good business partner in general).
There’s nothing that says adding value like:
- Growing revenue
- Saving costs
- Seeing cash flow grow as a % of revenue
But can a story help you do all these things?
We say having a story is required to do these things.
Connecting the financial story to everyday business operations
Why should sales reps sell more?
They should understand why your business wants to grow revenue:
- Revenue goal helps hit a profit goal
- Profit goal helps cash flow be positive this year
- Positive cash flow means bonuses can be paid
Sounds simple enough, but many lose this context with day-to-day fire drills.
And if you want to influence how your story is told in the future (aka achieve goals).
Make sure your sales reps (and all other departments) are incentivized correctly.
Incentives run the world.
Clear story + connected incentives = action taken at the operational level.
Other examples of connected incentives include:
- Customer Experience with customer retention
- Sales with upsell rate or product counts🔥TIP: Here’s how to calculate product count and use white space analysis to drive revenue
- HR with employee satisfaction
Every business and its departments will be different.
Conclusion: Tell a story everyone can relate to
Figure out what your company’s goals are.
Put numbers to them (revenue, profit, cash).
Drill one level down to find a number that teams can relate to.
This number can be financial or non-financial.
And tell a simple story connecting what teams do to the ultimate goal.
A practical way to do this is during your budget process (DO NOT leave operational groups out of this exercise unless you want enemies 😉).
That’s storytelling, which drives future business results.
Go IR 👊
Ever completed an IR role or supported one?
Share your experiences with us by replying to this. We read and reply to every email.
Now go have fun making an impact on your business and your career!
See you next time 👊
Cheers,
Drew & Yarty
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