B2B Content Marketing

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act put the CFO as the manager in charge while business intelligence, software as a service and open source has caused a democratization of IT. CFO’s have inherited the mantra of “do more with less” and must transition from aligning IT with the business to aligning IT with your companies’ customers. Their two primary objectives are:
• Increase total return to shareholder

• Achieve operational excellence

The changing role of the CFO
The CFO needs to be part of the business instead of chasing the business and needs to drive innovation, differentiation, competitive advantage and real value.
The new CFO will engage with functional executives to identify where value-creating opportunities exist and how resources should be allocated to capture them.
The new CFO balances the role of chief accountant with that of business partner. Their manta, productivity of the internal customer is the key to cost control and productivity is achieved through the world of measurement and performance metrics.

It’s college application and essay time.  This was written by my niece Erin Colonnese, on the art of customer satisfaction:

It wasn’t until my fellow co-workers told me that I “should be charging six-hundred dollars for a sundae” that I realized a little bit more about myself. For the two and a half years that I have been working at Dairy Queen, I have always been told that I pile on the nuts as high as the sky, or that the caramel shouldn’t be drowning the ice-cream. It’s not that these extra efforts are a problem; it’s that my co-workers think I am too generous with the amount of ingredients I provide per sundae. I always take my time making them, putting the few extra peanuts, the second dab of whipped cream, and not just one cherry but two. By putting the time and effort into each delight, I receive a sense of fulfillment doing my job. The joy in making each sundae gives the customers the satisfaction that I want them to receive from my unique concoction.

The smiles and happiness that I obtain from customers when I place each piled-high masterpiece on the counter is my motivation to continue. My efforts to make every sundae valued at six-hundred dollars were appreciated when a man came back up to me and handed me a five dollar bill. He complimented me for my efforts and said that his sundae was the best sundae that he had ever eaten. Bursting with energy and confidence I was satisfied with myself that I had made someone else happy with the valuable efforts I had put forth. I had five more dollars to put into my gas tank but my efforts as to how I made that sundae hadn’t changed. Did I put more nuts than I usually would? Was there more hot fudge drowning the ice-cream than normal? I gathered my thoughts and retraced my steps crafted into this indulgence. Each sundae I had made before this valued sundae, I had made the exact same way. No matter what type of sundae I made, whether hot fudge, strawberry or caramel, I made it how I would want to have my sundae made, lots of toppings and little extra effort into the process of making it. Everyday after this, I made sundaes the same way that I had done so previously. When making them, I always tried to figure out what I did differently with that one “five dollar deserving” sundae.

After many, many attempts, I just figured that maybe the five dollar sundae man was appreciative of my creation. There was no secret recipe or secret ingredient that was included. Maybe the man just liked the ratio of ice-cream to topping, or liked the fact that there was a little extra put into the process than my co-workers would have done. I apply this “little extra” ideology throughout all experiences that I am faced with whether it’s making sundaes at Dairy Queen, putting the extra effort into my school work or spending time with family and friends.

The man that appreciated the little extra nuts or the little extra fudge gave me insight into discovering just a small part of who I am as a person. The process of gathering the components to make a sundae and putting in the extra efforts to make each customer satisfied gives me the joy in making ice cream for each individual that crosses my path. With a little extra practice comes a little more success. With a little more effort comes a little more gain. With a little extra learning comes a little more value. My “six-hundred dollar” sundae was instrumental in giving me information about myself. I apply a little extra to everything.

With the economic rebound in play and knowledge and content gaps at an all time high, a sales information portal can transform process activities efficiently and effectively with just in time information.  Let’s first lets talk about the components, Figure 1 identifies a typical work flow of  a sales information portal:

Sales: Current inside and outside sales force and marketing.

Legal: Current terms and conditions document

IT: Technology used to support process

ATS: available to sell

WIP: work in process (product)

AR: accounts receivable

SME: Subject matter expert

CRM: Customer relationship management

The integration points is a taxonomy, process activity and anticipating what is in the mind of the buyer, i.e. is product engineering information is required during the sales process.

The ROI of Business Value 

Now more than ever before business value and ROI  is the decision driver for SG&A optimization based projects, i.e  for top line growth, using the internet and inside sales to add top-line revenue.  For bottom line improvements,  SG&A expense reduction through layoffs, downsizing and right-sourcing allows CFO’s to cut costs not without a knowledge loss risk.  Cost of sales and most SG&A costs can be softened with implementation of empirical best practices and a common taxonomy.

SG&A functions as a utility.

A SG&A  taxonomy has, on average has up to 1,800 activities that roll up to functional units, i.e. Finance, HR, sales or IT in a typical US business today.     Each function has two variables: what is cost to operate internally and price or external pricing by a service provider.   If you can reduce the cost of a function, a total value of opportunity can calculated.

ROI with no top line growth.

Often a project for a SG&A function has empirical best practices,  implementation of these proven practices continues paying dividends year after year based upon efficiency and effectiveness gains of your particular functional process or activity.

The bottom line.

In today’s economy a clear business value must be articulated for a project to get approved and completed.  Effectiveness, efficiency or cost  control must be at the forefront of every conversation.  Have a clear message and identify exact SG&A functions and activities where your  project’s solution effects bottom line savings or top line growth.  Articulate the value of implementation of best practices and don’t underestimate the best practices your solution or project allows to implement in short order, offering low hanging fruit for quick wins.  Most important have a taxonomy to speak the same language across the supply chain, HR,  sales, IT, and finance.