While it is not likely your IT group has sales people, it is likely that IT resources and business sponsors are required to sell the cost/benefits of project initiatives (capital projects or otherwise) to the CFO, CEO, COO, or project committee.
The CFO is by nature from a financial background, and odds are most other CXO types are as well since they also have a fiduciary responsibility to the organization. In terms of reporting structure the CIO, and staff, most likely report to one of these “C” positions. According to the CIO Magazine 2009 State of the CIO Survey, CIOs report to the CEO 47% of the time and to the COO and CFO each 16% of the time.
If selling financial folks is key to getting your project funded, it pays to speak their language. I was recently reminded of this while reading a sales blog about how to sell the CFO. This blog claimed that CFO speak is different than pitching the CEO, which I would argue is inaccurate since both have very financial minds and orientation.
Regardless of organizational structure and reporting structure, most projects route through the CFO, whether they have final approval power or not. So it pays to have a CFOs endorsement concerning your project. Below you will find 6 rules for the IT professional (or any person) to follow when selling the CFO.
#1 Talk the numbers.
#2 Keep it simple.
#3 Make it measurable.
#4 Keep it real.
#5 Get some objectivity.
#6 Set the benchmarks.
For the full article see 6 Rules for Pitching to the CFO, get your business sponsor, and go sell that initiative!!
