The first thing to remember about
financial managers is that they generally act in shareholders’ best
interests. This doesn’t mean that there
aren’t exceptions – those that embezzle or put their own self-interest ahead of
the shareholders. But by and large this
is a group of people that tend to be rigorously honest in their reporting and
in their seeking of the financial truth.
When we use the term “acting in the shareholders’ best interest” we are
referring to a creed, a manifesto, a modus operandi with a litmus test that is
predisposed to finding problems. The
very nature of a financial or numbers driven person is to find the exception to
the data – the piece of data that doesn’t fit the pattern or puzzle.
What does this mean for marketers?
Most marketing programs lack a significant piece of data that the
financial manager is keenly interested in – the identifiable “returns”
associated with the “investment” of the marketing program. This makes them suspicious and leery of
marketing in general, as it doesn’t provide them naturally with the data they
would like to see to perform their essential function as a detective or
whistle-blower. They can see your wild
successes as complete wastes of money.
You must understand their language and report data that makes them
comfortable – not necessarily the data you have to work with in the marketing
world.
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