Writing for the CFO

A CFO reads your message the way they read a forecast. They look for the number that doesn't hold up. Write so there isn't one.

That means no ROI claims, no savings promises and no adjectives. Just what you saw, why it matters to them and a guess they can check.

How a CFO reads

CFOs are trained skeptics. Their job is to find the gap between what someone says and what the numbers show.

So when a vendor writes "we typically deliver significant cost savings," the CFO's brain does one thing. It asks "compared to what, measured how?" Then it hits delete.

They respond to precision. A line from their own 10-Q. A cost line they're answering for. A commitment they made on an earnings call. Things they know are true. They wrote them.

Where the research comes from

For a public company, the CFO has told you their priorities in writing. Read the latest 10-K and 10-Q. Read the earnings release, usually filed as an 8-K. Look for cost programs, margin targets, restructuring charges, systems spending and anything called a risk.

For a private company, look at the CFO's own posts, any interviews and the finance job posts. A company hiring several finance systems analysts is telling you what's breaking.

Find one line that names a pressure the CFO personally answers for. That's your research hook. How to read a 10-K like a seller goes deeper on where to look.

The personal trigger for a CFO

Every CFO answers to a board and, if public, to analysts. That's their trigger.

If they announced a cost target, they own hitting it. If they're new, they're setting their own targets for the first time and want early credibility. If the company just restructured, they're on the hook for proving the charges bought something.

Name the trigger in their terms. "You told analysts" or "the 10-Q commits" reads very differently from "as a finance leader, you probably care about efficiency."

The misery hypothesis

Guess the problem underneath the number. Not the number itself. They know the number.

A cost target is the headline. The misery is usually below it. The savings depend on a systems consolidation that's behind. The close takes too long to see costs in time. Two business units report the same thing two different ways.

Make the guess specific enough to be wrong. A CFO who corrects you is telling you where the real pressure sits.

An example

Say a mid-size industrial company's latest earnings release commits to a cost reduction target by year end, and the 10-Q mentions consolidating three ERP instances.

Your last earnings release committed to the cost target by year end, and the 10-Q ties part of it to consolidating three ERP instances. That consolidation is the piece you'll be asked about on the next call if it slips. My guess is the savings model assumes a cutover date the systems team isn't confident in yet. Is that close, or is the risk somewhere else?

No savings claim. No "partner." No "transformation." Two facts from their own filings, one honest guess and an easy way to correct it.

What to leave out

Leave out your ROI. Any number you put in a first message, a CFO will discount to zero. Save numbers for later, when they're built from their data.

Leave out case studies. A CFO doesn't care what you saved someone else. Different company, different baseline.

Leave out jargon. "Value realization," "efficiency gains," "digital finance." Each phrase costs you credibility.

And keep it short. Four sentences is plenty. CFOs reward people who respect their time.

The CFO in the committee

On most services deals, the CFO isn't the champion. They're the economic buyer or the final check on someone else's business case.

Reach them in parallel with the business owner, not instead of them. The CIO or COO hears about the program. The CFO hears about the number the program protects. More on the seat itself in selling to a CFO.

Write to the CFO with their own numbers and an honest guess, and you'll be one of very few vendors they reply to.