Revving Up Finance

We've all been to the meeting where the CEO asks for data from the senior vice president of sales only to find that it doesn't match the numbers presented by the CFO. The uncomfortable silence that follows is awkward for all involved, but more important, the lack of consistent sales and finance business data -- the lifeblood of any company -- has far greater implications, including a failure to meet key corporate objectives, noncompliance with federal regulations, or worse.

Finance and sales are the backbone of any company, yet the situation described above is not uncommon. While many companies understand the need to align these two critical groups, most have given little thought to how to develop and implement a strategy for doing so. Given the immense pressure on finance and sales to meet company and shareholder expectations, exposure of this magnitude is not acceptable, in particular for companies that are, or are aspiring to be, public.

What's needed, then, is a strategy for getting finance and sales on the same page. In the remainder of this article, I will discuss a concept known as sales performance management, and how automating and integrating the key business processes connected to sales performance management can help finance and sales executives meet their mutual business goals.

First, let's take a look at what typically takes place between sales and finance organizations in the absence of an implemented sales performance management strategy.