making CFOs your BFF

Hey there 👋

A few weeks ago I asked the sales community if I had a terrible or genius idea. 

Instead of sales leaders sharing how to close deals in 2023...do we go straight to the source and have CFOs tell us?

I got tons of messages, from "Finance does not want to talk to sales" to "Ross make this happen!"\So we've been cooking up something special. Going straight to the source, we’ll be hosting a masterclass on "

So we've been cooking up something special. Going straight to the source, we’ll be hosting a masterclass on "The CFO Stakeholder: How to Speak Their Language" 

With co-hosts Melissa Howatson - CFO @ Vena, Praveer Melwani - CFO @ Figma, and Joe Del Preto - CFO @ Sprout Social 

On Nov 17th we’ll be: 

• Digging into why you're not winning over finance
• How to effectively engage with Finance stakeholders 
• Discussing what CFOs care most about when approving budgets

Super excited for this panel of all-star finance leaders and to take all of your burning questions (feel free to share them in advance).

‍Sign up here to join live, or get the recording if you can’t make it. 

- Ross

In this newsletter:

• Hot sales topics as we close out 2023 
• Resources/Tips as we kick off November - All About “Discovery”
• Acquisitions & Funding: Exciting news for some of our favorite customers 

Hot topics as we close out 2023 

There have been many revenue topics top of mind as we close out the year, and plan for 2024 - The 3 that are currently top of mind - financial stakeholders, Account Planning, and getting on-site. 

‍The CFO Stakeholder - You already know we are hosting the CFO Stakeholder masterclass - Finance leaders are showing up in more and more deals. Their job isn’t just closing out the books, but they are also focused on organizational growth and profitability. I recently listened to a short video clip of Amy Weaver, Salesforce CFO talking about the strategic role of a CFO and what they care about - spoiler…efficiency, and time to value is mentioned - listen to the clip here. 

‍Account Planning - For B2B sales, Account Planning is the process of identifying and mapping important details about a prospect in order to find opportunities, strategize your approach, tailor communication, and ultimately win the account. 

This process involves collaborating with your team and your buyer to note their high-level GTM strategy and business model, goals and metrics that executives and key stakeholders care about, internal org chart and team dynamics, and more. It can sound daunting, but account planning is essential for deeply understanding your customers and their priorities so you can consistently win and retain accounts (especially up-market).

So as you think about your Account Plans for 2024, what might you do differently to improve your odds?  

Not sure? Check out our latest Elite Account Planning Masterclass for timely tips from Revenue Leaders at Databricks, Salesforce, and Anthropic. 

‍Getting on-site - Getting on-site is important because people are more likely to buy from someone they trust. Although Zoom and Teams are powerful tools that provide convenience and efficiency for tasks such as product demos, they fall short in cultivating meaningful, long-term relationships compared to on-site meetings. ‍

In a post pandemic world you need to sell to get onsite. Pre-pandemic it was assumed, because the seller could choose whether they wanted to go onsite or do everything over zoom. Now that it’s harder to get onsite, and people are more protective of their time, it makes it even more valuable. If your competition isn’t fighting to get on-site, it can be an even bigger differentiator for your company.  

Resources & Tips - All About “Discovery”

Familiar with Chris Orlob, Co-founder and CEO of pclub.io? We are big fans over here at Accord, and earlier this week he got into a topic that all Sales Leaders are no stranger to… Discovery. 

More specifically he shed some light on OK, Good, and Great reps, as it relates to this topic. Are you and your team crushing it with discovery, or completely missing the mark?

As Chris mentions in his latest newsletter, top reps know that the approach to discovery is key. 

• Great salespeople create customer value with their discovery techniques
• Good salespeople uncover the need behind the need 
• Okay salespeople ask a few cursory questions
• You guessed it, a bad salesperson is likely going to skip discovery all together

So what is the best way to bring your discovery from okay to good, or good to great? Well first off we recommend checking out more content from Chris, because he is consistently dropping fire tactical advice. But also, listening back to your calls in Gong (or whichever tool you use) will help you pinpoint where you could use some additional education. 

Discovery is such a hot topic lately, that our friends at 30MPC are hosting a discovery “Tear Down that Tape” webinar today. You read that right, today. Sign up here to join the webinar live at 3pm ET.  

Acquisitions & Funding: Exciting news for some of our favorite customers

After a few years of slowing fundraising announcements, and less frequent M&As, we were excited to see some of our favorite customers acquiring companies, and securing their latest rounds. 

‍Procurify Closes $68M CAD Series C ‍

‍Procurify is a Vancouver based Intelligent Spend Management company that is on a mission to give all organizations unprecedented visibility and control over their business spend. 

It is no easy feat raising capital in this climate and we could not be more excited for their team! 

Interested in learning more about Procurify, and how they’ve accelerated deals with Accord? Check out the Case Study here.

‍Case IQ Acquires Whistleblower Security (WBS) ‍

‍Case IQ is the leading provider of investigative case management software with solutions for ethics and compliance, human resources, fraud, and corporate security functions within mid-sized and large organizations. The acquisition of Whistleblower Security will allow Case IQ to better help organizations improve their internal investigations end to end. 

Curious about how Case IQ reinforces a consistent sales process and drives ramp efficiency with Accord? Check out the Case Study here. 

Super stoked for both these powerhouse Canadian companies! 

Thanks for reading! Feel free to reply with any feedback, questions, or requests for what to cover in our next edition. I’ll respond to every email. 👋

‍Ross Rich (CEO and Co-founder)

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