I run finance
You cannot forecast heroes.
- You own
- The numbers you report.
- It rides on
- Revenue that does not depend on heroes.
“… You have got to whittle it down to where you actually have a right to win.”
Michelle Demarco, CFO, enVista
“Sometimes it can validate your assumptions that you kind of think that that's what it is. And then other times it makes you understand that you weren't correct. And so getting anybody in the CFO seat having that level of comfort, knowing that you've got the data and the analytics behind what you're presenting, it makes it a much easier process.”
What you are actually measured on
MISSING
the CFO's scoreboard, a lead line and three measures in the CFO's own vocabulary. Russell supplies.
Where it usually breaks
MISSING
the section's lead line. Russell supplies.
Your sellers
14%
of sellers generate80% of new revenue.
A few of your market-facing people carry the message. The rest leave money on the table in every conversation.
EBSTA × PAVILION, 2025 GTM BENCHMARKS
Predictable Growth, Not Heroic Growth →Your buyers
86%
of B2B purchases stall during the buying process.
A slice of your ICP maps your capabilities to their problems, with conviction, on their own. You'll run out of them.
FORRESTER, STATE OF BUSINESS BUYING, 2024
GTM Strategy That Survives Market Interaction →MISSING
the third break in the CFO's metrics (the market model the finance team and the field do not share). Russell supplies.
Where people in your seat start
MISSING
the sentence a CFO said. Russell supplies.
Structured interviews across leadership and every go-to-market function, reduced to the few initiatives that move the needle. A day, a week or a month.
MISSING
the sentence a CFO said. Russell supplies.
MISSING
the deck has no sentence for this offer. Russell supplies.
What becomes true
Every one of your people brings their own style to the same rigorous structure and the same message, so growth is not a matter of who showed up.
We agree the leading-indicator behaviors up front and measure them from the first week, so you see it working before the revenue moves and nobody changes course early.
MISSING
the third line, on the CFO's scoreboard. Russell supplies.
The numbers
THE RECORD · AN APPLICATION BUSINESS FROM $2.6M TO $14.1M · A DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS FROM $45M TO $77M AS BUSINESS UNIT EXECUTIVE · A COMMERCE BUSINESS FROM $324M TO $394M AS CMO
One engagement, from your seat
Michelle Demarco, CFO, enVista
“I was approached to join as CFO to help the two owners of the company. It's a privately held firm, privately held throughout its ownership for approximately 20 years. They built it up and they bootstrapped it. They were interested in, as they described it, taking some money off the table.”
What you are probably asking
How you will know it is working, before the revenue moves.
Behaviors weekly. Leading indicators quarterly. Revenue last.
Behaviors, weekly. Open questions asked. The hypothesis carried inside the question. The problem framed before the solution. Facts validated by the buyer rather than assumed. Scored on recorded calls against a rubric, not on a manager's gut feel.
Leading, quarterly. Stage conversion for the coached cohort. Deal size. Cycle time, including time to qualify out. Net new deals per rep. These move first, and they move long before the board sees anything.
Lagging, twelve to twenty-four months. Win rate, sales productivity, retention and expansion. Where your board looks, and the last place a change in behavior ever shows up.
MISSING
the two objections a CFO raises first, with answers. Russell supplies.
MISSING
the unheaded paragraph placing the work inside Align, Energize or Sustain. Russell supplies.
Start small. See whether it is real.
Start a conversation