Here’s a scenario: You’ve been working with a mid-size manufacturing business for the past 9 months. Over that time it has become clear to you—and everyone else—that their ancient ERP system has got to go.

• Supplier integrations don’t exist. 

• Cybersecurity risks keep popping up. 

• Younger employees complain about the clunky interface. 

• There’s a growing collection of “Excel workarounds” for broken features. 

Everyone agrees that the system is holding the company back.

You’ve witnessed months of research, demos, and vendor meetings. 

Finally… the leadership team has made a decision. 

And yet the CEO won’t pull the trigger. 

Switching ERPs will cost about half a million dollars over 18 months in licenses, migration, and training costs. Yes, the old system is limping—but it works. What if the rollout fails? What if production grinds to a halt?

Every day of delay frustrates the business’s staff. The outdated system keeps adding friction to every process. But the CEO’s pen stays hovering above the contract’s signature line… because of the fear of the proverbial dumpster fire.

As a Fractional CFO, one of your crucial responsibilities is to help the business owner navigate through and execute high-stakes decisions. 

But you can’t just show up  with some budgets and fancy projections. 

That part is easy but there’s something more required…

It also means you must recognize when a business owner is frozen with the fear of disaster—and you must know how to assuage that fear so the business can move forward.

Here are 3 ways to help your clients move past the fear of disaster and finally take action.

#1. Meet Emotional Hangups with Logic Second (and Empathy First)

Like it or not, human beings tend to make decisions based on emotion, and then justify those decisions based on logic. 

As Fractional CFOs, we are called to have some level of emotional awareness and emotional intelligence in order to serve our clients. Why? Because you cannot combat emotional responses with logic. (Write that down and star it!)

When your client is suffering from the fear of disaster, you must show up and be empathetic. Acknowledge that there’s some fear: “I understand why you think this. I get where you’re coming from. You’re right to be concerned. Let’s map out what could happen and see if that gives you more confidence.”

For example, say your client is considering selling equity in their business for the first time ever. They’re interested in bringing in an investor and selling a minority stake. At face value this seems like a rational, logical decision: Is the valuation accurate? Have we completed due diligence on the investor? Are the terms reasonable?

But even if all the boxes get checked, the owner may still hesitate—for reasons that have nothing to do with the numbers. Maybe they’re used to being the sole authority, so the idea of having another owner second-guessing their decisions makes them uncomfortable. Or they view the business as an extension of themselves, so offering up 10% equity feels like selling their right arm.

You will never solve these problems with a spreadsheet. To serve your client, you must have emotional intelligence to recognize what’s going on and handle it with tact. You don’t need a therapist’s license or a PhD in psychology. You just need to draw out the real concern, acknowledge that it’s valid, and then bring in the scenario planning.

#2. Use “Three Cases” Scenario Planning

Here’s a story for you:

You might already know that in 2023, I hosted the first ever conference in the world for Fractional CFOs. 

What you might NOT know is that I was SO terrified about the conference, that it almost didn’t happen.

Not because I was nervous about speaking on stage.

Not because I had never put on a conference and had NO clue what I was doing.

It was actually due to the fear of ruin.

The reality was that a conference like that costs literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and if we didn’t sell enough tickets, that cost was coming out of my pocket.

To make things even more stressful, my wife and I had our eye on purchasing a house in Dallas—which isn’t exactly the cheapest market. I knew that if I put $100,000+ into the conference, and it didn’t pan out, that would come out of our pocket. Specifically, that money would end up coming at the expense of the down payment on our new house.

Thoughts raced through my head: “What if it doesn't work out? What if we only sell 3 tickets? What if nobody comes?”

I started to get paralyzed by the fear of ruin. When I recognized that, I pulled out an exercise I use with my fCFO clients. I call it the “Three Cases” exercise: best case, most likely case, and true worst case.

We all love the best case scenario. Everything goes right. 

• For me: The conference tickets sell out. We got the new house. My wife continues to love me. 

• For your client: The new ERP rolls out smoothly. The transition quickly starts paying off, thanks to greater efficiency and reliability.

The most likely case is your considered judgment of what will probably occur if you devote your full effort and time and determination to the issue.

• For me: We sell 110 conference tickets, covering the event’s costs with a bit left over. The buzz brings attention to my other programs. I get a list of people who are likely to attend more conferences I host. We still have our home’s down payment. My wife is unlikely to leave me.

• For your client: The ERP system implementation takes a few months longer than planned. Data migration is a pain, and employees grumble about training sessions. But the business stays on track. Within three months, reporting is faster and more accurate. Within six months, the efficiency gains are showing up on the bottom line.

The true worst case is different from the “emotional worst case.” The emotional worst case is what you (and your clients) picture while gripped by the fear of ruin. For CFO Accelerator Live, “zero ticket sales” was an emotional worst-case scenario, as I envisioned myself standing in a big (expensive) room on a big (expensive) stage facing hundreds of empty (expensive) chairs. But the true worst case scenario is more like this:

• For me: We sell 50 conference tickets. I don’t lose six figures on the event, but I do lose $60,000.

• For your client: The ERP system rollout goes totally off the rails. Migrating legacy data is a nightmare that requires hundreds of manual hours. One expensive, time-consuming customization turns into seventeen. Nobody has time for training on the new system because they’re busy putting out the fires the botched rollout has caused. Twelve months later, the rollout is finally complete—but 60% over budget.

For CFO Accelerator LIVE, the true worst-case scenario was never going to be zero ticket sales. Zero sales was an emotional worst-case scenario, as I envisioned myself standing in a big (expensive) room on a big (expensive) stage facing hundreds of empty (expensive) chairs. The true worst-case was selling 50 tickets and losing not $100,000+ but maybe $60,000.

Try this with your clients. To begin, ask them each question in turn:

• “What’s the best case scenario?”

• “What do you think is the most likely scenario?”

• “And what’s the true worst-case scenario, if almost nothing goes right?”

Listen to your client’s answers. Acknowledge that you heard them; commend them for caring enough about their business to thoroughly think this through.

Then pull out whichever Fractional CFO tool you think best fits the situation. Add specific numbers and dollar amounts to the scenarios. Use forecasts and projections to show your client the economic story of what “ruin” might actually look like.

After you paint that picture, your client will relax: “Oh, okay. That isn’t as catastrophic as I imagined. Even if the worst-case scenario is the one that happens, we won’t be ruined.”

#3. Identify Pivot Points

Business owners hesitate to commit themselves to a course of action when it feels both irreversible and high-stakes. Think of it like driving a big rig through a mountain pass. Your client is preparing to descend a steep, windy section of road. If the tractor-trailer’s brakes give out—disaster.

You need to be the safety consultant who offers a backup plan. Point out the “runaway-truck ramp” that provides a safe-but-bumpy way to stop your client from hurtling out of control. To continue the ERP rollout example: 

• The CEO can insist on phased implementation of the ERP system, so only one function (like inventory) goes live at one time. A breakdown won’t crash the entire operation.

• You prompt the CEO to negotiate vendor terms that include milestone-based payments and performance clauses. That way, if the project veers off course, the CEO has the option to pause without burning the whole budget.

• You earmark a contingency reserve fund in the cash flow plan. Any rollout problem won’t be a cause for panic, just concern.

Everyone loves a good Plan A.

Everyone needs a good Plan B.

Give your client pivot points. Identify the triggers that mean it’s time to change course—to back out, or to move forward but in a different direction.

Application

Notice when a decision gets delayed month after month. It goes on the agenda for October’s CFO Call… and November’s… and December’s. You feel frustrated because you want your clients to succeed, and they seem to be resisting the very thing that will bring them success!

Maybe something deeper is going on. In your next meeting, try out the Three Cases scenario planning. Let the CEO describe the worst-case scenario in bitter detail. Then be the financially-informed advisor you were hired to be.

<<< Are you charging enough for your services? How can you get clients to recognize the value you deliver? Good news: I’m hosting a free live “Scope & Pricing Masterclass” on October 22 to cover exactly this. I’ll share how I set scope and pricing inside my Fractional CFO business, Civil CFO. Register here. >>>