Arguably, the most critical deliverable in the typical Fractional CFO scope of work is the monthly CFO call.

In fact, I kind of obsess over them.  

And why wouldn't I?

They are critical to client success and to firm success.

When the monthly calls go well, clients:
• Get a ton of value.
• Learn exactly what they need to do.
• Start taking action so they can hit their goals.

When the monthly calls go sideways, clients:
• Churn

There's a lot at stake for everyone involved.

Recently, one of my CFO Mastermind students, let's call her Lucy, mentioned she was sensing the early signs of client dissatisfaction, and she was worried about potential churn. So I asked if she'd be willing to share a couple of her recent monthly CFO calls with me. I wanted to dive in and see if I could help identify what might be going on. She agreed.

I spent the next few hours watching a few of her CFO calls.

The calls were well conducted:

She followed her agenda.
The strategies were sound.
She did a great job leading the conversation.

But she was right!

The client was disengaged and disinterested.

Honestly, I was struggling to stay stay awake during her CFO calls (and I love this stuff!).

So what had happened???

She was knocking on the door of churn - and churn was about to answer. 

It was the classic mistake that a lot of us numbers nerds tend to make:

She was getting too far into the data and had lost sight of the information and insights that her client really cared about.

This is how it went down - Lucy's client was facing significant financial challenges in several key areas of their business. Lucy spent several hours inside her client's ERP software pulling reports. She and her team spent considerable time poring over the numbers, conducting a thorough analysis, and identifying root causes.

Lucy and her team did a fantastic job, and she was eager to share everything she discovered with her client on their monthly CFO call. 

And I mean EVERYTHING. Every. Last. Detail.

Lucy had no fewer than 6 spreadsheets up on the call. She spent nearly 50 minutes going through each spreadsheet, line by line, cell by cell, to show the client all the things. 

And to make matters worse, Lucy was super excited about what she uncovered, so she was talking at a million words a minute.

Lucy's 100mph, cell-by-cell data analysis exercise had lost her client. There was so much data being thrown at the client so quickly, the client couldn't make heads or tails of what Lucy was trying to share with him.

What's worse is that I quickly realized this was a common issue on Lucy's monthly CFO calls.

Lucy was focusing too much on data and not enough on information and insights.

The Course Correction

When I think about numbers, I think about them in 3 different buckets: there's data, information, and insights.

Data: raw numbers and figures

Information: data that has been structured and contextualized so that it has meaning. This is where reports come in.

Insights: actionable understanding that explains why something happened, predicts what's next, and what actions need to be taken.

Data is compiled and analyzed to get information.
Information is analyzed to formulate insights.
Insights are used to inform action.

Can you guess where your clients want to spend the most time?

It's not that your clients don't care about the data. It's just that they don't care to SEE the data (the raw numbers). In fact, they don't really want to see much of the information (the reports).

They want to know that YOU looked at the data and the information.

What they're most interested in discussing is what to do next and how it will help them achieve their goals.

Application in your firm

Each month, as you're preparing for your CFO calls, I want you to spend a lot of time in the data. Hours even!

But then I want you to step back and ask yourself a few questions:

• What is the data telling me?
• Can I summarize that data in a simple report or chart?
• What actions do I think the client needs to take and why?
• How can I tell that story in a way that ties back to their goals?

Remember, when it comes to data less is better. Instead of talking numbers, spend the majority of your time talking about corrective actions and next steps. 

And remember - you've got to tie everything back to their goals!

If your clients are struggling to figure out what their goals even are, then check out THIS FREE GUIDE that I put together that will help tremendously.