First Water Finance

This week's Sales roundup is a treasure trove of expert takes, from AI-driven SaaS pricing revolution to the future of banking and sales. Read on 👇 🔗 Himanshu K Mishra Himanshu shares how AI and ML are transforming the banking sector, especially in driving sales growth. → Hyper-personalized customer interactions and predictive analytics are the future of cross-selling in banking. → Automation and enhanced customer support through AI will improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. ⚡ 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺: 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘐 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴. Read the post here: https://lnkd.in/gsawadN8 🔗 Benjamin Lehrer Benjamin shares a reality check for CFOs who think AI can replace strategic budgeting. He explained that AI in finance is best used to start conversations, not finish them. “AI accelerates dialogue, but human input is still key to finalizing the forecast,” Benjamin says. 💡 𝘗𝘳𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘱: 𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴. Read the post here: https://lnkd.in/g4jhdGfk 🔗 Thomas Ross Thomas shares his top 5 AI prompts for sales analysis, from performance reviews to competitor analysis. 1. Sales Performance Review 2. Customer Segmentation & Targeting 3. Lead Conversion Analysis 4. Sales Forecasting 5. Competitor Analysis in Sales ⚡ 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺: 𝘛𝘢𝘱 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘐-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳. Read the post here: https://lnkd.in/gbGq3VnM 🚨 Did we miss a post? Drop it in the comments to make sure it doesn’t get overlooked! ❤️ Find this helpful? Follow the Alltius page to stay up to date with these roundups! ⚡For sales pros - Try Alltius' AI agents to create pitches, draft emails, answer technical questions without involving other team members & totally CRUSH your sales goals!! Create your AI agent now : https://lnkd.in/gEHpy6sA #sales #insights #professional #support #ai #genai #expert

Why do CFOs turn to budget software?    There are quite a few options, with new ones continuing to pop up. (Do we need any more?!)    A good number of them are solid. Some are better than others. But that doesn’t matter.    CFOs typically don’t turn to budget software for better build mechanics. Quite frankly, no software can get you to the level of customization and granularity that exists in Excel; that’s the benefit of a blank canvas vs. a controlled environment. Pros and cons galore.    Sure, AI enablement is finding its way into these processes. We’ve seen some promising capabilities. Yet, CFOs are reticent to stand in front of boards and investors and say “The revenue build was done with AI; I’m not 100% sure how it did it, but the output made sense to us.”    So why do teams want budget-specific software?    One of my favorite event moments of the last two years was having a CFO proclaim her love for a specific budgeting software in front of a large group. I half-expected to see a tattoo reveal!    When asked about the top benefit? Not having to email spreadsheets around!    That was reason enough for her to turn to software…but you don’t need budget-specific software to solve for that!  Does your team use budgeting and forecasting software? What was the catalyst for making the move? What did you LOSE as a result? (a far more interesting question than what you gained!)   Learn more with the Budgeting Readiness Playbook linked in the comments below!

Budget conversations are kicking into gear! This week we kick off The CFO Alliance nationwide roundtable series where we will be talking "budget readiness". With 50%+ of organizations claiming higher expectations or meaningful changes to their budget process, with an equivalent amount also pointing to team capabilities as the #1 pain point, the planning component of the process is more important than ever!   Multiple CFOs and community members have already reached out about diving deeper into a few specific areas re: budgeting. In response, the First Water team is putting together virtual 'office hours' meet up events over the next few weeks. This is the space to drop in, access a group sounding board on your specific objectives, and hear ideas from others.   The first session (of three) will be this Thursday 9/19, and the topic will be Dimensionality & Tagging, threading the needle on granularity and assumption capture to get the most budget ROI for the work teams put in.    Join us, bring your specific goals and needs, and create the tailwind for your '25 process!   Registration link is below. The office hours window is 1:30 PM - 3 PM CST, but please feel free to hop in/out at any time during the window. The page also includes links to the other two sessions, scheduled for 10/3 and 10/10. Please let us know that you are coming, and you are welcome to invite senior members of your team!  Register here: 📅 September 19th: Dimensionality & Tagging  🔗 https://lnkd.in/g74k5Kz9 📅 October 3rd: Aggregation & Refreshes  🔗 https://lnkd.in/gGypgH-u 📅 October 10th: Noise Reduction  🔗https://lnkd.in/g3vaJmDY

The top-down budget is dead.   Even if it makes sense, it’s deemed LAZY based on the PERCEPTION of what is at Finance teams’ disposal in terms of data, analytics, AI, etc. (i.e., MOAR!)  When it makes sense to use simple assumptions or drivers, the threshold is now higher to provide the rationale as to why.  Last year plus inflation feels like a cop out. An acceptance of the status quo.  Even if you end up in the same place, anything else drives more credibility.  How can we assess the level of Finance credibility in a budget process? Perhaps the number of turns required when the CEO or investors push back?  Better rationale, less pushback. Less pushback, less iteration. Less iteration, less pain for Finance teams.  How are you reducing your teams’ pain this budget season?  Learn more with our Budgeting & Forecasting Readiness Playbook. https://lnkd.in/gAQPggWp  

We’re glorifying the wrong things in Finance.     We surveyed The CFO Alliance members, and less than 10% of finance teams are leveraging AI for FP&A re: data analysis and in support of budgeting/forecasting exercises.    News flash – AI isn’t going to deliver turnkey improvements for your 2025 budget.    CFOs know this. Yet other impactful stakeholders may not. CEOs, boards and investors continue to hear wonderful promises about AI in Finance.    The impact? Increased expectations on Finance (typically with an unwillingness to commit the financial resources and investment to match those expectations).    How is your process changing this year?    I had my first company discussions on ’25 in mid-July! Overall, expectations probably aren’t reasonable, yet Finance will do what it does…deliver.    This budget season will serve as a referendum on business’ data environments and Finance’s ability to harness the information at its disposal.    Preparation and design are more important than ever. To hit the deadlines, to deliver a quality build, and showcase improvements over prior processes.    What are you doing this year to get ready?! Check out our Budget Readiness Playbook to get ready! Link provided in the comments below.

How do finance teams approach budgeting when they don’t “believe”?  Missing this year’s budget because of overaggressive growth assumptions? Expecting the same for this year’s planning cycle. After all, YOU (finance) gotta make up for that shortfall!  This can be a dangerous position for Finance to be in if not prepared. The worst manifestation is the ‘top-side’ or ‘on top’ growth assumptions that come at the very end of the budgeting process to meet stakeholder demands (“we have to show at least X% growth to our investors, plug it!”). These can blow up the value of your budget throughout the next year, and really hurt team morale.   We worked with the new CFO of an RCM services company who stepped into a “bad budget”. To meet demands on profitability, the prior team had turned the dial on a single core assumption that really made no sense (think increasing pricing in a market where the trend is a continuous decline).  Come Q4, management wanted to rein in the bonus accrual to protect profitability. Yet, the team was full of heroes. The bridge analysis showed well over 100% of the budget shortfall had to do with that single top side assumption adjustment. In all other areas, the team had successfully eaten into the gap.  If a bad budget is the reason you don’t pay your heroes, you should prepare for a future with no heroes.   Even with outlandish assumptions you can extract big time value from your budget. ‘Base + Stretch + Act of God’ is ok as long as you can keep the pieces connected.   Don’t start an unnecessary fire. Plan accordingly. Interested in planning more effectively? Check out our Finance Resourcing Playbook in the comments!

Tech-enablement vs. Good process. Which comes out on top for budgeting?    Turkey’s Yusuf Dikeç lit up the internet, looking ‘casual‘ in delivering a team silver medal while other air pistol and rifle competitors looked like Inspector Gadget.    How is this related to budgeting? Technology can support you, but it doesn’t replace or overcome a lack of process and discipline.    Early preparation and process design remain the unsung heroes of strong budgeting processes. Yet we don’t spend too much time talking about them, let alone celebrating them as successes.    Let’s change that. How are you preparing for budget season? What’s different this year? How will you make the process better? Who’s your Dikeç setting up to crush it, even without fancy tools at his/her disposal? Protect your Dikeç!    Budget season is an assessment of CFOs and their teams. It’s not the Olympics, there are no medals, but a poor performance gets magnified on a big stage.    How can you better prepare? Check out our Technology Readiness Playbook tool in the comments!