Fiscal Year
A CEO's New Year's Resolutions
05 January, 2012 09:46
So it’s the start of a new year. You’ve got (or will soon get) new quarterly and very possibly new annual quotas. January seems like a good time to set some new goals and refocus on your objectives for the next twelve months. After all, everyone’s doing it, right?
Not necessarily.
To many a CEO or CFO, January 1st is just the beginning of another quarter—no more, no less. As we discussed in the last post, understanding your prospect’s calendar is a baseline component in understanding that prospect’s business. Many companies have fiscal years that don’t coincide with the calendar year. In fact, in many international markets, the fiscal year more typically ends March 1st, making this week the beginning of 4th quarter, not 1st quarter. You certainly can’t afford to be out of synch with your customer by 3 quarters!
For argument’s sake, let’s assume that the client’s fiscal year starts in January. So now it’s safe to assume the CEO is focused on new annual goals and objectives, right. Not really. Any CXO worth his or her salt has been working on this year’s objectives for at least six months. By now, not only are those goals and objectives pretty much set in stone, there are likely execution plans and management reporting systems already up and running.
And do you think any of your client’s goals for this year have anything to do with helping you make your quota? Not on your life. So if your goal is to really bring value and to help your clients be successful (and it should be), you are going to have to find out what they consider “success.” What are their goals? How will they measure progress? And most importantly, what can you do to help?
You can likely guess at some of the answers, but I can guarantee that if you want to make an impression at the C-level that leads to mutual success, you’re going to have to dig deeper—and you may be surprised at what you find.
Not necessarily.
To many a CEO or CFO, January 1st is just the beginning of another quarter—no more, no less. As we discussed in the last post, understanding your prospect’s calendar is a baseline component in understanding that prospect’s business. Many companies have fiscal years that don’t coincide with the calendar year. In fact, in many international markets, the fiscal year more typically ends March 1st, making this week the beginning of 4th quarter, not 1st quarter. You certainly can’t afford to be out of synch with your customer by 3 quarters!
For argument’s sake, let’s assume that the client’s fiscal year starts in January. So now it’s safe to assume the CEO is focused on new annual goals and objectives, right. Not really. Any CXO worth his or her salt has been working on this year’s objectives for at least six months. By now, not only are those goals and objectives pretty much set in stone, there are likely execution plans and management reporting systems already up and running.
And do you think any of your client’s goals for this year have anything to do with helping you make your quota? Not on your life. So if your goal is to really bring value and to help your clients be successful (and it should be), you are going to have to find out what they consider “success.” What are their goals? How will they measure progress? And most importantly, what can you do to help?
You can likely guess at some of the answers, but I can guarantee that if you want to make an impression at the C-level that leads to mutual success, you’re going to have to dig deeper—and you may be surprised at what you find.
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