In Their Own Words: The Many Definitions of Data

This quote goes to the heart of a frustration we hear from CFO’s (and RevOps) all the time in a lot of different flavors.

Essentially, does the data mean what I think it means? Or how can I know this is right? Because if it doesn’t/isn’t, we can’t run the business on the numbers.

Those are scary questions for any function, particularly the Finance and RevOps side of the house which is generally expected to have the answers in a way other functions aren’t.

They also point to another interesting concept we’re starting to hear more.

This idea that a revenue number is the final expression of a LOT of activity that came before. So CFO’s want more visibility into those larval stages of the revenue butterfly.

Yes, so they can more easily/confidently answer waterfall questions like this one. AND, perhaps more importantly, so they can know when that data is signaling something the business might still be able to still influence or better plan for.

For any CFO and RevOps readers out there, reactions on how this squares with your experience are welcome. Thoughts? The more we test what we hear, the more instructive it becomes. Let us know in LinkedIn.