#161 The CFO Mentoring the Sales Professional with Declan Tyrell, Google’s CFO Whisperer

Declan Tyrell, the CFO Whisperer, joins Kevin Appleby on the Grow CFO Show. Declan introduced himself as a former CFO and CFO Whisperer at both Google and Oracle. Someone who helps sales organizations understand finance leaders and position value propositions to inspire CFOs. He coaches sales professionals and runs deal clinics to help close deals. Declan is passionate about helping Salespeople understand the changing landscape of buying, in particular how to engage with their customers’ economic buyer in times of financial uncertainty. Declan discussed how to approach CFOs by focusing on the business problem being solved and how the solution creates value. He emphasized clarity over complexity and focusing on “so what” and “who cares” factors. The conversation covered how to structure deals in a way that works for CFO incentives like EBITDA targets. Terrell shared examples of transformations he led at large organizations over months or years to transition finance functions. Declan shared insights from his time as Google’s CFO Whisperer, helping close $2.3 billion in deals. He emphasized the importance of CFO buy-in for successful digital transformations and challenged presenters to identify accountability and measure projected benefits. At Google, he ran weekly deal clinics open for any team to book time and receive feedback on deals. Declan aimed to see 300 deals annually with a combined revenue value of over $2 billion. He challenged teams to clearly articulate the problems being solved and benefits to the business. Declan’s deal clinics became popular training grounds for Google employees, and he found CFO involvement led to higher success rates on digital transformation projects. https://youtu.be/_LUVPCqzX-k Links Join GrowCFO today GrowCFO Future CFO Program Declan Tyrell on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn View all podcast episodes. Timestamps Introducing Declan Tyrell, The CFO Whisperer (0:11) Sales strategies for CFOs and salespeople. (1:27) Finance department automation and modernization. (6:01) Digital transformation and CFO role in project success. (11:14) Business growth and digital transformation. (16:22) Budgeting and strategic planning for business growth. (21:27) Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast, you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Google Podcasts, Spotify and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way, you never miss an episode. GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. You can join GrowCFO as a free member today and participate in our regular networking events and webinars.  Premium members can also access our extensive training centre and CFO Digital Toolkit. Here, you can enrol in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programmes.  You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net