Birth of a salesman.

• Author: Gray, Carol Lippert
• Position: Includes related article on how CFOs can quickly master marketing/sales fundamentals - CFOs and the marketing/sales function

How many accountants does it take to sell a lightbulb? As CFO, that's something you need to know.

Increasingly, CFOs are being asked not only to row, row, row the finance boat gently down the revenue stream, but to help map the whole trip, from product inception to tallying the P&L. Part of the navigational chart, therefore, should include input from the sales and marketing divisions.

But if those areas seem like foreign territory (where the inhabitants may speak a different dialect, wear more flamboyant native dress and occasionally seem less than friendly), it's time to do some cross-cultural training, because - although you may look and act just as alien to them - you're really all on the same cruise, with the same destination: value creation.

In terms of sales and marketing, says Ray Brooks, CFO and director of administration at Tennessee-based Rohm Electronics, a manufacturer of electronic components, that means helping the company hit five targets: generating revenue; maintaining profitability; enhancing market share; understanding how the company fits in with its competitors; and converting data to information-based knowledge transactions.

It's an extensive itinerary - especially when Brooks amplifies the concept. "You still have to wear the controller hat to monitor expenses, make sure people follow travel and expense guidelines and hold them accountable for what they do," he explains, "while taking on the larger strategic role of helping to grow the business by providing information to help the sales force capture more business."

So, as corporations become more holistic and global, no financial executive is an island. According to Patrick McCormick, a partner in Arthur Andersen's business consulting practice and head of its North American Finance Business Solutions Team, the CFO must be part of research and development, to balance available resources with projected return, and discussions of distribution channels, which require different levels of support within the organization.

"Marketing is all about the four P's: product, price, place and promotion," McCormick adds. "Each new product consumes capital resources. When Detroit introduced rebates on cars, it drove up volume but decreased profitability. Most of the sales and marketing people are rewarded for achieving greater revenues, but you have to ask which products will create more value for the organization as a whole."

He cites the example of a newspaper where 2 percent of...