Data leaders often walk into meetings with executives, confident that their proposed initiative—whether it’s improving customer data, upgrading a platform, or implementing better governance—will get the green light. But then, they get hit with the inevitable question from the CFO:
“What value will this actually generate?”
And that’s where things start to fall apart.
The Disconnect Between Data Leaders and CFOs
Many data teams make the mistake of framing their projects as enablement efforts. They focus on what’s possible once an investment is made: better analytics, cleaner data, more accurate reporting. While those things sound great, they don’t directly answer what the CFO wants to know—how will this impact the bottom line?
The conversation usually goes like this:
“We need to fix our customer data.” → “Why?”
“So we can get better insights into customer behavior.” → “And what does that mean financially?”
At this point, the CFO is left guessing. And when executives are unsure about the financial impact, the safest answer is usually “no.”
Shifting the Conversation to Business Value
Instead of focusing on what a project enables, data leaders need to translate their initiatives into clear, measurable business value. The best way to do this is to tie data improvements to specific financial outcomes.
For example, rather than saying “We need better customer data,” the pitch should be:
“By improving customer data accuracy, we can increase marketing conversion rates by 12%, leading to an additional $5M in revenue.”
A platform upgrade isn’t about simply enabling better analytics—it should be positioned as a way to reduce manual reconciliation time by 60%, saving $1.2M annually.
Governance initiatives aren’t just about compliance; they should be framed in terms of reducing penalties and avoiding $3M in potential fines.
The CFO’s Role in Improving Data Investment Decisions
The issue isn’t just on data leaders. CFOs also need to set higher expectations for data-driven business cases. Too often, weak proposals make it through simply because leadership feels pressured to support digital transformation. But if a business case feels vague, uncertain, or reliant on gut feel, CFOs should send it back and demand clear financial projections.
By raising the bar, CFOs push data teams to move beyond technical jargon and start thinking like business leaders. This shift forces alignment between data strategy and business objectives, ensuring that investments are based on measurable impact, not just good intentions.
Building a Stronger Case for Data Investment
If data leaders want to secure funding and executive buy-in, they need to rethink how they present their initiatives. It’s not enough to argue that something is necessary for digital transformation. It must be backed by hard numbers, clear projections, and a well-defined financial outcome.
Likewise, CFOs must challenge data teams to bring stronger, more concrete business cases to the table. If both sides can bridge the gap between technical improvements and financial impact, companies can move beyond surface-level analytics and start driving real business value from their data investments.