For specialist retail and consumer CFO Mike Rainer, one of the best collaborations of his career had little to do with finance. In fact, it was a branding exercise. 

“I was CFO of the food-to-go chain EAT,” he explains. “We wanted to define the ‘why’ of the brand. Why should people feel tempted to cross the road to go into our shop? Why should they walk past a rival fast-food outlet along the way?”

In its founders’ original vision, EAT was an acronym for Excellence and Taste, a fact that some in the company had forgotten or didn’t know. “We riffed on that for a strapline to chime with our focus on quality food,” he says, “and came up with ‘EAT. The Real Food Company; a chef-led grab and go business, delivering Excellence and Taste’. That slogan conveyed that our products were tasty and worth seeking out, and that our service was quick and efficient.”

There was not much from an accountancy perspective apart from the costs of rebranding, but Rainer’s input still had a key influence on the outcome. “It was a collective, collaborative effort to work out what we could say, and what it would mean to our customers and team.”

Rainer’s tale shows that accountants can have a shaping influence on business areas that may not look like part of their usual remit. As a member of the senior team, he had earned enough trust to be asked to contribute his ideas on a strategic marketing project. His next role at EAT was managing director.

First alarm

In Rainer’s view, the type of business partnering that accountants can provide through their influence is also useful for flagging up looming threats.

“You can be a beacon or an early warning sign,” he says. That doesn’t mean suggesting unnecessary improvements or change for its own sake, he notes. But if you spot something that doesn’t look right, you can sound an alarm and spur people to action. “You should also suggest solutions,” he says. “There’s no point identifying an intruder if you don’t do something about them. The same goes when forecasting future cash flows.”

Rainer believes that influencing skills are always there in people, it’s just a case of bringing them out and building them. In one senior retail role, Rainer led a large-scale recruitment drive to hire junior staff. After interviewing a blend of student, graduate and fully qualified accountants, he was struck by how many of their answers were already about influence. Whether that meant where to go on holiday with friends or providing morale on Duke of Edinburgh trips, they just needed to translate that influence from their private lives to their work lives.

Be confident

Having confidence and clarity on the verbal side of influencing is vital, he stresses. Rainer worked with an analyst at FatFace who “knew his numbers inside out and back to front”, but would not deliver that information with confidence in meetings, peppering his speech with “kind of”.

“I recorded it once and played it back to him,” says Rainer. “I said: ‘It’s not “kind of” – it IS!’ That may sound a bit harsh, but I wanted to encourage him to be more confident and direct. And to drop the comfort buffer of that verbal tic.”

Use judgement

Another key quality in influential accountants, Rainer says, is a willingness to get out from behind their desks and approach more senior staff. Especially if they have some notable numbers to present. But that should be accompanied by a flair for sharp analysis and ideas for potential solutions.

“It’s not enough to simply present data,” he notes. “You have to exercise your own judgement on it. What does it mean? What are the impacts? How can you use it to develop a particular point or show that it’s revealing something of concern?”

Future focus

Change consultant and behavioural scientist Alex Bond Burnett takes a similar view. She has carried out data storytelling sessions with accountants for more than seven years. “The main challenge is that any data is always going to be a reflection of the past. However, the accountant’s role is not just to report on what has happened, but to accurately relay the data’s version of what the future could be.”

The skill here, she explains, is to ensure that the presenter is delivering to their audience. Focus on what they are trying to achieve, both in the present and in 12 months’ time. Data isn’t there just to be reported, but to transform decision-making. “Essentially, we’re all rather selfish creatures, or at least our brains are,” says Bond Burnett. “We want to know about what’s most relevant to us, why it’s so important and how it can change things. The brain is always being influenced by outside sources and bias. So, how you frame your narrative is key.”

Role models, she notes, can provide accountants with clues about how to boost their influence. “Think about who in your circle you look to for advice, and who you ignore,” she says. “This can tell you a lot about who influences your decision-making.” 

Framing data

Bond Burnett recently carried out a behavioural-science experiment with senior finance leaders, asking them to pick from four financial options, A to D. A and B appeared on one slide, and C and D on the next. The group had a short time to scrutinise the options. They chose A on slide one, and D on slide two. But it turned out there were two solutions, not four. “A was the same as C, and B was the same at D, but each option was framed differently, the equivalent of offering a 30% loss or a 70% success rate. How the data was framed influenced the rapid, initial decision-making, much the same as what happens in meetings.”

A key part of the behavioural side of influencing people, Bond Burnett says, is not just what we say – but how we say it. Accountants who are using physical actions to emphasise their points, she urges, should ensure that they are moving both on purpose and with purpose. Meanwhile, she notes: “When it comes to how you use your voice, well-judged variations in pitch, pace and pause will help your story to stick in your audience’s mind and make for better decision-making.”