Professional Development

Level: Advanced

Key issues:

It is essential that marketing professionals understand the financial implications of their actions and that of the competition. Increasingly managers are expected to reduce their dependence on the finance department and develop their commercial and financial awareness. This course addresses this need by focusing on the financial consequences and early warning indicators in an organisation.

The purpose of this course:

This course will, in a jargon-free way, explain how a business works from a financial perspective as well as considering the financial implications of marketing decisions.

Who this course is for:

This course is aimed at all marketing professionals who need to better understand business finance. No prior knowledge is assumed, although we will quickly demonstrate that your financial acumen is higher than you believed – it’s the confidence to apply this knowledge that matters!

Benefits for your organisation:

Organisations will develop marketing professionals who will be more capable of utilising financial information in their selling process as well as demonstrating financial empathy with both prospects and clients. This should then be translated into improved and sustained profitability.

Benefits for you as an individual:

You will benefit by gaining a better understanding of how a business operates from a financial perspective. This will be achieved by focusing on the key financial statements and how to interpret them, the key areas you should be addressing and how to improve the profitability of your business

You will learn how to:

• Identify how your business operates from a financial perspective
• Understand and interpret key financial statements
• Identify the key performance indicators in business
• Identify warning signals and areas for improvement
• Ask relevant questions of the key areas you should be addressing
• Improve the profitability of your business

Course content:

• Understanding and influencing your business model and how money flows into your organisation
• Interpreting key financial statements (Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement)
• Understanding financial and marketing objectives
• Calculating and applying the results of key business ratios
• Understanding financial and management accounts: working capital management (stock, debtors, creditors and cash), profit vs cash, profit and asset management, break even analysis, budgets and forecasts, investment appraisal
• Financial benchmarking of clients and competitors
• Interpreting the financial implications of pricing, margins and sales volumes
• Using cost and pricing methodologies

To take away from the course:

Business Finance by McClaney

Business Models that can be easily adapted to your business circumstances

Professional Standards

All of our marketing courses are based on CIM's Professional Marketing Standards, ensuring that marketers at all levels of seniority gain the practical skills that employers require to improve business performance. Review our Professional Marketing Standards framework.