Defend my marketing budget to the CFO with a revenue case
A finance-ready case that connects marketing spend to pipeline and revenue, with honest caveats and asks.
The prompt
Help me build a case to protect (or increase) my marketing budget with finance.
Budget I'm asking for and change vs. last year: [AMOUNT, % change]
What finance is questioning: [e.g. "brand spend", "event costs", "why CAC rose"]
Results I can show: [PASTE: spend, marketing-sourced and -influenced pipeline, revenue, CAC, payback, win rates, by channel if possible]
Company targets: [revenue, growth, efficiency goals]
What happens if cut: [my honest estimate]
Build:
1. A one-line headline: what the money buys in revenue terms.
2. The efficiency story: CAC, payback period, and LTV:CAC trends, using only my numbers. Separate sourced from influenced pipeline and say which is which.
3. Spend split into: proven (keep), scaling (fund with targets), and experimental (cap and measure).
4. Scenarios: flat, cut 20%, and requested budget, with the expected pipeline impact and the lag before it shows.
5. Pre-empt the 5 toughest CFO questions with direct answers, including where the data is weak.
6. Commitments I'll make: metrics, reporting cadence, and triggers to pull back spend.
Format: a one-page memo plus a table of the scenarios. Use finance vocabulary, no marketing jargon. Mark any figure I need to verify with [CONFIRM]; never invent numbers.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Marketing & Brand prompts
What to fill in
- AMOUNT, % change
- e.g. "brand spend", "event costs", "why CAC rose"
- revenue, growth, efficiency goals
- my honest estimate
- CONFIRM
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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