Peisner Johnson Hits Annual Revenue Goal 3 Months Early with a Fractional CMO

Background

Peisner Johnson (The Sales Tax People) has been helping businesses and trusted advisors for over 30 years stay sales tax compliant. Its team of specialized accountants has consulted with thousands of companies in virtually every industry across the United States and Canada.

Challenges

In 2022, after Peisner Johnson’s full-time CFO departed, CEO Jason Parr and COO Paul Johnson turned to Amplēo for a fractional CFO. While Peisner Johnson had built an incredible business, the leadership team did not have visibility into the company’s year-over-year business performance. Financial reporting was based on cash rather than accrual accounting, making it difficult to track business growth and profitability. Additionally, accounts receivables continued to increase, with 17 percent of all receivables overdue by more than 90 days.

Engaging with an Amplēo CFO

When Amplēo’s fractional accountant and CFO stepped in, they quickly identified the financial changes needed to help the leadership team understand an accurate representation of the company’s financial health. Amplēo’s accountant and CFO implemented accrual-based accounting and restructured their QuickBooks with classes, which helped track and compare profitability across multiple business units.

Amplēo’s team not only made accounting changes but also automated financial forecasting through Giraffe, created dashboards and KPIs, and implemented new reporting and review processes for accounts receivable. As a result, clients began to pay, on average, 10 days faster, decreasing the receivables overdue by 90 days from 17 percent to 6 percent.

Engaging with an Amplēo CMO

“The partnership with our Amplēo CFO proved so successful that when we learned Amplēo also provided marketing expertise, we didn’t hesitate to bring in an Amplēo fractional CMO,” said Paul Johnson. Peisner Johnson had a talented sales team and a dedicated marketing manager but lacked a strategic marketing leader needed to achieve its ambitious annual revenue goals.

With the direction of an Amplēo CMO, Peisner’s marketing team had a leader who helped it create strategies and align its work toward the same goal. In collaboration with Amplēo’s CFO and Peisner Johnson’s leadership team, Amplēo’s CMO developed clear strategies, implemented KPIs for each team member, and created campaigns to drive more leads, resulting in hitting the annual revenue target three months ahead of schedule.

Paul Johnson said, “I’m not a marketer, I don’t do marketing, I don’t even know the first thing about marketing, but having someone with the experience to come in and show the way, create the process, and hold people accountable through KPIs and then seeing the direct results from those efforts is amazing.”

Results

The unified efforts of Amplēo’s financial and marketing consultants to set KPIs, ensure accountability, and deliver results that directly affect the bottom line have resulted in Peisner Johnson’s operating income increasing from 7 percent to 29 percent. With more leads coming from marketing efforts and converting at a higher rate, the team is now able to use the extra revenue to reinvest in its growth and build for an even stronger future.

What began as a solution to fill a CFO vacancy has led Peisner Johnson to not only achieve its immediate revenue goals but also gain stronger financial controls, strategic marketing direction, and improved operational efficiency, allowing it to prepare for continual growth in the future.