Benefits advisors and other partners know it's the CFO who often makes the final decision within a company. You've called and left message after message, offering to go over your proposal, and they just won't call back. You scratch your head and wonder what you can do differently to connect better with the CFO.

This can be a frustrating but crucial part of your job. If you can't get them to talk to you, to see you as an individual, and make that critical connection, you probably won't end up working with them, and that affects your job performance and income. Understandably, that can make a person feel a bit desperate, especially if this cycle repeats itself with one potential prospect after another.

Do your research

How can you change that? I have worn the CFO hat, along with several others, for more than 20 years and one simple piece of advice is that advisors, vendors and others who are interested in working with my company need to do their research and see people like me as an individual, too.  It's really not as hard as you would think.