Why relationships matter most in a volatile marketplace

Five years ago, when a pandemic brought the world of trade to a halt, CFOs were thrust into the spotlight as crisis managers. Today, with trade wars, nationalism and market volatility back in the headlines, our role has evolved further. We’re no longer only managing budgets and reporting numbers; we’re helping our organisations navigate uncertainty while maintaining the relationships that drive long-term success.

 

Market volatility impacts working capital constraints, unpredictable payment behaviours and rising transactional friction. These impacts go beyond missed revenue targets and may challenge business fundamentals and board decisions. This places finance leaders at the centre of enterprise strategy, helping to direct the relationships and systems that will influence how companies respond to and succeed amid disruption.

 

My experiences as a CFO navigating numerous market disruptions over the past five years have made one thing clear: organisations focused on maintaining trust with partners and customers consistently outperform those that focus solely on cost reduction during turbulent times. Deloitte data confirms this observation, highlighting companies with high trust scores can outperform peers by up to 400 per cent.

 

I’ve observed this across multiple market cycles. Organisations that maintain transparent communication with partners and offer flexible financial arrangements tend to retain customers and suppliers even when economic conditions deteriorate. But trust extends beyond reputation. When trust is reflected in checkout experience, underwriting options and data transparency, companies improve their speed, flexibility and ability to respond under pressure.

 

 

The four pillars of trust-based financial resilience: the TAIL framework

 

So where should finance leaders focus to build trust-based financial resilience during times of stress? In my experience, there are four key areas that form the TAIL framework:

 

Trusted partner relationships. Credit terms often get overlooked as a tool that supports building relationships. When market conditions tighten, proactive credit adjustments can help maintain partnerships that might otherwise strain under financial pressure. Similarly, offering flexible payment choices demonstrates responsiveness to partner needs and reduces transaction friction. A buyer preference study we conducted with Murphy Research shows 90 per cent of business buyers cite trust with their supplier as a top reason for choosing a merchant. Smart credit management and payment flexibility become differentiators when companies make it easier to do business with in times of market volatility.

 

Adaptive order-to-cash optimisation. The order-to-cash cycle plays a key role in how financial reliability is perceived. Manual invoicing, inconsistent onboarding and rigid payment options introduce friction and slow revenue recognition. McKinsey research showing 6:1 returns on O2C improvements demonstrates clear financial value. But these improvements also reduce friction precisely when customers are most likely to reconsider vendor relationships.

 

Intelligent automation and analytics. Automation and AI-based analytics enable faster, more informed financial decisions and risk forecasting. Teams should move towards “zero touch” accounts receivable, where transactions flow with minimal manual oversight. Rather than scrambling to address late payments or cash flow gaps, this helps you anticipate challenges and communicate solutions before problems escalate.

 

Localised partnership strategy. Understanding local payment preferences and regulatory requirements becomes crucial for seamless operations across jurisdictions. Companies that can quickly tailor their financial operations to specific customer needs typically scale more successfully than those with rigid approaches. Diversifying supplier and customer bases also limits exposure while building long-term resilience.

 

The CFO’s action plan: from theory to implementation

 

While the TAIL framework provides strategic direction, implementation requires a practical roadmap. Start by assessing current relationship-based risks in your financial operations. Review your top customer and supplier relationships to identify potential friction points in payment processes, credit terms and communication channels.

 

Over the next 6-18 months, invest in systems that enable trust-based automation. Focus on technologies that can adapt to different customer needs while maintaining consistent service levels. For long-term success, build financial operations that scale with uncertainty rather than break under pressure.

 

Traditional financial metrics remain important, but add relationship-focused measures: DSO improvement, working capital optimisation and “relationship durability during stress” – tracking how partnerships perform when market conditions deteriorate. The competitive advantage of reliability becomes most apparent during uncertain times.

 

Trust as financial strategy

 

Trust is often dismissed as a “soft skill” in finance circles, but the data tells a different story. Trust translates directly into hard financial advantages: improved cash flow timing, reduced transaction costs, lower customer acquisition expenses and enhanced working capital efficiency. When customers trust your payment processes and partners rely on your credit flexibility, friction decreases and velocity increases across your entire financial ecosystem.

 

Ask yourself: do our financial processes make it easier or harder for partners to do business with us during market volatility? Can our systems adapt quickly when relationships face stress? Are we measuring the right indicators to understand relationship health alongside financial health?

 

Market volatility isn’t going away, but our response to it can evolve. By designing financial operations around trust and adaptability, CFOs can transform uncertainty from a threat into a competitive advantage.

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To learn more about how TreviPay eliminates accounts receivable headaches to accelerate business growth, visit trevipay.com 

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