At a Glance

• On larger deals the decision-maker is a finance executive who evaluates an equipment purchase as a capital-structure question, not an equipment question.
• A short set of topics reliably earns finance attention: the cost of funding long-lived assets on a revolver, covenant headroom, balance-sheet treatment, and honest structure comparisons.
• Engaging a CFO means leading with the decision they own and conceding the cases where your answer is the wrong one.
• Survey data shows most CFOs involved in equipment decisions cannot recall any content from their eventual provider — the substance never reached them.

What a CFO Is Actually Deciding