By: Michael Stilwill, Chetu, Inc.
Merchant cash advance software enables businesses to obtain cash by using sales as the basis for the advance. This is significantly different from a loan, and there is no collateral involved. The business’s credit score is irrelevant because the cash advance is based on the credit card, debit card and sales receipts of the business.
This is beneficial for small, growing companies during periods of rapid growth when cash flows are likely to be under strain. Any effective merchant cash advance CRM is capable of managing leads, managing documents, generating reports and analytics, and tracking deals and commissions.
Lead Management
The process of managing leads takes on particular form when it comes to utilizing the best merchant cash advance software. The most important activity during this stage is to provide high-quality information the customer needs to continue through the process of going through a sales funnel. This is a big problem in any kind of lead management system, but it also has specific characteristics when applied to merchant cash advance leads.
Lead acquisition is a product of agent activity. The best software for merchant cash advance services allows you to add contacts and manage your relationships with them over time in a single location. Conversion rates can also be monitored in this location. In addition to adding new leads, you can also set permissions that limit or access certain kinds of information to each agent.
Deal tracking
Tracking the stages of the deal is incredibly important when considering the features of the best merchant cash advance software. The ability to automate certain tasks is a key function of an efficient deal tracking software. Manual entries tend to encourage human errors. Examples of common tasks that can be automated include reminders, follow-up notes, and metrics in real-time. Some of these can be triggered by actions taken by the agent or customer, for example. Deal tracking features will also allow you to know where your newest customers learned about your services.
Tracking the deal cycle is facilitated when you can break the whole into smaller parts, which are easier to manage. Every merchant cash advance marketing campaign requires a robust software that is capable of being customized to respond to the specific sales cycle. Timely response times can help convert leads into customers, for example. The deal tracking software can identify the areas where conversion rates have been dropping based on lack of responsiveness or other company-related problems. This is a useful feature that can help you to clearly identify areas that need improvement.
Tracking commissions
Keeping track of sales commissions is essential whenever you’re dealing with merchant cash advance leads. There are many systems that already exist, but these often include hidden fees. The best solution will allow you to track the sales commissions without incurring these extra costs. Additional benefits come when you can get a custom software solution that is designed to meet the needs of your particular sales team.
Customization of the software becomes critical. The small sales team will have a different set of requirements and objectives than a large team that works in a more complex organizational setting. It can enable sales teams to meet their goals while managing complex accounts. Additional helpful features include a dashboard area where members of the sales team can review the current state of accounts. This area can be used to motivate each member to perform their best.
A great software system can track commissions seamlessly while reducing operating costs by more than 50 percent. Elimination of manual processing makes up a large portion of these savings. There is no need to resort to using spreadsheets containing numerous formulas, for example. Finally, the amount of each commission can be expressed in terms of per-unit cost. This is a great way to gather useful information about the sales team’s performance.
Secure document management
Custom merchant cash advance CRM is often necessary in order to securely manage documents. This includes the process of capturing the original documents as well as secure file storage solutions. Businesses also demand continuous security and the ability to classify documents on demand. The changing needs of organizations mean that customization is critical to selecting the software for a merchant cash advance business. This is especially important when considering the effects of time.
Storing, managing and retrieving documents should make the business process easier, not harder. This means that the most important features should be available. For example, metatags enable document searching through large libraries of information. It also means that recovering old versions should be easy. Team access and restricted access are part of the permissions, which enable security. Merchant cash advance companies handle a variety of sensitive documents, so having a secure filing and management system is essential.
Reporting and analytics
Business decision-making is only as good as the information available. Reports and analytics can provide this data in various formats that help business owners to make informed decisions. This includes interactive reports that offer a greater degree of engagement than previous generations. Data modeling, formula utilization, and editing functions are now enabled in the most comprehensive software packages.
Analytics play a critical role in any merchant cash advance enterprise. There is a balance between data quantity and data quality that must be addressed in order to avoid information overload, which often inhibits decision making. Customization is also critical for designing and generating the type of reports that are relevant to your merchant cash advance operations.
Integrations and APIs
Merchant cash advance marketing systems need to cover more terrain than was possible in previous generations. This increase in demand is driving integration for the modern merchant cash advance enterprise. Onsite databases, mobile devices, and apps create a complex environment that makes it difficult to keep track of social media activities, cloud-based apps, mobile platforms and other parts of the data management system.
The API integration feature allows businesses to connect all of these components. They can now be used in a way that creates new possibilities while delivering seamless experiences for users. Enterprise-level marketing efforts are particularly affected by integration, which allows the user to track many types of information in a single location.
