Tag: Alternative Lending

How To Regain Business And Sales Productivity In These Wretched COVID-19 Pandemic Times

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin 1809 In the post, let us at the very onset pray for the health and safety of the sick and those at risk in this time in human history- Team ConvergeHub. Nevertheless, for the sake of running our businesses, we will also discuss over here in this post that NOW is the time in this Coronavirus (COVID-19) affected world to make sure that your growth efforts in sales productivity are stronger than ever to help boost revenue in 2021 and beyond.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin 1809
In the post, let us at the very onset pray for the health and safety of the sick and those at risk in this time in human history- Team ConvergeHub.
Nevertheless, for the sake of running our businesses, we will also discuss over here in this post that NOW is the time in this Coronavirus (COVID-19) affected world to make sure that your growth efforts in sales productivity are stronger than ever to help boost revenue in 2021 and beyond.

Per sales person, a CRM can increase revenue by 41% - Trackvia Click To Tweet

Since even during this pandemic there is the business of trying to keep your businesses alive as well as the businesses of your customers.

Now if you lookup for the keyword “Natural Selection” in Vocabulary.com this is exactly what you will read:

“Natural selection is the theory that only the strong survive. For example, the animals that can outrun their predators live to pass on their speedy genes; the slow are eaten.”

Therefore when the market goes down, the competitors in your marketplace get aggressive to defend their market share, and naturally, brands are faced with making budgets and fight to stop the onslaught of decreasing revenue.

Hence NOW is the time to make sure that your businesses’ efforts for sales productivity and growth are stronger than ever, and so if you do not put money, time, and resources into sales then (we are sorry to remind) you will have a difficult time to survive or you might live to tell the tale but the climb back will be a painful and a long journey in this crunch times.

Therefore, we as one of the most popular vendors of the best CRM for small and medium businesses in the Salesforce Alternative CRM space even though accept the fact that crunch time means tightening the purse strings and doing away with “non-essential” expenses, that list in general includes but is not limited to:

  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Employee benefits
  • Travel and entertainment
  • Training

Nevertheless, as you go about crunching those numbers, we also recommend you to consider the following:

Be strategic

In these trying times try to think outside the box and be creative with using resources and money to drive revenue. Remember, it necessarily does not always take a lot of creativity to cut expenses.

Discontinue thinking “non-essential”

If any resources and expenses are non-essential, then do not currently be spending money on those items.

Think about wise investing

Consider where you can invest money, time, and resources that might act as an additive to your emergency business objectives and keep your company in the hunt for new businesses and revenue.

In other words, find a new way when you are considering how you must be handling your sales teams and you can help them achieve better during this global COVID-19 pandemic and difficult times.

Now as you go about crunching, one thing that we can recommend to our readers is to strategically pair down your sales team to boost your businesses’ profitability and ROI.

For example, a couple of years ago we assessed an alternative lending group of 90 participants as one of the most popular Merchant Cash Advance CRM software vendors in the USA. And of the 60, this is how the numbers worked out:

The top 1/3 members of this group (20 lenders) represented over 80 percent of the revenue from existing business, which should not be surprising as it is consistent with the Pareto Principle.

Therefore what we mean over here is that you should never consider an early retirement strategy to manage expenses but rather be more strategic in who you let go.

Moreover, you should also now consider how you go about with your new hires since this is the time you should be hiring since many companies will downsize the wrong people for wrong reasons, and so now is the time to pick up great sales talents from your marketplace.

Now, if you want to be selective, you can use pre-hire assessments which can help you to accomplish a critical objective like use the ‘Ideal Fit’ strategy so that you can exactly identify what it takes to be successful in generating sales productivity in your company.

Finally, you should take up the resolution that developing and training this present team that has not undergone these competitive and dire conditions before is absolutely critical and so to accomplish that you can take the advantage of distance conferencing and other similar technologies to improve the skills of your sales team and change their behaviors accordingly.

This is because nowadays with stellar growth in technology you no longer have to pull people out of the field into a conference room for a full day to find an impact on their sales productivity skills. For this use a micro-focused strategy to just address specific “chock-points” in the execution of your businesses’ sales processes and conduct just a few hours session that involves role-plays, drill for skill, to boost strategic development of your team.

Conclusion

Yes, you will have to take actions over the next several days, weeks, and possibly months to outrun your competition and not be eaten in these trying times, but to do that your organization must be stronger and faster than ever before.

Read More –  9 Powerful Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business Faster

sign up

How CRM Software Can Boost Sales And Relationships In Alternative Lending Industry

Every business starts and ends with their customers. That implies how the customers are treated from beginning to end and throughout their customer journey needs to be a high priority issue for all organizations, which can also be easily handled using an Alternative Lending CRM software in the Lending businesses, like Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending, Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) and more.

Every business starts and ends with their customers. That implies how the customers are treated from beginning to end and throughout their customer journey needs to be a high priority issue for all organizations, which can also be easily handled using an Alternative Lending CRM software in the Lending businesses, like Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending, Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) and more.

Total transaction value in the Alternative Lending segment amounts to US$291,474.5m in 2020 - Statista Click To Tweet

According to a recent Tweet by Qualtrics (a privately held experience management company based in the United States.), it was found that:
“78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of poor service experience.”

Definitely, that is not a piece of hot news; however, it does illuminate the manifold use of adopting an easy to use CRM software platform to improve upon customer support, relationships and more.

Hence, here are some of the ways business growth technology solutions like CRM for Alternative Lending companies can help the lending industry to generate more sales and revenue and provide enhanced customer experience to the consumers of their services:

Build Better Relationships

Have you ever run into that fast-talking salesman who starts talking like your long lost friend just after he meets you?

In the modern information-driven world, this is not an uncommon or far-fetched scenario as being portrayed above.

This is because if you are in any industry the right CRM can do the job of learning and storing years’ worth of relationship-building data with a few short interactions with your customers.

For example, in the lending sector, an efficient CRM for Alternative Lending industry can empower relationship building skills by storing updated and rich contact details, documents, emails, notes, transaction histories, activities, social media updates, and more in the CRM database, which is an ‘easy to find’ repository and the ‘only source of truth’ for all your employees.

This kind of information will not only foster a warm connection throughout the life of your customers, but it will also encourage more deal closures with up-selling and cross-selling activities.

Therefore, using CRM for Alternative Lending companies in lending businesses to nurture the customers throughout their buyer’s journey can guarantee a stellar increase in sales and consequentially rapid business growth.

Stay Connected And Close More Deals

Secondly, using an Alternative Lending CRM to stay plugged in with your customers more often, longer, and from different locations (once you are using a mobile CRM software) will result in not missing the golden opportunities for closing your deals.

Once you use a mobile CRM, you can be sure, that this kind of 24/7 availability and connection rarely goes unnoticed even by your customers that is crucial in the lending businesses which helps to further establish the confidence and trust of your customers for your Alternative Lending brand.

In a study done by Nucleus Research, recently it was found that:
“Mobile access to CRM increases sales force productivity by an average of 14.6%.”

Since, if your easy to use CRM goes wherever you and your sales reps go, it will enable your sales teams to be more productive, from anywhere they work, be it your office, home or the road.

Therefore, using a CRM for Alternative Lending companies for your financing business means that your sales teams working on that big leads (which might even be a game-changer for your company) will not ever be at risk of missing that one vital email, message, text, or phone call.

Find More Efficiency

Even waiting for a salesperson to pull-up your files, find a credit score, maximum loan availability status and so on can become really irritating and can get aggravated quickly, which can put a dent on your relationship with your customers.

However connecting your easy to use Alternative Lending CRM with popular business apps like QuickBooks Online, DocuSign, Zapier, PieSync, and other integrations can help to solve this issue.

Per se, as one of the most acclaimed QuickBooks CRM software ConvergeHub is a CRM tool that provides QuickBooks CRM integration free and is considered the best QuickBooks CRM for sales teams.

Therefore, integrating the third-party apps with your CRM will make your reps look more efficient and smart and hence leave your customers impressed with your services.

This is because; there is more you need to provide to your customers in modern times than just being polite and friendly. You need to be helpful, fast, and available to make your services count, as your sales numbers and relationship with your customers are all built on delivering effective and efficient service to your customers that can make or break your business in this competitive lender’s marketplace.

CRM for Alternative Lending Industry and Better Business

Delivering excellent customer support is the fastest way to make your business grow and it should be what your business is already doing- right?

Hence, using an Alternative Lending CRM software only extends that very service into better customer relationships but it will even improve your already great customer support operations while increasing sales.

In a gist, running a profitable business venture in the Alternative Lending industry must encompass a business strategy that involves adopting an easy to use CRM which foretells better revenue growth.

Now, if you want to learn more about how you can improve your sales or re-evaluate your customer relationship strategy in the lending industry, you can contact us after reading our page on Alternative Lending CRM which promises to GROW YOUR REVENUE BY 40% IN 12 MONTHS.

For the past few years, we have worked with thousands of small and mid-size businesses to help them with their business growth strategies, since the main purpose of customer engagement for a business or brand is to form a long-term relationship with the customer.

CRM is a cutting-edge software solution that not only help increase conversions of prospects but also ensures long-term customer loyalty that increases chances of customers becoming repeat consumers and eventually advocates of your brand.

Always remember, using Alternative Lending CRM means running a better lending business that is good for you and your customer.
So, why wait!

Buy CRM from ConvergeHub- the award-winning CRM for Alternative Lending industry for small and medium businesses right today!

sign up

How To Make The Best Use Of Inbound Marketing Skills For MCA Businesses In These Trying Times

The usefulness and popularity of the methodologies on inbound marketing in all sectors in the business including Alternative Lending businesses have been rising steadily since inbound marketing practices found its acceptance in the 2000s and thereafter evolved considerably, supported by the meteoric rise of the internet and introduction of fresh channels for marketing to deliver tailored and personalized contents to new prospects and existing customers, using MCA CRM software solutions which is more needed in this Pandemic times. However, do you know what is inbound marketing and what are the means by which you can excel in it? Well, in this article let us, therefore, dig into the nuances of this popular marketing strategy and discuss certain tactics that can be used in inbound marketing as we face this menacing COVID-19 tragedy along with some of the best practices that will help you to master it. Even not in the distant past, marketing was a totally different ballgame even in the MCA industry, than it is today.

The usefulness and popularity of the methodologies on inbound marketing in all sectors in the business including Alternative Lending businesses have been rising steadily since inbound marketing practices found its acceptance in the 2000s and thereafter evolved considerably, supported by the meteoric rise of the internet and introduction of fresh channels for marketing to deliver tailored and personalized contents to new prospects and existing customers, using MCA CRM software solutions which is more needed in this Pandemic times.

The global mobile CRM market will grow 11% to $15 billion worldwide this year as businesses seek to connect with their customers through their mobile devices. Click To Tweet

However, do you know what is inbound marketing and what are the means by which you can excel in it?

Well, in this article let us, therefore, dig into the nuances of this popular marketing strategy and discuss certain tactics that can be used in inbound marketing as we face this menacing COVID-19 tragedy along with some of the best practices that will help you to master it.

Even not in the distant past, marketing was a totally different ballgame even in the MCA industry, than it is today.

As before the rise of MCA CRM software and the internet, marketing for Merchant Cash Advance business mainly consisted of overtly trying to convince leads and prospective customers to buy their services, which in fact was not much different than traditional age-old advertising.

However, this marketing strategy changed as the internet and social media began to provide marketers with novel ways to deliver content to leads, prospects, and customers, shifting the focus from touting the advantages of their services to providing educational information that helped MCA prospects and customers to solve common problems.

Effective MCA inbound marketing tactics and best practices using Merchant Cash Advance software during this COVID-19 outbreak:

Although there are several common inbound marketing tactics that you have surely seen, nevertheless here are also a few of the most effective inbound marketing tactics that you can use for your Cash Advance business, especially when you are also using Merchant Cash Advance CRM software.

Content marketing

Content marketing is considered the bedrock of an inbound marketing strategy. Some of the most used content marketing tactics that can be used in Alternative Lending business are:
• Blogging
• EBooks
• Social media contents
• Videos
• Infographics
• Whitepapers
• Case Studies
• Email newsletters and others

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Next, once you have created your valuable content, you need to make it easy for your potential MCA customers to find and benefit from it.
This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play.
As most consumers use Google to search for content, SEO is a practice that helps in optimizing your Cash Advance website so that your web-pages appear higher-up in the search engine results.
However, although SEO remains a critical piece in every inbound marketer’s playbook, as Google constantly alters its search engine’s algorithms, nailing down SEO tactics for your Alternative Lending business is like aiming at a constantly moving target.
So learn more about updated SEO strategies that you can easily assimilate into your inbound marketing plans. Remember creating content without doing SEO is of no value, as content marketing is useless if you do not find a way to drive traffic into it.

Social Media Marketing

Social media has utterly altered the way present-day marketers approach their works. With the escalation of people using social media on a daily basis, social media platforms have become the primary channel through which MCA businesses can also reach their potential customers.
According to a report published by Social Media Examiner in 2018, it has been stated that social media marketing increase brand exposure by 87%, website traffic by 78%, and helps in generating more leads by 64% in the US markets.
Therefore, as an inbound marketing tactic, use social media to increase customer engagements and post your content on your social media platforms since if your content is outstanding, people will definitely share it and your Cash Advance businesses’ followers will grow.

Create buyer personas

Despite what many marketers may think, it is difficult to make a broad generalization about what your customers need or want without any research. Creating hypothetical profiles of your businesses’ ideal buyers or buyer personas helps to zero in on their requirements and deliver inbound content that addresses those needs.
For developing buyer personas, it is useful to launch a customer survey email campaign that allows you to focus on the most common pain-points that are felt across your customer base.
Using an MCA CRM software like ConvergeHub for collecting these data in the CRM database and for conducting these surveys helps in effectively address your customer’s needs.

Score Leads

Lead scoring is the practice of providing leads points for actions that they have taken and the demographic data they provide using MCA CRM software.
For example, when someone views or downloads your inbound contents, like eBooks, white papers, or visit your pricing page and others you can award them points for their interest to buy your services.
Lead scoring helps to view most sales-ready leads easily.

Develop engaging landing pages that convert leads

When someone clicks a link to view or download your content, ‘landing page’ is the place where they land on that offers the content for free but request personal information in exchange.
A landing page is a lead generation tactic, so make your Alternative Lending businesses’ landing pages engaging, which makes it amply clear what they are offering.

Takeaway
Unlike COVID-19, inbound marketing is here to stay. Since inbound marketing using Merchant Cash Advance CRM bridges the gap and enables modern, digital marketers to show that they care about the customer experience than anything else for creating a customer-centric business.

sign up