Council Post: Five Reasons To Consider A CRM With Payment Integration

President at CRMDialer.com & IRISCRM.com. Overseeing the growth of e-commerce payments & writing on payments, growth hacks & SMB efficiency.

A customer relationship management (CRM) app is one of the most important apps for any modern business, especially those that have a strong sales department. It’s no wonder then that CRM apps today have a large number of integrations that streamline processes and make selling even easier.

Among others, integrations with payment processors are gaining in popularity. But why is this and are there any benefits to getting paid from your CRM? Let’s find out. 

1. You can close quicker.

Sales is all about speed and the very reason why CRMs exist is to speed up the sales process. Everything that a sales professional might need is there: all the information about a prospect and the interactions they had with your business. When it’s time to close, you need to get the payment as soon as possible while the lead is still hot instead of waiting around for them to change their mind.

You could send them an invoice and wait for days for their accounting to handle it. Or you can go the easy route and send a payment request through your CRM. As you’re on the call, you can take a credit card or ACH payment immediately. You don’t risk losing the client and you can get the payment right there on the spot. Not only is that a huge win for the company, but it’s also quite motivating for the sales rep.

2. It’s often more convenient for the customer.

Remember invoices? Sure, modern CRMs and sales apps let you create invoices with the click of a button and you can even send them right there on the spot. The problem is, the average invoice takes 20-30 days to get paid because of all the hoops you have to jump through.

Instead of taking all that time to pay you, the client can simply spell out their credit card details on a sales call. You may not even have the best product or service out there, but if you make it easy to get in touch with you and pay you right there on the call, this is something that the modern client will greatly appreciate. We live in an age of instant so don’t be surprised if the client moves on because you’re taking too long to get started with their business.

3. It can be more secure.

Be sure to check with your CRM provider about how they securely store information, but a good CRM provides an additional layer of security and make both you and the client feel safe. It also removes the potential for human error. In my experience, by connecting your CRM and payment gateways, you remove one more obstacle and reduce the chances of payment errors or fraud.

4. You get the full picture.

Another benefit of CRMs is they allow you to have all of your accounts’ data in one spot. You open up their profile and you can see exactly who they are, what size their business is, when you first had a call, what type of product they’re interested in and much more. With your payment system integrated into the CRM, you’ll also be able to see the payment history for all accounts in their profiles and can use that information to make more informed decisions.

5. You can reduce the number of services/apps you use.

Getting paid can be a drag. You have to use a large variety of payment processors and platforms that allow your customers to pay you more easily. The more payment processors are integrated with your CRM, the fewer systems you will have to pay for separately. That means less money spent and less time wasted on tinkering around and setting up different ways to get paid. Perhaps, best of all is that CRMs with these integrations aren’t an additional cost and you won’t have to make a huge investment up front. If you’re already using a good CRM solution, they should be able to transfer your data to a new payment-integrated CRM with relative ease.

There are lots of integrations that you can get for your CRM and finding the right ones can be almost as difficult as choosing a CRM in the first place. However, in my experience, deciding to use a CRM with payment integration is an easy choice. Not only will your customers love paying you more quickly, but your sales team will love you for making their job easier, too.

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