Payments perspectives: Austin Bouse
At Global Payments Integrated, our business development (BD) managers approach and consult with independent software vendors (ISVs) to find integrated payment solutions that benefit their merchants and their bottom line.
Austin Bouse is one of our BD managers who has been with the organization for four years, working with various departments before becoming a junior associate and then a full-time BD manager.
We sat down with Austin to understand the role of a BD manager, the importance of integrated payments for ISVs, and what his thoughts are regarding the future of payments.
Q: What does your day-to-day look like as a BD manager?
Austin: No two days in the BD world are exactly the same. As a result, it’s important to be adaptable to your environment while also recognizing that self-management is critical to a successful day as a rep.
After an early morning workout, I head to my desk and begin the workday by prospecting through emails and calls. I’m a big advocate for getting my prospecting done early in the day as it helps me focus up on my more mid-bottom of the funnel tasks knowing I have already accounted for new lead generation.
After prospecting, I’ll take some time to prepare for my scheduled calls throughout the day. These calls vary as they cover different customer journey stages, from introductory and discovery calls to internal calls with finance/underwriting, technical calls with development engineers, and presentations for a formalized partnership proposal to a prospective client. I make sure the goal of the call is clear, conduct additional research, and review any critical information about the ISV.
Then, I always allocate time to send follow-up emails to prospective clients or check in with existing clients to see how everything is going. Toward the end of the day, I’ll do a funnel review and make sure all my key accounts are going in the right direction, identify who I need to follow up with or call the next day and what my priority items are going into the following day.
Q: Why is payment integration important for today’s ISVs?
Austin: Payment integrations are becoming a requirement for software companies in any industry. They are beneficial to the ISV and to their clients (merchants).
For ISVs, having a single source integrated provider dramatically enhances support pathways, having one provider to contact for any issues or questions instead of having multiple processors that your clients are contacting you about.
Another advantage is the revenue opportunity. ISVs can make significant revenue from an integrated solution, increasing its overall valuation since it’s recognized as direct bottom-line revenue with no additional expense.
The most standard benefit for ISV merchants is streamlining overall business operations. This streamlining consists of multiple components. The first is auto-posting daily transactions to the merchant’s general ledger. An ISV with an integrated payment solution helps its clients alleviate manual entry (and the human error that comes along with it) and decrease labor hours spent focusing on it.
An integrated solution can increase cash flow for merchants, making it easier for consumers to make payments, keep cards on file for recurring transactions and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Both of the benefits above increase the profitability of each merchant and help them grow. An integrated solution will also streamline business operations through the enhancement of reporting. Merchants will see all transaction data for a given day, week, month, or year and contact the integrated payment provider directly if there are any issues/questions.
The additional visibility makes issue resolution more effortless and reduces time spent on payment-related inquiries. Reporting tools also help merchants forecast, allowing them to make data-driven decisions about any adjustments moving forward.
Q: How does Global Payments Integrated improve the payment experience for ISV customers?
Austin: I think it’s important to point out that integrated payments have evolved quite a bit. Accepting credit cards is an absolute must-have, and payment integrations are becoming commonplace.
The future wave of payments centers around the overall enhancement of the consumer experience. Our overall mission is to continue innovating, and we view ourselves not only as a payment processor but a holistic embedded commerce technology company.
ISVs having control over and enhancing the end-user payment experience is a big focus in the fintech space. Most software companies have it on their radar, but they’re not always sure how to implement a strategy that will provide the best experience for their clients.
From my past conversations, I’ve noticed similarities between the hurdles these ISVs run into while also recognizing that each company has its own unique goals, fears of the future, and product gaps they’re trying to fill. I must take the time to understand what these look like for each partner and how we can align ourselves to be successful.
Once identified, we provide our partners with a solution tailored to their company goals and industry needs, focused on an optimal consumer experience. The solution should account for all desired payment functionality (how they pay), all payment touchpoints along the consumer journey (when and where they pay), and adjacent payment functionality (additional functionality that helps consumers advance to payment).
From here, we dedicate a variety of technical and business resources to assure a timely development cycle, go to market, and effective management of the solution throughout the life of the partnership. With a purpose-built consumer experience, our partners and their clients grow their businesses more quickly.
Q: What do you enjoy most about working with ISVs?
Austin: Working with ISVs is very rewarding and exciting. I’ve signed partners in multiple industries, ranging in size from enterprise-level conglomerates to start-ups with tons of potential. Either way, watching an embedded commerce strategy come to life and generate impactful revenue for our partnership while simultaneously helping the ISV and their merchants grow their businesses is awesome to see.
It’s also rewarding to provide valued guidance and consultative services to ISVs looking to further understand the ecommerce world and maximize an embedded commerce strategy.
Q: What excites you the most about the future of payments?
Austin: There’s a lot to be excited about when thinking through the future of payments and embedded commerce.
First off, there has been steady consolidation happening across the fintech space. Companies have been coming together, buying up technologies and platforms that can help create a seamless digital experience for consumers. It’s cool to see companies focusing on embedding payments into multiple different touch points along the consumer journey to truly enhance the experience.
I’m also excited to see the further development of some major areas of focus like digital currencies, digital wallets, buy now pay later, peer-to-peer platforms, and business to business platforms.
Conclusion
Our Business Development team is ready to help you integrate a payment solution that best suits your software solution and your clients’ needs. Contact us today to get started.
Originally published at https://www.globalpaymentsintegrated.com.
