Traditionally, monetization has been considered something of an afterthought, or simply a means to an end. But today, with customers demanding more flexibility and engagement and the market shifting more rapidly than ever before, leading organizations must embed monetization directly into their growth strategy. Meaning innovative pricing models, customer data analytics and agile billing capabilities — like order management, billing, invoicing, payments, rating, dunning, revenue recognition and more — must be baked into strategy from the start, not considered as last-minute, transaction-based boxes to check.

Today, innovations in technology allow companies to process large volumes of data in real time and more effectively harness that data to monetize products and services for today’s consumers. The businesses that invest in those capabilities and embrace the models and systems to implement agile monetization strategies company-wide empower themselves to produce what we call the “golden trifecta” of results. In growing top-line revenue, increasing operational efficiency and improving the customer experience, these companies create for themselves the opportunity to significantly grow their revenue and increase their bottom line.

Results of Agile Monetization

Grow Top-Line Revenue

Forrester research shows that 84 percent of companies leverage usage-based pricing today or plan to within the next two years. Additionally, 71 percent of companies find that these usage-based models lower barriers to product and service adoption. You can learn more about the intricacies and benefits of usage-based billing in our recent blog post, but the bottom line is this: the usage-based billing models enabled by agile monetization strategies and systems allow business to launch new products, new packaging and new pricing structures quickly and efficiently to react to changes in market trends and customer preferences. These models help attract new customers and nurture long-term relationships with existing customers, keeping agile businesses ahead of the curve at every turn.

Operate More Efficiently

In today’s fast-moving market, efficiency is critical for companies that want to keep their reputation and their revenue up. But operations efficiency is often easier said than achieved. For example, MGI Research found recently that 32 percent of companies struggle to implement new service and pricing plans quickly, and only 29 percent can do so in less than four weeks. And McKinsey recently reported that 60 percent of B2B transactions require some kind of manual intervention, each adding 15 to 20 minutes to the process — an additional hour of work for every three to four transactions.

Outdated, manual or legacy billing platforms are key drivers of these inefficiencies, but agile monetization systems enable businesses to sync up their front- and back-office operations to save time, resources and headaches in every step of the quote-to-cash process.

Improve the Customer Experience

Gartner reports that 89 percent of companies believe customer experience is the primary basis for staying ahead of the competition, so it stands to reason that these companies would look for ways to turn one-time transactions into long-term, loyal customer relationships. At a high level, usage-based models are the foundation of these efforts, but agile monetization strategy goes much deeper, ensuring businesses have the logistical systems in place to provide accurate quotes and detailed, easy-to-read invoices in a timely manner and to bill customers how they want to be billed.

The customer experience hinges, today, on flexibility and the ability to meet customers where they are with business processes that are convenient and intuitive. The Economist reports that 80 percent of companies are seeing a change in how their customers want to pay for services, and 50 percent are changing their pricing models as a result. After all, says Zendesk Senior Director of Sales and Marketing IT Jim Gearhart,

"If you have a customer that has specific needs, why would you want to turn away their business by saying ‘sorry, this is the only way we can sell?' "

Putting the right agile monetization systems in place means no longer having to limit the ways a business can sell to its customers.

A renewed focus on monetization requires a shift in both mindset and systems. If your organization is ready to take the leap to enable significant revenue growth, we invite you to contact us today to schedule a complimentary, personalized demo and learn how Gotransverse can partner with your organization to implement the systems that will power your growth.