Three More Tips for Choosing MLM Back Office Software
What’s keeping your direct sales company from growing the way you want it to? There’s no silver bullet technology solution that can solve all your problems and guarantee that you’ll dominate your market. But the right MLM back office software can give you features and capabilities your competitors lack.
We recently highlighted some of the most important features for MLM back office software. Here are three more capabilities you won’t want to live without.
Key Capabilities for Your Next MLM Platform
The ability to test your system control record changes. Have you ever had concerns when launching a new system feature? You always think through these things carefully, but do you have a way to test your change without impacting the production environment? How can you know for sure you haven’t overlooked some detail that could cost your company thousands of dollars?
Often times with many MLM back office software platforms, you won’t really know the impact of a system change until you launch it. That’s why you need to look for a platform that lets you run test scenarios separately from your production environment. In a test environment, you can adjust all the levers and switches to determine how pricing changes, discounts, promotions and incentives will affect your system. A comprehensive test environment will help you be much more confident in launching any system change and create a best in class experience for your customers.
Flexible pay schedules. So much has been written about how today’s younger sales reps are different from their predecessors in previous generations. There’s much more of a desire to get into direct sales as a side hustle, an extra stream of income, or a “gig.”
This is not to say that today’s sales reps are less serious or less diligent. They just have a different mindset towards income. One aspect of this mindset is that one need not earn their entire salary from a single employer. Another aspect is that people increasingly expect to be paid right away for the work they perform.
Are you used to making payments on a monthly basis, or only after sales reps have crossed a predetermined minimum threshold? To keep ahead, you’ll need to adapt to the expectations of your younger and more forward-thinking distributors. Most other “Gig Economy” income opportunities that we are competing with pay their workers instantly upon completion of their work.
Make sure you choose MLM back office software that can support you in this competitive effort by creating the ability to make commission payments in real time – as often as every minute, every hour, or every day— on whatever schedule you believe will be most appealing and supportive of your sales reps. Make sure that your system doesn’t place operational constraints on your business in this important area.
Support for free shipping. Remember when customers were perfectly happy waiting a few days for their shipments to arrive and they understood that shopping online required the payment of some kind of shipping charge? And then along came Amazon.
How are you dealing with the relentless pressure to offer fast and free shipping? Amazon has truly raised the bar for all of us in this area. Promising delivery next week at full cost just doesn’t cut it anymore.
One way to meet customer expectations without blowing a hole in your budget is to offer an express shipping program available for a nominal annual fee. Many firms are considering the creation of these kinds of ‘premium’ memberships which provide free shipping and other benefits to participating customers. Look for MLM back office software that supports these kinds of programs tied to customer type.
Get the Full Story About MLM Back Office Software
Choosing your next MLM platform doesn’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, we believe there are just seven key features to look for. Find out what they are—and shave hours off your product evaluation process—with our free white paper.
Download “7 Must-Have Capabilities for Your Next MLM Solution” now.