The case for card acceptance had to be made in money
The client was building a B2B payments proposition and needed to know what it was worth to the enterprises it wanted to sign.
Not worth in principle. Worth as a number, built out of faster collections, lower bad debt, reduced processing costs and less reliance on external financing.
That number lives inside accounts receivable, in the systems finance teams run and the targets they are held to. It is not visible from outside the business, so it had to come from the people who own it.
Thirteen markets, one seniority bar Director through C suite
Respondents were senior receivables, credit and collections, treasury and finance leaders across 13 markets in North and Latin America.
The seniority bar was strict. Executive interviews at Director through C suite only, with 8 to 12 or more years of relevant experience behind every response.
SME scale organisations, vendors, consultants and academics were excluded. B2B market research loses its value the moment it collects opinions from people who do not carry the decision.
What each respondent gave was first hand: how receivables are run, how payments are accepted, how collections perform and where working capital comes under pressure.
From receivables technology to bad debt, the drivers came out mapped
The research mapped the operational and financial drivers of card acceptance across receivables technology and automation, days sales outstanding, bad debt and processing costs.
It carried on through working capital, financing needs, sales enablement and the regulatory requirements sitting over all of it.
The result is a 13 market fact base. The client compares the financial value of card acceptance region by region, and sees where the priority opportunities sit.
That is what sharpened both its payment value proposition and the way it goes to market, built on evidence from senior practitioners rather than on assumptions about them.
