Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

Merchant Warehouse

  

SASCS11 How to Enter Bug

Company: Merchant Warehouse, Boston, MA
Company Description: In 1998, Merchant Warehouse (MW) was founded on the principle that businesses should be able to purchase credit card machines and services at a reasonable price. Over 40,000 merchants later, MW now sets the standard for price, customer service, and integrity. The company still offers the guaranteed lowest cost on all processing services, in an industry of approximately 300-500 competitors.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Lead Management System of the Year

Nomination Title: Merchant Warehouse's Sales Lead Management System

    Tell the story about your organization's sales lead management program since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

        Merchant Warehouse has a 35+ person sales team focused on helping business
accept credit cards.  We generate thousands of inbound leads each month which
arrive via phone, contact form and live chat from several dozen different
sources.

        Our challenges were to develop a system and processes by which we could:
• Route leads from different sources to the sub-groups of sales members trained
to best address those customer’s needs.
• Track our sales success from the click to conversion (call, form completion,
live chat) all the way through to an off-line sale.

        Our solution involved innovation on our website, phone system and home-grown
CRM:
• Our website has the ability to display dynamic toll free numbers which change
based on the traffic source.  Wherever a visitor goes on our site, they will
always see the same number.  These phone numbers can also be assigned to
partners directly which ensures that all calls coming in from their referrals
can be identified and credited to them.  All forms on our site, as well as live
chat, are also capable of capturing the traffic source.
• Our phone system was customized to allow us to identify the traffic source as
it was coming in and to have the ability to route those leads directly to
different sales members or teams.  For partners or traffic sources with specific
types of customers, or with unique needs, this allows us to ensure that their
customers connect to a rep trained to support them.
• When a sales rep answers the phone, the CRM we developed automatically creates
a new lead form which opens on the rep’s screen.  A unique identifier for that
lead is imbedded automatically allowing us to always associate that lead with
the source.  The rep uses this form to enter all customer information and
throughout the sales process.

        The results of this implementation have been incredibly beneficial for our
business:
• We have been able to aggressively recruit new lead referral partners because
they trust that we can accurately compensate them and that their customers will
get the specific attention they need.  As a direct result we are now writing
around 600 more deals a month (out of around 3000/mo total) from new partners.
• Our regular online marketing efforts are much more efficient since we can
accurately track new sales all the way back to the original click and keyword. 
We have lowered our marketing spend by 40% without reducing our inbound leads.
• Our sales close rate is up over 15% as a result of reps being able to more
accurately address customer needs.

        This process took many months to develop and many people contributed to the
success.  We are excited and proud to feel that we have solved one of the
biggest problems in sales & marketing integration by allowing us to track leads
throughout the entire funnel.

    List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

    Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated sales organization:

        This effort was highly collaborative.  The following all played a key role in
the development and deployment of the system and processes.

        Brian Waldman - VP Marketing & Strategy
Marc Castrechini - Director of Software Development
Steve Tatem - MIS Director
Eric George - Director of Sales
Hal Gudmundsen - Sr Manager, Acquisition and Retention