Page 24 - GS191202

CoverStory

In addition to implementing foundational marketing and 4. There has been a fundamental shift in the payments
sales initiatives, we've set the stage for more growth in industry towards technology. For payments professionals
2020 by building strategic partnerships along with contin- to stand out, they must adapt and embrace change. Just
ued development of innovative new features to our plat- like Square, software platforms that enhance efficiency
form. As a result, in Q1 of next year, you'll see a radical and productivity will replace traditional non-integrated
expansion in the number of integration partners, channel payment solutions and force merchant level salespeople to
partners and features that Biller Genie has to offer. adapt. Those that do not, will not last.

What advice do I have? Focus on providing customer val- The global e-invoicing market is valued $4.6 trillion and is
ue, not just making or selling products or services. Identify expected to grow to over $20 trillion by 2026, a 20 percent
key issues facing your customer -– whether it be an unmet CAGR over the same time period. Consider this: 90 percent
need, a trend that's on the horizon or simply a better way of businesses in the United States still send invoices and
of doing something – and invest energy and effort to build collect payments manually. My bet: this is where we are
solutions that solve that need. In many ways, it's our job to going to see the biggest growth in 2020.
remove obstacles that get in the way of the customer's suc-
cess. They aren't looking for products or services. They're
looking for solutions to their problems, and sometimes it's Justin Milmeister, CPP
problems they don't even know they have. It's our job to Elite Merchant Solutions
find them, and we're limited only by our own creativity.

2. This year, we decided to focus on paid media and adver- 1. 2019 was an exciting year for Elite Merchant Solutions.
tising to drive awareness of the brand versus more organic The highlight of the year was expanding our operations
efforts such as content marketing and SEO. However, be- internationally to support our company in the United
ing a new and largely unrecognized brand, we realized States. The international expansion has taken a lot of
that paid media tactics alone weren't enough to get the work and due diligence to make it a reality. We expect to
kind of scale we wanted. By focusing on paid search, so- be fully operational at the end of January 2020. My advice
cial and tech-specific media channels, we didn't benefit to readers is to never be complacent and always look for
from the "amplification effect" of implementing a more opportunities that can help your organization grow. Once
holistic marketing approach that includes a mix of tactics you have identified the opportunity, live and breathe it, so
that build awareness and position the brand as a leader in it becomes a reality.
the industry.
2. We have always taken pride in being a boutique payment
In 2020, we'll continue to drive awareness of the Biller Ge- processing company. We focus on larger merchants, and
nie brand but will refocus our strategy on supporting our we service the heck out of them. In 2019, we strayed away
channel partners who wish to add value to their network from our usual sales hiring practices that previously
through the distribution of Biller Genie. We plan to con- included small groups, which allowed our sales managers
tinue to eliminate friction and competition and enable our to focus often one on one to get them up to speed on the
partners to drive revenue, increase merchant acquisition sales process and hand hold them through their first five
and reduce merchant churn. We know that word of mouth deals.
is the best way to build our reputation, so we will continue
to provide best-in-class service to help support our part- This past year we had several larger than normal training
ners in their endeavor to help their clients get paid faster. classes, and this did not yield the results we expected.
The lackluster results were clearly a product of not vetting
3. In 2019, we saw massive consolidation in the payments out potential team members properly and not giving the
business with the Fiserv acquisition of First Data, FIS ac- individualized attention needed to succeed in this complex
quisition of Worldpay, and the Global Payments and TSYS industry. This coming year we will be going back to what
merger. This will limit options for traditional payment has worked for us many years, which is small training
relationships, and we expect continued rollups of smaller groups for newly hired inside sales staff. Doing this will
agent and ISO portfolios. This shows that organic growth arm our new sales associates with the knowledge and
in the payments-only business has slowed down and the one on one attention needed to thrive in the constantly
old days of building merchant portfolios by going door evolving payment processing industry.
to door is not as profitable as it once was. "The big guys"
have realized this and shifted their efforts toward growth 3. I believe the most significant development for fintech
through acquisition. The payments industry is changing, in 2019 was the massive M&A activity. These transactions
and to compete, ISOs and merchant level salespeople need were important because, as with any large acquisition,
to demonstrate real value by delivering products and ser- change brings both good and bad. The leadership of the
vices that merchants need and are willing to pay a pre- new massive companies have plans that are sometimes
mium for. vastly different than that of their predecessors. A perfect
example, which I have been hearing over and over, is
the way ISOs are being viewed by new leadership. Once
24