When it comes to sales success, strong habits can be just as critical as fine-tuned selling techniques. Here’s how Midtrans used a business card management system to support positive behavioral change while increasing sales efficiency and productivity.
Empowering Sales Teams to Work Smarter
Indonesia’s largest online payments facilitator, Midtrans, is a small company with big ambitions. According to CEO Ryu Suliawan, the B2B company acts as an intermediary between e-commerce businesses and their banks. It hopes to provide payment infrastructure for all e-commerce across Indonesia within 10 years.
“Out of the top 100 or so e-commerce companies in Indonesia, roughly 64 per cent are using Midtrans in one way or another,” Suliawan said. “Essentially all the largest marketplaces except for a few use our services.”
The Midtrans sales team carries much of the responsibility for making Suliawan’s vision a reality. However, with sales representatives making up just 15 per cent of the company’s 170-strong workforce, high performance and efficiency are critical to success.
The Need for a Tool to Boost Sales
To this end, Midtrans constantly sought new ways to improve sales. It implemented sales automation software and analysed the behavior of its top and bottom salespeople. It was during the latter that the company identified the need for a business card management system.
“We found that one of the key things that differentiate the top (salesperson) and the one that is evolving or improving is that the (top salespeople) are really good at managing their contacts,” Suliawan said. “Every night they put that information into their contact list on their phone, or on the computer.
“What I thought was: would it be effective if the salespeople in the middle of the pack were given a way to automatically manage their contacts? Would they be able to emulate the successes of the top salespeople?”
He recognized that a business card management system could inspire lasting behavioral change, boosting sales efficiency and driving revenue in the process.
Sansan Comes on Board
Midtrans needed a straightforward, user-friendly system that would allow sales representatives to share contact information and identify opportunities, while also setting a new benchmark for sales team performance.
Following an assessment of other business card management systems, Midtrans started using Sansan in November 2015. After a short trial, the company signed up for a plan that allows users to scan up to 5,000 business cards.
Users can choose to scan business cards via the mobile application on their smartphones, the Sansan scanner and touch panel set, or their office computers.
Scanned business cards are forwarded to Sansan’s database, where operators manually transcribe client contact details for maximum accuracy. Information is then stored in a central repository for fast, hassle-free access by all Midtrans employees.
Driving Sales Efficiency and Collaboration
Sansan’s business card management system has become a core element of Midtrans’ sales operations. Sales representatives are now required to enter new business cards into the system every Monday. Because of the on-the-go nature of sales, most prefer to scan business cards using the Sansan mobile app.
Suliawan said ease of use has played a critical role in rapid adoption and the formation of new habits. He estimated that 70 per cent of sales representatives use the business card management system.
“It’s been very, very easy and that’s a good thing for the whole company,” he said.
The business card management system also provides a single database for all sales contacts. While a salesperson may take physical business cards when they leave the company, Midtrans retains all information on contacts and past sales relationships. What’s more, any salesperson can view a contact’s information in just a few clicks. This prevents the loss of potential sales due to staff turnover.
Suliawan said Sansan’s business card management system has improved sales team productivity, particularly in regards to collaboration. Team members can visualize connections between clients, prospects and colleagues. In turn, this provides insights to strengthen contact relationships and boost sales.
“Sansan has allowed the capacity and the capabilities to share contacts with each other, and that has been highly effective in increasing sales efficiency,” he said.
Midtrans also uses the system to process contact information outside of a sales context. At higher levels, the system has eliminated the need for assistants to manually enter business card details into the company database. According to Suliawan, assistants tend to prefer using the Sansan business card scanner – as opposed to the mobile app – for its ability to scan a large number of cards (up to 60 per minute) quickly.
“Prior to Sansan, my assistant was (entering business card details) for me,” Suliawan said. “I actually had a ‘human Sansan’, but now my assistant is using Sansan to manage all of my contacts’ details, which is super helpful.”
The Way Forward with Sansan
With its sales team now in the habit of scanning business cards weekly, Midtrans is exploring new ways to harness stored contact information to drive sales. It plans to use Sansan’s Bulk Email Delivery feature to periodically contact potential customers and channel partners.
In order to maintain a personal touch, each system-generated email will be sent from a sales representative’s email account, with the latter’s name as the sender.
By providing targeted, relevant updates about Midtrans-related news, events and services, Suliawan anticipates that bulk emails will create new sales opportunities. He expects the feature to increase sales without burdening salespeople with extra responsibilities.
“Sansan’s mass pop email function is actually pretty interesting, and we will most likely start using that as more contacts are compiled within our system,” he said.
After more than a year of using Sansan’s business card management system, Midtrans has enhanced its sales by improving internal sales productivity and collaboration. Most importantly, however, the company has turned business card contacts into valuable corporate assets.
“With Sansan, we could actually turn contacts into long-term assets for the company,” Suliawan said. “That has been tremendously valuable to us.”
