BRINGING SOLUTIONS - PLAN SOCIOS
Visanet was the Visa representative in Peru, a company that offers card payment solutions for all types of businesses. When I started working for Visanet I was 19 years old and I joined the commercial and sales department. At that time Visanet was introducing new products in the Peruvian market and wanted to massify its presence by targeting new market niches. What was my task? Setting up sales campaigns for small businesses that were still sceptical about card payment methods.
CHALLENGE
Although Visanet had already managed to position itself in the Peruvian market as the leading company in card payment solutions, it had yet to reach the small business sector, which by their nature did not consider it essential to have a card payment method, since their monthly sales volumes were not so high and their customers' card payment requirements were not high either. However, they did see an opportunity to generate more sales and gain new customers, those who are used to paying by card. What was the problem? The fixed costs of the service were relatively high for a start-up business. That was the problem and the question we were asking ourselves as a team.
OBJECTIVE
Our goal was to reach a potential market as Peru is considered one of the most entrepreneurial countries in Latin America, what does this mean? According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Peru is the fourth most entrepreneurial country in Latin America and the eighth most entrepreneurial in the world. Every day different small businesses are started up which, due to their nature, do not have all the technical facilities to compete with larger companies. The solution? Well, to create a special accessible offer for this type of business and thus provide them with a card payment transaction service so that they can increase their sales, reach more customers and not limit themselves to cash. But, above all, so that they can belong to the largest payment network in the country, Visanet.
PLAN SOCIOS
In October 2014 "Plan Socios" was born, an affiliation plan for small businesses belonging to specific business models. Since the problem faced by our potential customers was basically related to the issue of fixed service costs, we set out to create a fixed cost plan that would be attractive to them while still being beneficial to us.
To put this in context, our "normal" cost scheme was determined as follows:
Installation: a business paid a one-time installation fee of S/. 60.00 + VAT.
Monthly rent: monthly, we paid a fixed S/.18.00 + VAT, plus S/.5.00 + VAT for sending documentation and invoices, which meant that each affiliated business paid S/.23.00 + VAT on a monthly basis.
It doesn't seem much, does it? Well, for a small business such as a flower shop or a restaurant it is a lot, especially if in three months they have not made any card transaction, which can happen for different reasons, in that scenario the fixed costs of each month will accumulate.
FEATURES
The "Plan Socios" comprised a variable fixed cost scheme, depending on the volume of sales. What did we mean by this? The business paid a monthly rent in relation to the volume of sales. For each transaction it would be charged S/. 0.90 up to a maximum of 20 transactions (S/.0.90 * 20 = S/.18.00).
PAYMENT SCHEME
The "Partner Plan" comprised a variable fixed cost scheme, depending on the volume of sales. What did we mean by this? The business paid a monthly rent in relation to the volume of sales. For each transaction it would be charged S/. 0.90 up to a maximum of 20 transactions (S/.0.90 * 20 = S/.18.00).
How much did the customer pay if he made more than 30 transactions? You may be asking yourself this question...if the business made more than 20 card transactions...they were not charged more than S/.18.00 for rent, which is the normal payment scheme.
And what would happen if in one, two or more months no transactions had been made? Well, the business simply paid nothing!
WHAT BUSINESSES WERE TARGETED?
This campaign ran for 3 months and was then re-run due to the great reception it received. The business lines that were contemplated in this campaign were 3: gastronomy (this included all the sub-business lines belonging to the gastronomic sector), clothing and footwear (in this line of business are also considered all the businesses related to the sale, production and repair of footwear and clothing, as well as the beauty sector. Why were these three types of business chosen? For one simple reason: the sales ticket of these types of businesses is low and the amounts to be paid for the services they provide are low.
AFFILIATION PROCESS
We had two types of affiliations within the sales process.
Receptiva: This refers to those affiliations that were made organically. Customers saw our advertising or heard about our promotion through our promotional campaigns and contacted our customer service centre directly. We would then refer the case to the relevant office for a sales consultant to handle the affiliation process.
Gestión: This type of affiliation refers to the work done by our sales force. They were in charge of prospecting for new business and affiliating them to the Visanet payment network.
OVERVIEW
With this campaign we managed to reach a new market and we managed to help many entrepreneurs to continue to grow, providing them with the tools to be able to generate more sales, not limit themselves to cash and build customer loyalty. The "Plan Socios" is one of those first projects that taught me to put myself in the customer's shoes and try to understand their needs in order to create solutions.