MERCHANT ACCOUNT SERVICES

¼% on a $40 sale is not a lot of money – ¼% on $1 Million is.

 

Competitive Edge deals with clients with various sales volumes, and one profit area often overlooked is the quality and pricing of the merchant account. Whether you are a client with an existing merchant account who is preparing for revenue increases or a brand new marketer new to direct response, it is not uncommon to see a pricing difference between credit card providers of ¼% or more.

 

It is critical for the success of your campaign to accept all 4 major credit card providers, and for some, the ability to accept checks and money orders is as well. Competitive Edge can recommend one or more merchant providers who are geared to direct response and will work with clients to keep their costs down and provide understandable reports and efficient funds transfers.

 

 

INBOUND TELEMARKETING

What if the Phone rings and No one answers?

 

There are hundreds of inbound telemarketing companies in the U.S., but there are only a handful of providers that Competitive Edge recommends. It is a very difficult business, but their execution of the campaign will many times spell the difference between success and failure. This is a decision that is too important to leave to chance.

 

Competitive Edge looks at the campaign’s creative, the expected call volume, the price, upsell, complexity of the product and numerous other items in deciding which telemarketing firms to recommend. In the end, the decision is the client’s but we will sometimes strongly recommend a particular inbound telemarketer to meet your needs. Depending on the product and campaign, we often recommend two different firms, dividing the work, for example, between one firm for print and one for TV, etc.

 

Once the inbound house(s) are selected and setup, we will assist as requested in the preparation of scripts, the coordination of product education and training, buyer conversion strategies, as well as upsell and continuity recommendations. Just as important, we will establish campaign reporting with direct data downloads from the telemarketing center to Competitive Edge’s reporting system, which allows us to monitor results daily, and make recommendations in real time to adjust the media plan or telemarketing script.

                         

 

FULFILLMENT/CUSTOMER SERVICE

Anyone who has sold products via Direct Response knows that the timely and accurate fulfillment of orders is the single most important activity that a company needs to execute. For those companies that have existing internal fulfillment and customer service teams, there is usually little problem. But for others who do not have these resources, or are not experienced in the “one up” fulfillment challenges of direct response, a full service fulfillment center may be the best solution.

 

The fulfillment centers typically receive your product orders from your website and/or inbound telemarketing centers, process the credit card, ship the orders and handle the inevitable customer service questions ranging from, “Where is My Order?” to “Where do I send my Return?”.

 

Competitive Edge can recommend one or more fulfillment centers who can meet your needs. Our recommendation usually takes into account the type of product sold, the number of SKU’s, the location of your standing inventory and competitive pricing.

 

                         

 

REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

For many agencies, the job ends when the media is bought.

 

For Competitive Edge, our job is just beginning. We establish reporting cycles to meet our client needs, but we are looking at your numbers daily – looking for opportunities to capitalize on and disappointing results to mitigate. Looking for trends and patterns – looking for new media opportunities to expand the product results and branding. Most of all, we believe in open reporting. Good or bad, you will have easy reports to view, and in most cases, our clients have access to their data to run reports when they choose.

 

Our commitment is to focus on each client’s goals and objectives and never forget that our success is directly tied to your success. We constantly look for revenue enhancement programs to increase your profits and are not shy in offering new or “outside the box” suggestions as the data and opportunities warrant.