Fintech unicorn Xendit gains 25% productivity uplift with Salesforce
Southeast Asian fintech Xendit achieved rare unicorn status within six years of launch. Here’s how the company is scaling up for its next phase of growth with Salesforce…
Xendit is a digital payments company that is powering business expansion across Southeast Asia with a single integration that enables businesses to accept payments through many of the most popular payment platforms.
“The payment landscape in Southeast Asia is very fragmented — different customers want to pay using different payment methods,” explains Yaw Yeo, Head of Growth at Xendit. “Companies need to integrate with dozens of payment providers separately. That’s a lot of time wasted.”
Xendit launched in 2015 and achieved unicorn status in 2021. But enabling such remarkable growth required a rapid upgrade of its CRM system and processes. So the company engaged implementation partner BCX Studio for its initial Salesforce deployment over six months, and used a pilot team to stress-test and share feedback.
Here’s how Xendit used Salesforce Customer 360 to power its growth from a lean start-up to a $1 billion-plus unicorn…
1. Personalise customer interactions with a 360-degree view
In the early days, a small sales team was managed using a basic spreadsheet. But as the team grew to more than 30 people, the spreadsheet couldn't keep up.
“Dealing with customers over periods ranging from one to 18 months added another layer of complexity,” reflects Sujinun Jutakorn (Fah), VP of Sales at Xendit. “Keeping track of their unique needs and concerns across the whole organisation was becoming a puzzle.”
Darrick Chan, VP Marketing and Revenue Operations at Xendit, says this created a lack of clarity in the company’s customer engagement: “It led to missed opportunities, inefficient resource allocation, a lack of accountability, and hindered growth. We needed a CRM to match the scale and budget of the company.”
“That's where Sales Cloud came in to save the day,” Fah adds. “It gives everyone in the company a complete picture of our customers.”
2. Ensure customer trust with high-level data security
Building high levels of customer trust is central to Xendit’s success. That means security is always a priority, which is why the company uses Salesforce to ensure customer data is well protected.
“Access to information at Xendit is rigorously controlled, and Salesforce is instrumental in implementing role-based permissions,” says Darrick. “This ensures that employees have access only to the information relevant to their roles, enhancing data security and maintaining confidentiality.”
Darrick adds that personalisation also plays a key role in building trust. Each customer is unique and savvy enough to troubleshoot their own problems, so it's important not to treat them generically.
“Salesforce empowers us with a comprehensive 360-degree view of our customers, enabling different teams to tailor their engagement to specific customer needs and preferences,” he explains. “This level of personalisation enhances our ability to build strong and lasting relationships with each customer."
3. Prioritise revenue drivers with smarter marketing attribution
Xendit customers often interact with multiple touchpoints, and Darrick says traditional marketing attribution software often failed to accurately identify and prioritise the highest-value touchpoints.
“Our traditional attribution software indicated that 80% of our revenue comes from search or direct traffic,” he explains. “However, when we directly ask our customers how they heard about us, 95% of the revenue is attributed to social media, word of mouth, and referrals.”
So Darrick and his team decided to use Marketing Cloud Account Engagement to extensively customise and construct a marketing attribution engine atop their existing attribution software.
“This established a transparent connection between marketing metrics and tangible financial outcomes, which enables us to effectively communicate the value of marketing through measurable return on investment,” he says.
4. Enhance company-wide communication and collaboration
Yaw highlights the remarkable impact Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement has had on enhancing transparency and fostering collaboration company-wide.
“Sales Cloud makes the pipeline visible to everyone in the company,” he says. “This heightened visibility offers undeniable clarity. Consequently, we can now meticulously follow opportunities through every step of the sales process.”
A Sales Cloud dashboard is used for weekly sales meetings to keep the sales team informed about ongoing marketing efforts, and Slack is used across the company to foster more agile communication and collaboration.
The results of the company’s Salesforce implementation are an 8% increase in win rates, a 15% reduction in sales cycle time, and a 25% time return to the sales team to focus on core selling. “This transformative shift has given us a fresh perspective that directly impacts revenue leaders,” Darrick concludes. “It empowers more informed decision-making, ultimately driving success and growth.”
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