Case Studies: Payzone

“Entering a new market segment is always a challenge so having a knowledgeable partner like Mantra was a must. Mantra helped us ensure we had a feasible platform, that there was market demand and advised us on a range of approaches to key fundraising prospects. Vitally, they created a new role in our organisation and hired a fantastic business development leader to drive growth into the future.”

Nadine McKeone, COO, Payzone

Payzone – How external support can help drive a go to market strategy

Client Background

Payzone is a leading multi-channel service provider. For over 20 years, they have been connecting people to payments, processing millions of transactions through their payments network every year. With a retail payment network of 3,500 agents nationwide, debit & credit card processing solutions and a consumer app. Payzone builds technology for all.

Mantra Strategy provided Payzone with a detailed sales and marketing action plan which supported their go to market strategy.

With its experience in the retail sector, and existing business powering payments from parking to tolls, the organisation wanted to expand its offering to support Irish charities with their fundraising and payments needs via a new fundraising platform. This system provides a one-stop-shop for charities and fundraising teams and can also be used with the corporate sector as a CSR fundraising management tool. They wanted a partner to support them with a sales and marketing strategy which would bring them to this new market. Mantra has extensive experience in the charity sector so was an ideal partner to work with a commercial client seeking to make inroads in the sector and offer its highly beneficial fundraising service

Core Framework

1. Define

Establishing the three-year goals, scope of project, and urgent support requirements. With its experience in the retail sector, and existing business powering payments from parking to tolls, the organisation wanted to expand its offering to support Irish charities with their fundraising and payments needs via a new fundraising platform. This system provides a one-stop-shop for charities and fundraising teams and can also be used with the corporate sector as a CSR fundraising management tool. They wanted a partner to support them with a sales and marketing strategy which would bring them to this new market.

2. Discovery

High level feasibility analysis to validate that Payzone had a unique offering for the Irish market. This involved a deep dive on understanding the platform, the breadth of functionality, the approach to customer service, development plans, and testing the system in terms of known fundraising requirements of both small and large fundraising teams. Review and present research on existing Irish and international platforms, compeditor analysis of their approach to embedding in the market, outlining the clear differentiation between these and insights from their journeys

3. Dream

Mantra conducted a deep dive into the scale of ambition and how targets could be achieved, and the approach needed per market segment. Big goals and focus areas were agreed here.

4. Design

Mantra created a detailed go-to-market strategy for this new area of business and provided recommendations on sales and marketing, partnership strategies including sponsorship and guidance on which potential clients would be early adopters of the new fundraising platform. A user-group demo was set up by Mantra with our clients to fully engage the users in the plans and functionality.

5. Deliver

Mantra then worked on an implementation phase with Payzone to test the detailed roadmap. This ranged from producing marketing collateral, updating the website, creating videos, to feasibility testing with prospective clients, engaging potential partners and more. Mantra also actively trained and supported the Payzone sales team to improve the approach to marketing to this audience across corporate and charity prospects. Finally, Mantra was enlisted to run the strategic search of the key sales management and leadership roles to help propel the plan further.

The Outcome

Payzone’s fundraising platform is enhanced and growing in popularity as a vital tool for the charity sector. With clients including AIB, Goal, Safe Home Ireland, regions of SVP, and Make a Wish Ireland, it is fast becoming a go-to platform for many fundraising campaigns, event sales, individual giving, corporate giving and more. Mantra provided a clear plan and helped its execution but also ensured a detailed handover.