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Who's who: DeLone Wilson

DeLone Wilson doesn't flinch when facing an angry alligator. Not surprisingly, he's also a formidable presence when cutting an ATM deal, a skill which has served him well as vice president of sales and distribution for Jackson, Miss.-based ISO Financial Technologies.

July 15, 2002

You choose a bayou, put a rotting chicken carcass on a hook, hang it from a tree over the water, and wait. Alligators come out to get the chicken, and the trap is set.

"You go out the next day and pull them up with a rope and shoot them," said DeLone Wilson, vice president of sales and distribution for Financial  Technologies Inc. (FTI). "Usually, the first couple times you shoot them, it just makes them madder."

DeLone Wilson

Clearly, this 36-year-old ATM industry up-and-comer means it when he says his motto is "work hard, play hard." Wilson takes his job seriously -- and he takes his fun seriously too.

"A lot of times the alligators are about the same size as our boat," he said in his slight southern drawl. "Last year we got two nine-footers and two 11-footers."

Wait, isn't that dangerous?

"We've had a couple of incidents," Wilson replied with all the concern of a man who is asking you to pass the potatoes.

Wouldn't golf be less stressful and a lot safer?

"I hate golf," Wilson said, his voice rising. "I don't play anymore. I didn't take the time or effort to become good, but when I went and played I couldn't get over the fact that I wanted to be good. It was frustrating and expensive, and it took up too much time."

Plus you don't get any meat out of the deal. Just divots.

Work hard

Wilson is just as intense when discussing his work for FTI, a Jackson, Miss.-based ISO that rang up nearly $20 million in revenues last year and has some 3,500 ATMs under contract around the United States. FTI made Inc. Magazine's list of the country's fastest-growing privately-held companies in 2000 and 2001.

Wilson's key chore at the moment is figuring out the company's future direction in a rapidly changing marketplace.

He manages both FTI's direct sales force and a network of independent distributors around the country, providing recruitment, training and support. FTI also has a national accounts manager who works for Wilson.

Managing a sales force is an increasing challenge in an ever-changing industry that seems to become more competitive by the day, Wilson said. In the early days of retail ATMs, he said, most of FTI's sales were made by independent distributors who counted on the sizable commissions they earned from hardware sales.

"Now it's gotten to where it's competitive enough and it's changed enough in the way they make their money, that it's harder to generate sales with those types of people," Wilson said. "The project now is to help an independent person fit the mold of what the market is today."

He added, "We're taking people used to making a significant commission and converting them to making residual incomes, because there are no commissions any more. I think we've got a pretty good plan to move in that direction."

(He declined to reveal details; one never gives away the location of his best bayou.)

Recently, FTI expanded its focus to include larger deals thanks to an aggressive program targeting major accounts such as banks and oil jobbers.   FTI last year was selected by the Southeastern Oil Jobbers Co-op (S.O.J.C.) as its preferred provider of ATM equipment and services. The company also renewed a preferred provider contract with Consolidated Buying Company, a marketing cooperative representing more than 3,000 members from the BP/Amoco, Tosco and independent dealer/jobber network.

"We think we understand their business and what kind of support they want," Wilson said.

FTI also manages branded and unbranded machines for several financial institutions, including Mississippi's Valley Bank and Louisiana's Progressive Bank.

Turning point

Like many others in the ATM business, Wilson came to it in a roundabout way. After four-plus years in non-profit fundraising followed by four years of insurance sales, Wilson was thrilled to hear from college fraternity brother Tommy Glenn, who called Wilson in 1996 wondering if he knew any candidates for a position as VP of sales in his fledgling ATM business.

"Frankly, I was tired of trying to sell people things they didn't want," Wilson said. "I decided I wanted to try it myself."

It turned out to be an epiphany for him.

"My first few years of work life, I didn't put a whole lot of effort in; it was just something to pay the bills," he said. "(Glenn) had put a substantial investment in this company and he was a good friend of mine. I didn't want to let him down, so that was probably the turning point for me."

In 2001 Wilson was named to the Top 40 Under 40, an honor bestowed annually by the Mississippi Business Journal to 40 young professionals.

Wilson's former assistant at FTI nominated him for the award, a testimony to his efforts on the job -- which aren't lost on his boss and former Mississippi State University frat brother.

"DeLone is sort of the glue that holds everything together," said Glenn, president of FTI. "He probably does as much as anybody else here to make everything work."

Play hard

Wilson is also known for his outgoing personality and sense of humor. After all, the man hunts alligators, and his cat's name is "Cat." Not surprisingly, he practices his  "work hard, play hard" credo in the office, not just out in the swamp.   "Part of what I do here is hard work and part of it is playing practical jokes on people," he admitted.   Here's an example, in Wilson's words: "A friend of ours has taken a new approach to business. He sent out a lot of e-mails to merchants offering low prices on equipment. He's taken a few deals from us and given us a nice ribbing about it. I put together a nice fax promotion with a ridiculously low cost and will fax it to him for April Fool's. Maybe that will get him stirred up a little bit."   He added, "Work is serious, obviously. What we do is serious because we're asking our customers to put a lot of trust in us. We work very hard at that and take it very seriously. But there's no use coming here every day and working if it isn't fun. You have to take it seriously, but there's no reason it can't be fun as well."   Asked to name his most significant accomplishment at FTI, Wilson gets serious.   "Seven years ago this company wasn't even here," he said. "It was an idea. Now we've got a company that has probably 3,500 ATMs across the country and close to 40 employees. Everyone here makes a livable wage, and nobody here makes less than I did the first year we were in business. Just having a significant part in building that is what I'm most proud of."   Even the biggest 'gator doesn't measure up to that. Not that he hasn't learned lessons from both.

"I guess there are some things I've learned since I've been in the ATM business," he said. "I've learned that once you've got something on the end of your line, much like in alligator hunting, you can't let go. You've got to finish the deal, or you will get bitten."