Norwood Sawmills

Since 1993, Norwood Sawmills has helped resourceful people turn raw timber into dream projects. Their portable sawmills — horizontal band mills about the size of an SUV — convert logs into dimensional lumber, cants, and slabs. Based in Canada, Norwood serves customers directly across North America and works with dealers to reach customers around the world.

Norwood Sawmills
1

Payments collected live on the sales call — agents issue a Stripe payment link straight from the Salesforce opportunity or order

2

Hand-off to accounting eliminated — closing and collecting now happen in a single step

3

Sawmills shipped one to three days sooner for customers who pay on the spot

"That was a huge win for the team — it gives them the confidence to sell and close seamlessly."
Steve Elliott, Director of Sales & Marketing at Norwood Sawmills

Steve Elliott, Director of Sales & Marketing at Norwood Sawmills

Industry

Outdoor Equipment / Manufacturing

Location

Canada

Finance System

Stripe

Channels

Salesforce

Challenge

After going live with Salesforce in 2022, Norwood's ~20-person outbound sales team hit a friction point: the moment a customer said 'yes' on the phone or over SMS, the sale had to be passed to accounting to collect payment. That extra step added delay, hurt the customer experience, and cost the team deals right at the moment of decision.

Solution

With Breadwinner Payments, Norwood adopted Stripe and gave agents the ability to issue a payment link directly from the opportunity or order object in Salesforce — collecting payment live, on the call, without ever leaving the record they were already working in. Customers can pay however they prefer: credit card, EFT, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more.

How Norwood Sawmills Closes Deals on the Call with Salesforce and Stripe

The Challenge: A Gap Between “Yes” and Getting Paid

Norwood Sawmills runs an outbound sales team of about 20 agents, all working in Salesforce since 2022. But there was a disconnect between the point of sale and the collection of payment.

When a customer decided to buy — often live on the phone or over SMS — the agent couldn’t complete the transaction themselves. The deal had to be handed off to the accounting team to collect payment. That hand-off was manual and tedious, it slowed the process, and it introduced friction at the worst possible moment: right when the customer was ready to commit. The result was lost sales and a customer experience that fell short of what Norwood wanted.

Norwood went looking for a way to make payment collection part of the sale, not a separate step. They found Breadwinner and the Breadwinner Payments solution, which led them to adopt Stripe.

Now, at the point of sale — while the agent is live with the customer in Salesforce — they can issue a payment link right from the opportunity or order object and take payment on the spot. The moment the customer says yes, the agent collects, and the sale is closed in one motion. Customers can pay however they prefer: credit card, EFT, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more, all supported through Stripe.

The Impact Across Teams

  • Sales teams close and collect in a single step, with the confidence to take payment the moment a customer decides.
  • Accounting teams are no longer pulled into every deal to chase payment, removing a manual, tedious bottleneck.
  • Customers enjoy a smoother buying experience — and those who pay on the call can receive their sawmill one to three days sooner.
  • The business closes more deals by removing friction at the exact moment of decision.

“We can now, at the point of sale while we’re talking to our customer live in Salesforce, issue a payment link right there from the opportunity or order object and get that payment live from the customer while they’re on the phone. That was a huge win for the team.”

— Steve Elliott, Director of Sales & Marketing, Norwood Sawmills

The result: a happier sales team, happier customers, and a payment process that keeps pace with the sale.

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