Every Merchant Service ISO Should Provide Their Sales Agents With These 10 Things

Merchant services such as POS systems and credit card processing are an invaluable part of any

retail business, and as such the job of a merchant service company is critical. The role that the sales

agents of these companies play is just as important, as they are the intermediaries that make all of these

deals work. If you are a sales agent, you are going to need a partner company that is on your side, or

else you are not setting yourself up for success, and you are bound to disappoint your customers as

well.

Not all companies will be worth it because they may be trying to get you to push a shoddy

product or to try to sell way above market price, so you must choose carefully. There are a few key

things that you should keep an eye out for that will indicate a promising choice, and ideally the

company that you choose as your partner should exhibit all of these traits and provide you with all of

these resources. Let's take a look at them closely to get a better idea of what your business will require:

1) A Win-Win Partnership

Of course, a business (even yours) will always act in its own self-interest, so agreements will

often be skewed at least slightly in the favor of the merchant service company that you're working with.

The point is to carefully review the terms and make sure that they are at least fair before you go ahead

agreement:

- You shouldn't be liable for your merchant's losses or chargebacks. Make sure that this is

stated plainly in black and white. You shouldn't have to bear any of the risk of the merchants and

should be held blameless in the event of losses. You also shouldn't have to pay for any chargebacks that

the merchant experiences.

- Your revenue sharing model should be balanced. This is especially true when it comes to

your residuals. Make sure that you have a fair amount coming to you for every sale. You do all of the

- Make sure that you get what you're entitled to, even after a contract ends. Part of what

makes merchant services so lucrative is that you will have access to residual income streams even long

after your initial sale. As the sales agent who established that lead, you are entitled to the residuals from

the merchants that you have sold to. It doesn't matter if your contract with the merchant services

company expires or is severed in some other way, you must be able to still receive that income for the

life of the merchant's account. More importantly, you should be able to sell these residual streams as

well, or secure loans against them.

- Make sure that you can move your merchants to another processor in the event that you

This is not a completely exhaustive list, which is why you will want to check with a lawyer if

you can. Speaking of lawyers, make sure that your contract specifies that you can recover attorney's

fees in the even of a lawsuit.

2) A Price Scheme That Works

Selling merchant services is a line of work with a huge potential for both active and passive

income. As you might expect, this means that you're certainly not the only sales agent out there and

that you have tons of competition. Though it is always best to not attempt to compete on price, and to

focus on value creation for your customer, you won't get very far if your prices are too high.

Try to negotiate to get the best deal with the payment processor or else you are going to have a

3) Multiple Payment Processors

Your merchant service partner ideally should allow your merchant to use many different

payment processing services. The more options, the better, because there's nothing worse than losing a

potential lead simply because they want to use their current processor. Whatever POS system that you

are selling, it should be flexible and allow for many different processors and payment methods.

4) Good Customer Service

Customers are the heart of your business, and without them, you can't hope to thrive. Ideally,

support, it is like you have wasted all of your efforts.

Makes sure to ask lots of questions before you sign a contract and do plenty of research about

the company, because you are ultimately putting your valuable merchant connections into their hands.

- The quality of the customer support.

Are the people on the other end of the line well-trained? Do they actually successful solve your

clients' problems in a timely manner, or do they seem under-trained and clueless? Do novel problems

that don't follow their script make them confused?

- The hours of their customer support lines.

Do their customer support call centers have decent hours? Ideally, they would be available

around the clock, though this isn't always realistic, of course. Another thing you will want to consider

is what happens if a client calls and it is after-hours.

What kind of help does the merchant service provider give to your client to get them up and

them?

- Are you informed about customer service issues or kept in the dark?

At the very least, you should get a call or some form of notification when your merchant is

having technical trouble. Even better, it would be great if they provide you with a way to remotely

access all of your client's trouble tickets.

Remember all of these factors when you are choosing a good partner company. It can mean a

lot when it comes to customer retention. The thing is, it may be hard to determine some of these

working with them. This is why it is so important to never sign an exclusivity deal with any one

company when you are first starting out, as there are always going to be a few unknowns that you can't

quite fathom until you're out there helping your merchants to succeed.

A large percentage of the income that you will be making will come in the form of upells

because it's simply easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to sell to a potential one. This is a

classic example of the “foot in the door” technique, and you will find that you will be using it a lot.

Upselling can be a great source of income for you, but what about your customer? These are

going to be long-term relationships for you, so you don't want to rip your clients off by selling them

useless services that they don't need. This is why you want your partner to offer genuinely high-quality

products that you can upsell to your clients. For example, if you sold a POS system to a merchant, and

you learn from your regular communications with him that he is in need of liquid cash, you might be

to be paying a substantial monthly fee. A similar evolution has happened in other subscription-based

electronics industries, such as the cell phone industry, where the customer receives the hardware for

this direction, so don't be surprised if your clients don't expect to pay anything upfront.

In order to cater to this demand, make sure that your merchant services company offers a free

terminal deal, even if they have other options that require paying for hardware. As time goes on, you

may find that there will be more and more of an expectation in the market for free terminals, so be

prepared. If the merchant services offer all-inclusive package deals that will get the client started for

absolutely no upfront cost, that is even better. If your potential client basically has nothing to lose, then

the sale is much more likely to happen. A lot of the time, paying upfront for a equipment isn;t really

worth it unless there is some major advantage to it, such as greater flexibility and not having to be tied

to a specific merchant service provider.

When it comes to any business at all, you can perform the trial and error that you need to

perfect your sales strategy much better once you have access to a decent level of analytics. Ask about

this before you decide on a merchant service company. Even if you don't plan to make heavy use of

these tools (though you should) it at least shows that your partner is technologically advanced and that

they are ready to meet the challenges of the future head-on.

8) Good Training Material

There's no point in your client even purchasing a POS if he isn't going to know how to use it.

Examine your merchant service provider's training and information material. You want to do this

A good service provider will offer more than manuals, too. You want online resources, and

some sort of training program, especially one that involves representatives from the company coming

out to the field and showing your client exactly what they need to do. As with providing good customer

service, a decent training program of some kind is critical. If your client feels that the system is too

difficult or cryptic to use, he is bound to drop you sooner or later, and that is a stream of residuals that

It just makes good business sense to make sure that your client is on board and that there are no

problems from the beginning. Play the long-term game by making sure your merchant has everything

that he needs.

have the flexibility to switch if they feel the need, but this means that they must buy the hardware

themselves.

Having a fair leasing plan means that the client can afford the terminal even if he doesn't have as much

capital to spend upfront. This kind of flexibility is key in accommodating all kinds of merchants, and

you want to look for a merchant service provider that offers this kind of option just in case.

As with any other kind of sale, you should receive a percentage of the monthly payments that

complicated. This can be a headache even for people who have been working as sales agents for

your choice of partner company in this endeavor. They should be willing to give you a fair cut of the

deals, should be willing to negotiate with you on the details, and they should provide good customer

Not all merchant service providers are created equal. First and foremost, you will want one with

integrity—this is the trait that really encompasses all of the others. A company without integrity is not

Web: shawmerchantgroup.com