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Closing sales, opening
relationships
By Dale S. Laszig
DSL Direct LLC
Y esterday's champions of industry carried demo
bags and pitch books, like something out of
a black-and-white newsreel. Selling products
may have been simpler back then, but it wasn't
any easier. It wasn't easy to differentiate in an era when
everyone was selling the same two or three products and
services.
A former client would give me a purchase order and say,
"We're done here; you got your order. Go celebrate; take
the rest of the day off." That was the prevailing attitude,
whether you sold merchant services or equipment by the
pallet. We went, we saw, we sold and, inevitably, we moved
on.
When product ruled
Over time, closing a new merchant account became more
of a beginning than an ending. As a subset of a larger retail said. "Retailers have only recently begun to ask for data
ecosystem, payments became interactive, personalized and
immediate. Merchant level salespeople (MLSs) also evolved,
as they became embedded in the merchant community.
Today's MLSs partner with merchants to develop unique
processing systems that go beyond simple products and
services. The payments industry needs to find a new word
for "product." Even the word "solution" has a set-and-forget
feel, as if you could identify a problem, solve it and exit
stage left. Today's MLSs need to stick around and help
merchants nurture their emerging business ecosystems.
When platforms replaced products
The digital world has disrupted many industries, replacing
legacy systems with virtual, cloud-based infrastructures
widely accessible to business owners and consumers.
Mobile wallets, mobile banking, fitness trackers linked to
healthcare providers, smart homes that can be remotely
controlled by smartphone apps – the list goes on.
POS devices must be more than the sum of their parts
to remain relevant in the digital world. They need to
exploit the inherent possibilities of their underpinning
technologies. That may sound like a tall order, but Oren
Levy, Chief Executive Officer at Zooz Inc., said technology
has always been the key to payments. Zooz, a global
technology company, provides a data-driven payment
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platform designed to optimize payment performance
for large retailers by strategically routing transactions to
multiple processors and technology service providers.
"Old time acquirers based their solutions on technology that
has since become outdated," he said. "But technology, when
used effectively, can be a big differentiator." Some payment
providers still use mainframe computers and data centers;
companies like Zooz combine risk assessment technologies
with 3D Secure Level I Payment Card Industry Data
Security Standard compliance and human oversight, Levy
noted. Payment providers can use data files in advanced,
innovative ways.
"Electronic transaction processing and other core
offerings have become commoditized," he said. "Everyone
offers fraud protection, which may not mean much as a
standalone product. But if I use data analytics to target the
right audience, create efficiencies and optimization, that's a
different story."
When big data got bigger
Levy has observed resistance to cloud-based technologies,
particularly among small to midsize merchants, but he is
confident this will change. "If I'm a tech-savvy merchant,
the service providers that stand out are the ones that
progress over time and remain open and adaptable," he
analytics that can help them better understand their
customers and identify where failures occur."
Business analytics enables retailers to dissect their data by
region. Retail leaders who formerly operated on hunches
and gut feelings can make data-driven decisions based on
statistical information. And it isn't just their data that is
valuable to retailers, Levy said. "Today, a lot of companies
use machine learning and algorithms to analyze behavior,"
he added. "That's creating better optimization and getting
us closer to reducing fraud."
Payment card brands and acquirers are rich sources
of aggregated, anonymous statistics and metadata.
Mastercard Sector Insights works with a knowledge base
of real-time transaction data. "With a strong commitment
to privacy, we can transform vast amounts of big data into
actionable insights for your short- and long-term business
goals," Mastercard Advisors wrote.
When fraud detection got wiser
Dallas-based Chargeback Gurus specializes in chargeback
prevention and recovery. The company created FPR-360,
a chargeback solution designed to prevent, contest and
remediate all forms of chargebacks, including "friendly"
ones. The solution combines artificial intelligence, machine
learning and human oversight. Its risk mitigation experts
help ISOs and acquirers educate merchants about how to
prevent ecommerce fraud.
Suresh Dakshina, Chargeback Gurus President, cautioned
against a one-size-fits-all approach to fraud prevention.