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Education

Honesty sells individual he trusted or someone who
had demonstrated honesty, he would

By Jeff Fortney say, "That is an honest man." This was
the biggest compliment he could give;
Clearent LLC it implied his trust in that individual.
He rarely made this statement, but
ike many people, my father had favorite clichés. For example, "Do when he did, I knew the person he
you think I am made of money?" or "You will get it. It's just a matter spoke of was trustworthy.
of time." Often he would use one of these replies to answer a question
L I had about homework or a challenge I was facing. Of course, he and Honesty compromised
I would then talk through the issue, but the cliché came first. Honesty has come into question of-
ten lately, and the payments world is
The use of clichés became a running joke as I became an adult. The trick was no exception. Merchants have always
to find the most obvious cliché and use it at the most inopportune moment. looked at merchant level salespeople
One time, as my mom complained that her feet were hurting my brother said, (MLSs) with a jaundiced eye. Now,
"Every cloud has a silver lining." Of course, she didn't see the humor and asked even more so. Ask any merchant
what that had to do with her feet. His response was classic. He said, "It means prospect why he or she didn't believe
you get to go shoe shopping." we were being honest, and the indi-
vidual will most likely say something
The goal was to get the other person to see the absurdity of the comment and like, "You guys will say anything to
laugh, because we all know that "laughter is the best medicine." get me to sign."

My father had one expression I thought was a cliché in my youth, but based Sadly, this is all too commonplace.
on my research, may have been his own creation. After a conversation with an Every industry has a bad apple or two
who will say and do anything to get
the sale. Ours is not an exception. Yet,
even if we believe strongly in hones-
ty, there are indirect influences that
can result in wary merchants being
proven right.

Honesty can be indirectly compro-
mised by processing partners. It hap-
pens when fees are padded on differ-
ent pass-through expenses and not
fully disclosed to the merchant or the
MLS. You may believe you are offer-
ing a better deal, but if the result isn't
better than the merchant's former
deal, the consequence is, at best, your
reputation is damaged. At worst,
your honesty and trustworthiness
are called into question.
In the payments world, getting an
immediate sale isn't the primary ob-
jective; keeping a merchant as a long-
term processing partner is. This is the
real secret to success. Honesty grows
into trust, and trust is the key to re-
tention. So, the cliché "Honesty is the
best policy" must be your mantra if
you intend to build a profitable, long-
term portfolio.

Honesty can be damaged in two
ways: internally and externally. Inter-

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