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of large sub-ISOs. Between our account management team, can be one-offs," said the company spokesperson. "It can
the ongoing training, our communications and this event, be just one merchant or a franchise." Level 3 support for
we've been able to get new products, value-added services its integrated Groovv POS product line is expected to
and trend overviews in front of our partner community continue after the acquisition.
such that they understand the opportunity."
First Data: tactical-strategic model
To increase partner dialogue, iPayment launched a In building out its Partner Solutions group, First Data
customer engagement portal in 2016 that allows ISOs to Corp. has unified sales and training support for a full
interact directly with its technology team. The online range of enterprises from individual MLSs all the way
training program now offers downloadable modules. to large super-wholesale ISOs. "We have tactical and
"We recently launched our ISO training gated website," strategic relationship managers, since tactical issues
Reichenbacher said. "We assign a login as part of the related to product decisions must be resolved quickly,"
orientation process. We created 15 lessons. It's a guided said Kevin Sisk, Senior Vice President, Partner Solutions at
experience and can be referenced any time." First Data. He added that the company's strategic account
managers guide relationships from a revenue and training
The two-track online curriculum features basic and standpoint.
advanced levels for newly boarded partners, supported
by onboarding, managed account and partner training "We have agents under the Ignite Payments program who
teams who are ready to answer questions as needed. resell payment processing but may not become registered
iPayment regularly invites subject-matter experts to ISOs or First Data employees," Sisk said. "We have a week-
present 45-minute webinars on topics of interest. Partners long intensive program for anyone new to the industry
can either attend in real-time or receive recordings on- and a shorter version for more seasoned agents."
demand. In addition to monthly product and service
training sessions and newsletters, on-site training for In addition to conducting product bootcamps, First Data
larger groups can be arranged. hosts an annual conference that offers intensive training
Total Merchant Services: CPP-ready model for reseller partners, as do the company's monthly
webinars and education portal. "We really want to remove
At the time of this writing, Total Merchant Services Inc. the challenge and burden of staying current, do it for them,
was entering the final stages of being acquired by North so they don't have the operational overhead of having a lot
American Bancard Holdings LLC. Part of the attraction of people to help educate," Sisk said.
for investors was its channel partner program, a credit to
TMS's onboarding and sales training business initiatives. Sisk pointed out that First Data bundles many of its
products to give resellers optimum leverage. "If you think
"Our focus has been to put together a system where of a buffet, there are 10 different items," he said. "We want
someone with zero or little experience could come on board to give them the buffet price, but then allow them to take
and be prepared to pass their CPP [Certified Payment those 10 different items and retail each one as they see fit,
Professional] exam within 45 days of onboarding with and manage the retail a la carte."
Total Merchant," said a spokesperson for TMS. The CPP
certification program is available through the Electronic First Data Vice President of Partner Solutions Terry
Transactions Association. Wilson noted that many ISOs today are searching for
independent software vendor solutions. "What we've done
In addition to delivering three levels of training based is provide them with Clover," he said. "It becomes their
on payments industry experience, the seven-session own individual ISV solution, which they can resell; it's
course covers pertinent subjects ranging from managing cloud-and app-based. Our Clover sales are going through
lead-ins to follow-ups and referrals, and more. Refresher the roof."
training sessions are offered once monthly to the ISO
channel. According to TMS, during the monthly "hour of For First Data and other companies interviewed by The
power" sessions, MLSs join in company executive-directed Green Sheet, execution is the key. "Even with seasoned
phone calls for discussions about a particular topic and agents and ISOs, you can't assume just because they
opportunity, for example, leading in with POS conversion appear to know what they're doing, it doesn't mean that
or underwriting. they're up to date on every single thing that First Data is
doing," Sisk said. "We take the approach once they're on
Realizing that no two merchant businesses operate exactly board that it's new for everybody."
the same, TMS adopted an effective strategy for dealing
with systems integrations. "We've built out a business
development team here that works with our ISO channel,
and our integrations for semi-integrated or fully integrated

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