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tal ecosystem unleashes new opportunities and chal-
lenges via big data, online consumer review sites, mar-
keting automation, and alternative financing through
fintech innovators. As an ISO or MLS, a good starting
place for understanding this new environment is to
take inventory of the daily tasks merchants must com-
plete to run a competitive business. You must be able
to understand the daily problems of Main Street com-
merce and present solutions using terminology mer-
chants understand.
Payment partners can build a better solution set for
merchants by expanding their product and service
menus to address these critical emerging needs.
From there, it's all about flipping the marketing and
sales pitch from savings to solutions. This will almost
certainly require retraining sales teams and rethinking
marketing activities to ensure that a consistent message
goes out from the front lines.

The benefits of real solutions
The upside for making this transition is huge. Most
acquirers and ISOs are losing 25 percent of their
merchants each year. Merchant attrition impacts
merchant acquirers on two dimensions. First, it carries
a $2 billion price tag in lost revenue for payment
processors. Second, because it takes three new
customers to make up for each merchant that leaves
the portfolio, the industry spends $1 billion annually
in acquisition costs. That's a total of $3 billion every
year in direct costs and lost opportunity.

According to IBISWorld, the credit card processing and
money transferring industry is valued at $75 billion
in annual revenue, with a projected annual growth
rate of 4 percent. If the status quo persists, the best-
case scenario is merchants stay on the carousel, and
the industry bleeds revenue and profits through the
massive inefficiencies caused by churn. Worst-case,
merchants flock to competitors who can effectively
cross-sell broader solutions, and your business shrinks
into oblivion over time.

The payments industry's $3 billion attrition problem
is an opportunity for solutions-based ISOs and MLSs
during this time when merchants want more from their
partners. Those who make the leap off the commodity
carousel and start cross-selling real solutions will close
more accounts, build stickier merchant relationships,
and make more money from the elevated status as a
partner in solving everyday business problems.

Barry Davis is Vice President of Business Development at Womply, an
SaaS company that partners with the payments industry to provide
a technology and data platform to small business merchants in
more than 400 industry verticals across the United States. For more
tips or advice on modernizing your sales pitch to merchants, reach
out to us at partnerships@womply.com.

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