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Education

StreetSmarts SM

Steve Feldshuh

“Talk To Steve”

What if you had $1 million to

invest in a payments business?

By Steven Feldshuh • An assigned agent support person
Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions East • Clear, low-cost buy rates
• Compensation/residual split
urveys can provide businesses with a wealth
of information about their customers and • Number of platforms to place business on
prospects. Today, more than ever, businesses • Product offering: gift, loyalty, analytics
S are seeking details about customers' purchasing
habits and are using survey data to retain their current • Terminal offering: Verifone, Ingenico, PAX, Dejavoo
customers and generate new business. And several • Processor with direct integration with many
companies, such as Silicon Valley-based SurveyMonkey, software vendors
are focused entirely on providing a better experience • Reporting on residuals and on other compensation
through surveys.
• Tech support with VAR sheets and terminal setups
I decided to do an informal survey on what merchant • Deployment done on your behalf
level salespeople (MLSs) are looking for in a processor.
To make the survey somewhat reliable, I asked MLSs to • Honesty of company
evaluate products and services likely to be dear to their Honesty of company
hearts, based on feedback from agents in the field over
many years. I asked them to rank from 1 to 10 each item In looking at the responses from the field, it appeared
on a list I provided, 1 being least important and 10 being that the No. 1 item that MLSs all agreed upon was the
most important. They didn't have to order them, meaning last item: Honesty of company. Not surprisingly, with a
some items could have the same rank. few exceptions, that item rated a 10, meaning it was most
important. Given that all the sales agents this survey was
The questions sent to have had other industry relationships, this result
Below are the questions I sent out. I was hoping that wasn't unexpected.
about 50 percent of the surveys would be returned. I sent
these questions to MLSs who work with me or who had I've had to deal with some uncomfortable situations with
previously worked with me: processors during the years. I have worked with companies
that just stopped paying residuals; cut residuals by 50
percent, since I had no longer submitted new business; or

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