Page 40 - GS180701
P. 40
Education
Sure they mention service, but that is a false promise. Most reps don't know who I am since they are relatively
Service is only as good as the last time you provided new to the industry, so when they see a statement they
it. And how are you going to prove to a prospective have no clue how to read it; they just go into how much
merchant that your service is so good until you either they are going to reduce the fees and how much they
sign him or it is time to provide it? are going to save me even though there is no way they
could save me a dime.
We all need to figure out what our patented process
should be. In other words, what is your Cooked Before It is extremely entertaining. However, not one of them,
Canning? I have found with my agents that if you tell with the exception of Heartland Payment Systems Inc.,
them exactly what their goal is with the merchant and has tried to sell on value or quality. The Heartland
why we are better than the other guy, you will be more rep talked about the Merchant Bill of Rights, the
successful. company's new end-to-end encryption terminal, etc. I
have no doubt that if you can offer something of value,
We have a monthly minimum profit based on the you can get more money for your product.
merchant's monthly dollar volume. It is not outlandish
and is extremely fair. That is their goal. The demotion of price
Before I entered the payments sphere, I knew a dairy
My company's Cooked Before Canning consists of products distributor in San Francisco who told me he
several things: we are locally based, our pricing is tells all his customers they can have their choice of
transparent and we are a well established company. quality, price and service.
But most of all, if our customers have problems, they
can drive directly to our office and voice their concerns The only issue is that they get to pick only two. He
in person to the management. also told me that all of his competitors who offered all
three went out of business.
Because I am a minor owner in a local business down
the street from the office, I process the transactions at So what the heck does all this mean? Simple. Stop
interchange pass through without any markup. I'm selling on price and start offering value and quality.
sure not going to charge myself. Service starts after the sale and will determine how
good you really are when the time comes.
Day in and day out, I am called to that business to
meet with competitors who want to sell us processing Once you figure out what your Cooked Before Canning
services. is and absolutely believe in it, success will come in
waves, and price will never be an issue.
In most cases, price will be
the last thing mentioned,
and by that time the mer-
chant will be ready to sign
regardless of the price.
So I hope my first article
has helped you. I promise
future articles will just get
better as I start to get the
hang of this.
Steve Norell is Director of Sales at
US Merchant Services Inc. Based
in Port St. Lucie, Fla., he over-
sees the USMS sales force and
maintains the company's bank
and processor relationships. You
can reach him by email at ste-
ven@usmsllc.com or by phone
at 772-220-7515.
40
