Page 33 - GS180902

Education

However, I did notice upon looking in her car that she had two children in it,
both fairly young. I should note that she did leave the car running with the air
start of many unscrupulous third- conditioning on. As you can expect, she asked for the statement, took a picture
party companies that charge for with her phone and sent it to her supervisor in Dallas. A short time later, she
received a call, and the closer started in explaining how she could save me
scheduling appointments on your money – and all they were going to charge me was 40 basis points.
behalf. Unfortunately, most of
them are only there to separate When I started asking questions that most merchants would not think of
you from your hard-earned asking, she became flustered, at which point, a male voice interrupted, and he
started in on me. This person clearly was more polished than the MLS next to
money. So, if you're going to do me, but after 10 minutes or so, we all agreed that nothing was going to happen.
this model I suggest keeping your
appointment setting in-house. What's your verdict?
This was based not just on the rates but also on the technology that I was using,
which was a cloud-based POS system. Now, without mentioning names, it
should be noted that this ISO was now on its third name change due to the fact
that the previous two had burned more than enough merchants and could no
This is the problem: a person with an longer use the previous names.
accent that reveals he or she is from
outside the United States, typically So after recounting all this, we are right back to where I started this
from either India or the Philippines, conversation. How good is third-party telemarketing? Is it cost effective? Do
calls a merchant in an attempt to set the few appointments with merchants they produce have any true value? Most
an appointment. The result is that the importantly, what is the alternative?
merchant hangs up, does not answer
after he or she sees the caller ID or,
in rare cases, the merchant actually Steve Norell is director of sales at US Merchant Services Inc. Based in Port St. Lucie, Fla., he oversees
agrees to an appointment. the USMS sales force and maintains the company's bank and processor relationships. You can
reach him by email at steven@usmsllc.com or by phone at 772-220-7515.
However, the MLS shows up for the
meeting and finds the business does
only $1,000 a month in credit card
transactions or learns the merchant
only set the appointment to get the
telemarketer off the phone. If you are
an ISO or MLS, is this really the best
use of your money and time?
A real-world test

Here is a true example. As many
of you know, I own a cigar shop so
I can have something to do when I
need to get away from the credit card
industry. The other day, I received
a call marketing merchant services
and, as usual, the pitch was that
the government lowered something
that would affect my rates, it was
important that a representative see
me about this, and, fortunately, the
company's regional manager was
going to be in the area and would like
to stop in to see me.
Since I had time to waste and an
abundance of curiosity, I took the
appointment, albeit I explained that
the rep would be wasting her time, as
my rates could not be improved. Much
to my surprise, the MLS showed up
on time and was fairly professional.
33