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Inspiration

Embracing VaaS at determining specifically what they want from us in terms of quantifiable
improvements our products and services can to provide. In Value as a Service:
Embracing the Coming Disruption, business consultant Rob Bernshteyn described
or years now, we have pub- an example of quantifiable improvement as, "this much saved, this much im-
lished articles in this maga- provement in lead generation, this much improvement in revenue, and this
zine about the need to shift much improvement in employee retention."
F from selling on price to pro-
viding value. Experts speaking at To meet a new breed of better-informed merchants, we must become adept at
events throughout the payments and quantifying the value we bring to the table. We are value-as-a-service (VaaS)
fintech sphere have been doing the providers in addition to providers of hardware, software, processing and all
same. Despite this, some ISOs and the customer service activities associated those things. We can't merely say a
merchant level salespeople (MLSs) particular POS system will make a business more efficient and offer a couple
still make quick sales to merchants of general examples of how this might work. We need to explain exactly how
eager to save a buck, whether or not we will increase efficiencies and boost profitability. The specifics of VaaS offer-
those merchants save a penny in the ings will vary merchant to merchant and vertical to vertical. Ideally, the value
long run. provided will not be a one-time thing, such as eliminating one paid position,
but an efficiency that will continue to pay benefits long-term.
In his Street Smarts article "How
SM
do you measure success?" The Green So, how good are you at quantifying the value you bring to your merchant
Sheet, Jan. 28, 2019, issue 19:01:02, customers? They will to want to know with more specificity than ever before.
Steve Norell spoke to this problem. It will pay to be prepared.
"The ISOs that do heavy online re-
cruiting and followed by a six-hour
online training session, and then
provide appointments that are poor,
at best, only care about one thing: Kate Gillespie, President and CEO
getting these poor neophytes out the
door and writing deals," he wrote.
"It's all about getting the merchant to
sign the app because the ISO lowered
their pricing and allegedly saved the
merchant money. … Despite the fact
that our industry has morphed from
this model, much to the surprise of
many, it is still being used by ISOs,
albeit less and less."
Overall, however, after considerable
effort on the part of professionals
through the industry, the word has
gotten out that not only is it a good
idea to focus on value, it's essential
to remain competitive in an increas-
ingly disrupted payments landscape.
Prepare to meet new demands

It's not just our competitors who may
outsmart us; it's our merchants, too.
Long gone are the days when ISOs
and MLSs were merchants' only
source of information on payment
processing. The Internet changed this
dynamic ages ago.

Now, big data brings merchants even
more power – and not just for under-
standing customers' behavior. As the
concept of providing value continues
to gel, merchants are getting better
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