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Education

Bid farewell to limits with B2B another. Also, at this supplier, buyers
were met with resistance when they
tried to pay with a card because there
was just that undercurrent from the
supplier that card payments were too
expensive for them to offer.

In reality, this is a common theme
among B2B suppliers that have
merchant accounts. They believe
they have less expensive payment
alternatives available to them for
collecting outstanding receivables,
By Roger McNamara specifically, check, ACH and wire.
Guide2Interchange LLC The genesis of the problem
A So, where did this thought process
few weeks ago, I received a note from a merchant level salesper-
son (MLS) who had taken B2B merchant sales training to help him
begin? If we really want an answer
become a better payments consultant for his merchant clients and
to that question, we have to look
prospects. This individual had a B2B supplier in his portfolio before
the training, but he felt something was missing. It seemed the supplier was not back to the early 1990s. At the time,
issuers were developing a corporate
producing the amount of volume on their merchant account that was appropri- purchasing card product. It was and
ate for the size of the business. still is a tool used by many businesses
in various forms to pay for goods and
The MLS got the impression that card payments were an afterthought for the services procured in the course of
supplier, who would selectively accept card payments from one buyer but not running a business.

Today this market is valued at about
$33 trillion of spend and growing.
Businesses try to buy everything
they can on these products because
the value proposition given to them
by the issuers is, well, just too good
for them to refuse. The driving factor
for the buyer is in the form of rebates
that can be quite sizable for usage.
However, for the spend on these
cards to flow, a robust supplier
acceptance network must exist.
Unlike their close cousins in B2C, the
B2B network still lacks openness and
willingness to accept cards primarily
due to a negative pricing perception.
Additionally, it is because the
payments industry's feet on the street
don’t realize they have a real value
proposition to share with suppliers
other than a cost comparison.
The missing value proposition

You see, back when it all started, the
suppliers and buyers were already
doing business with one another.
They had established relationships
through which buyers bought and
paid for goods on a regular basis. Then
cards were introduced that could
be substituted to settle receivables,
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