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Education

Advance research is a must • You visit a retail merchant. You know they now have a web
page, but do no sales through the page, nor do they have a de-
Questions should be driven by advance re- livery service. You lead with something like, "The lockdown
search. In the new normal, merchant type must seemed to be the hardest for retail merchants. How did you
be more nuanced than just retail or restaurant, survive during that time? Did you go to delivery or pick-up op-
too. Both restaurants and retailers likely have tions for items? What would you change in the future?
expanded their internet outreach (increasing
the number of card-not-present transactions). Getting prospects talking about how they faced lockdown challeng-
Their marketing approach might put more es and how they are planning for their future is the first and most
emphasis on online or other new market op- important part of finding their pain. But it's not the only step. In my
portunities. Restaurants also may be push- next article, I'll discuss how to become the payments doctor who di-
ing options like pay at the table to avoid tip agnoses their true pain and offers a cure.
adjustments impacting interchange. All these
differences can be identified by doing research
before walking in the door. Jeff Fortney is vice president ISO relations for Signature Payments. A long-time pay-
ments industry executive and mentor, Jeff is focused on strengthening and develop-
You see, there is no reason today for a true cold ing partnerships and evaluating new business opportunities. He can be reached at
call, which is a call made on a business where 214-458-1379.
all you know is that they sell items and likely
accept cards. You must know something about
the merchant before phoning or entering their Calendar
storefront. Fortunately, you can identify the
particulars you need during preliminary re-
search, which can even be done in the parking
lot with a simple Google search.

Examine a prospect's web page and look for
options for ordering and paying online. Look https://www.stapayments.com/registration/
for the names of the owner or owners. Check
out the prices for items featured (this will help
you when discussing pricing options).

And consider what all merchants went
through during the lockdown. Ask at least one April 6 -7, 2022
question about how they addressed lockdown
challenges. You can use third-party examples https://northeastacquirers.com
of how some of your current partners (who
are similar to the prospect) have dealt with
shutdowns. Don't be shy about sharing these
struggles, as it may help your prospects open
up about their own difficulties.
April 12-14, 2022
Done correctly, research should take only five https://events.jspargo.com/ETA22/
to 10 minutes. Following are a couple of sce- Public/enter.aspx
narios that show how you can leverage infor-
mation you may generate in that time:
• You call on a restaurant. The web page
shows they allow online ordering, but
only do pickup—no delivery. Their av-
erage item is $15 to $35. Your first ques- https://payments.nacha.org
tion following your introduction may be /what-payments#
something like, "I am visiting restaurants
like yours because I have noticed your If you have a show you
online efforts to generate sales. The busi- would like listed, please
nesses that have that presence survived send information to
and thrived during the shutdown. How
are you addressing consumer buying events@greensheet.com
habits today? What would you change?

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