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Education

StreetSmarts SM

SHARING WISDOM
SHARING WISDOM

WITH JEFF FORTNEY WITH JEFF FORTNEY

New normal, new pains, new questions

post-COVID

By Jeff Fortney for processing. This is because once conversations shifted
Signature Payments to cost, MLSs knew they had lost control of the sale. Mer-
chants stopped listening unless you saved them money.
here's an old joke that goes back to the vaude- Then, if you signed them at a reduced cost, they would
ville days. A man goes to the doctor, lifts his later sign with the next MLS who offered a lower price—
arm and says, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” the proverbial chase to the bottom.
T The doctor responds, “Then don’t do that.” New pains to identify
What made that funny (even then) is that doctors never
give a diagnosis without asking many questions first. In today’s new normal, it’s more difficult to identify root
They know pain is a symptom of a condition, not the con- causes of merchants' pains, as conditions that arose in
dition. Without locating the cause of the pain, and treat- response to the pandemic present new challenges, diffi-
ing that cause, the pain will continue, or worse, escalate. culties and ultimately pains—all because of merchants'
pressing need to address consumers' new buying habits.
I was reminded of this because recently I have been asked Nevertheless, the requisite changes in merchants' market-
why I emphasize the need for merchant level salespeo- ing create new opportunities for ISOs and MLSs if they
ple (MLSs) to identify the cause of the merchant’s pain. are equipped to diagnose the root causes.
When you identify a merchant's pain correctly, you can
maximize potential revenue while creating a long-term Previously, the common causes of merchant pain were
relationship. This has been one of my basic principles for various processing and support issues, unkept promises,
many years. But it does call for further explanation. added costs, and confusing data. Today, we can add on-
line sales setup, proper risk protections, increased loss
Some who agree with this approach still don’t ask enough potential, more added costs and confusing rules. Before
questions and don’t diagnose the cause of the merchant's you make any initial calls in the new normal, you must
pain. Instead, like the joke I just shared, as soon as a mer- gain sufficient knowledge of these new pain points if you
chant voices a problem, they say a variation of, "Don’t do want to address them with your merchant prospect and
that" and then add, "And sign here.” identify them as potential causes.

Before the pandemic, MLSs generally found it challenging It begins by knowing what hosted payment pages (HPPs)
to identify the causes of merchants' pains. It was (and con- are and understanding interchange impacts on online
tinues to be) important to learn how to avoid merchants' sales and phone sales, as well as the additional under-
default source of pain: feeling they are paying too much writing concerns raised by processors. Following is a brief

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