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Co v er St o r y
CoverStory

How wrong was I? The payments industry continues to In my first ISO, our company was a generalist as we had
reinvent itself. However, without pivoting, our company, over 500+ agents and represented merchants in a variety of
your company and our salespeople will become extinct. industries. I should have listened to my advice mentioned
The word "pivot" is so critical to your future professional in the prior paragraph. Upon my sale to Card Connect, I
success. Another analogous word is "entrepreneurial," and lived by my above sentiments and formed three ISOs all
this entrepreneurial spirit provides us the spirit to identify specializing in niche markets.
new opportunities within our industry.
• LexCharge Inc., www.lexcharge.com, which created a
I do believe the traditional salesperson who has not stayed business around the legal profession, within a few
current with technology trends, fintech models, and other years of its launch was sold to a large organization
integrated payment solutions will have a challenging rolling up services for the legal industry.
future in our business. All industry professionals, whether
management, salespeople or operational personnel, must • ToolBox Payment Inc., www.toolboxgo.com, created
feel uncomfortable to become successful. Get out of your an integrated payments company with a mobile app
comfort zone; push yourself to learn more, or you will for the home services contractor (that is, plumber,
continue to sell basic payment processing, which has HVAC contractor, electrician, etc.). In addition to
become more difficult and harder to justify a significant credit card processing, the app enables a contractor
basis point mark-up (which provides much of our to run his company from his back pocket with a
compensation) multitude of services. (At the time of this writing, I
am in the final stages of discussions to sell ToolBox
One sales technique that I have preached for 30+ years to to one of the largest payment companies in the
my teams is to become an expert in a niche market. This country.)
one easy technique will help to keep your future bright. • Keep The Fees LLC, www.keepthefees.com, a payments
Pick one industry vertical, and I don't care what it is. Learn company dedicated to the tattoo industry and shop
that industry; meet every VIP in that industry; attend owners. While the company started only offering
every trade show and conference in that vertical. Create credit card processing, KTF now provides five other
partnerships with technology firms in that niche. Don't integrated services including a specialized POS
deviate. Be disciplined. It's harder to do than it appears. system.
Case in point: what happens when you get a sales call
from a merchant outside your chosen vertical? As hard as It's important to listen to your merchants, your agents and
this sounds, say no (or pass this lead on to a fellow sales all the personnel within your company.
agent and earn a referral fee). You must immerse yourself
in one vertical. I have learned through my experiences that a very powerful
question to ask your team is, "What do you think?" or
"Where do you see opportunities in the coming year?"
Having carefully listened for six months, we just launched
Call me today! our first "non payments" service to our merchants, which
Let me help you is helping our clients claim their Employee Retention
Credits. Our new company, ERC Advisors USA, is a
with your direct reflection of identifying an opportunity where

advertising our salespeople can earn ancillary revenue based on the
trusted relationship with their merchants.
success. As we enter 2023, spend time finding your "blind spot"

707-284-1693 where, with some love, attention and expertise (please
understand that you can always find expertise by
partnering with others), you can provide other services
to your valued clients. If you continue to offer the same
payment services, you will become, unfortunately, a
dinosaur in our industry.

Another simple yet overlooked technique to ensure
survival in the years ahead is communication. I am guilty
as charged as in my first company, I worked so hard to
R R ick Aston win and board a merchant; however, I was so busy that I
forgot to stay in touch with my valued clients. Although
our attrition was below industry norms, we did lose
Senior Media Partnership Specialist merchants and some were very meaningful to our bottom
Rick@greensheet.com line profitability.
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