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Inspiration

Payments, a retrospective
e
Payments, a retrospectiv

Racing to the top

emember when you had to sell merchant level Still, many sales reps resisted change. They used the same
salespeople (MLSs) on the concept of consulta- strategies and tactics that had brought them success in the
tive sales? A decade ago, many excellent reps past. We continued to publish articles extolling the value
R did this type of selling as a matter of course, of consultative sales.
but countless MLSs entered the field with one goal in
mind: selling on price. They'd ask for a merchant's state- Then, partly due to rapid advancements in technology
ment, compare pricing and offer what appeared to be a that made it much easier to offer merchants tailored, full-
better deal than the merchant's current processing agree- featured turnkey systems that handled far more than
ment. payments, and partly due to widespread realization that
consultative relationships were typically sticker relation-
"What ISOs can learn from consultants in today's complex ships for a host of reasons, a mindset shift occurred. The
payments arena," published in The Green Sheet on Nov. 12, need to promote consultative sales was no longer press-
2012, explored this topic in depth, stating, "As payment ing. For many ISOs, consultative sales became the norm.
technology matures, retailers are searching for acquirers New agents entered the field prepared to listen, learn and
who can provide them knowledgeable advice in areas as provide easy-to-use integrated solutions that made many
diverse as POS equipment requirements, payment soft- aspects of doing business easier for merchants and others
ware options, new payment channels, mobile solutions, who accepted payments.
marketing, security, liability and business strategies. ISOs
are responding to this demand by adopting consultative I expect some in the industry are still looking for a quick
sales models that build merchant relationships and cap- buck and selling on price. Allen Kopelman even posited
ture payment transactions by providing data-centric busi- in "How low can merchant services go?" published June
ness strategies, solutions and services." 24, 2023, that there is a new race to the bottom: "It was bad
enough to see desperate agents driving down processing
At the time, fears of disintermediation were rampant due pricing, but now it looks like the race to zero doesn't stop
to the rise of disruptors dazzling the market with offers of at zero," he wrote. "These desperados have gone from giv-
so-called free, easy-to-use POS systems or no interchange ing merchants a deal of a lifetime to paying them to take
fees. Mustafa Shehabi, co-founder of PayCube Inc., told these deals off their hands." Not exactly a sustainable busi-
us at the time that ISOs were indeed concerned their ser- ness model. I like to think plenty of us are striving to race
vices and offerings would be ignored. The consultative to the top, sharing our know-how and wisdom along the
sales model, he noted, offers ISOs the best opportunity to way. Do you agree?
compete in "the new payments environment" because it al-
lows ISOs to partner with merchants as they integrate new
payment channels into their POS offerings. This new and
sticky ISO-merchant relationship, he added, makes sales
organizations less likely to fall victim to disintermedia-
tion. Kate Gillespie, President and CEO
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