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Insights and Expertise

StreetSmarts SM

How will you be remembered?

By Allen Kopelman 2020. All editions featured interviews and guest chapters
Nationwide Payment Systems Inc. covering a range of topics and an introduction explaining
why he wrote the book.
ow do you want your friends, family and
industry colleagues to remember you? I “With over 10 years of experience in the bankcard industry
thought about that question today, when I and after working with multiple ISOs and financial
H pulled Marc Beauchamp’s book off the shelf institutions, I came to the realization that there never
and looked inside. The former Street SmartsSM colum- had been an industry guidebook for field salespeople,”
nist, payments industry leader and author of How to he wrote in 2003, adding that the book would continue to
Survive and Thrive in the Merchant Services Industry, had evolve alongside our ever-changing industry.
written, “To Allen, all the best.”
Payments industry journalist Dale Laszig recalled writing
Like so many of us, Beauchamp hadn’t planned to enter a chapter about selling technology in the 2009 and 2020
the merchant services profession, but the independent editions. She said reading the original chapter was like
lifestyle, limitless income potential and recurring revenue opening a time capsule and rediscovering a moment in
streams made a believer out of him. He built a robust time. This inspired her to do a side-by-side comparison of
career, sharing insights and helpful tips with others in then and now, in a chapter titled “MLS 3.0: Selling in the
bankcard life. After helming the Street SmartsSM column Third Wave of Merchant Services.”
during the height of the pandemic, he reflected on the
journey. Payments executive O.B. Rawls mentioned that the sales
process has changed from MLSs selling or giving away
“When I committed to contributing in early 2020, I would terminals to merchants freely choosing service providers
have never guessed we would experience the headwinds on the internet. “Good examples are Square and Stripe
as well as opportunities we've all experienced. A deadly and how merchants find them on the internet and buy
virus, stock market crash, subsequent rebound to reach first merchant services and then other services,” he said
new highs and quite a bit of political turmoil—through in a guest interview.
it all the payments industry has not only survived but Competitors
thrived.”
Surviving, thriving, changing Rawls made a great point. In today’s world of selling
merchant services, the internet, not other MLSs, is our
Considering how fast the payments industry is moving, biggest competitor. How can individual agents stand
it’s no wonder that Beauchamp wrote his book three out and be discoverable in a world where merchants can
times. Survive and Thrive in the Merchant Services Industry simply go online and get a merchant account in the blink
debuted in 2003, followed by revised editions in 2009 and of an eye?

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