The Green Sheet Online Edition
January 1, 2025 • 25:01:02
Position your business for success in 2025, Part 1
The landscape in merchant services has changed over the last two decades. I wore out plenty of shoes going door to door in the merchant community, attending business happy hours and networking meetings and prospecting for leasing and residual gold in the hot Florida sun.
My shoes have a greater life expectancy in 2025, but I'm also seeing Stripe, PayPal, Square and independent software vendors (ISVs) take a slice of our processing pie.
Marketing has changed from our yellow pages days of letting your fingers do the walking. Our ISO's yellow pages listing used to get us a ton of leads. These days, keyboards are the only place our fingers are walking. Most middle-aged business owners between 40 and 45 search for service providers online and on social media, according to recent studies.
In this digital-first environment, how can merchant level salespeople (MLSs) attract qualified customers to our websites? Ads can be costly on Google and social platforms, but having a website – even if it's just a landing page or a simple one-page site with your number, email and brief description of your products and services – is an absolute necessity.
Brand positioning
If you are selling for multiple ISOs, consider positioning yourself as a business adviser, solution provider or payments expert because no one is selling merchant services anymore. And try not to focus on pricing.
Today's merchants need solutions to help them manage their businesses, and solutions will win out over merchant account pricing every time.
I see reps discussing different solutions on Facebook pages, which is where I get a lot of ideas for these articles. Look at Toast. We all made fun of them and called them burnt bread, but they are selling a solution that merchants are willing to buy at top dollar because they are a bonafide business solution.
It's time to change your mindset from merchant sales rep to solution provider and have a Google business page to ensure that you're discoverable and your ads will direct people to your business. If you are a home-based business, just list the city and state along with your phone, email, logo, pictures and social media handles.
Professional networks
It's also important to have a great personal profile on LinkedIn. If you are not good at creating content, you can share articles to stay active on the platform. Set up a company page to bolster your professional image and have a good picture of yourself with a clear logo or header to look professional.
As a rule, you need to spend money to make money, and you need to create a budget to get these things done. When you walk into businesses or attend professional networking sessions, your potential customers will look you up online. You want to create a good impression there, as well as in person, by creating a professional image for yourself and your company.
These tactical steps can make your company look a lot bigger than it is. When you're doing a cost-benefit analysis of social media and trying to figure out your social game and overall media strategy, don't make the mistake that I see other MLSs make all the time: being cheap. Take some of the money you are making and reinvest it into your business to keep this going.
Don't be cheap
If you can't bear to invest in your business, don't cry to me about not getting any business or ask me why people aren't calling you back. And here's another pet peeve: I have zero tolerance for email addresses like bob@gmail.com or sacramentopay@gmail.com.
Most merchants are skeptical of business owners who use non-domain emails because they don't know if they are real or fake and wonder if they even have a website.
Don't make cheap business cards. You need clean, professional business cards. Consider using Linktree, moo.com or another electronic business card service if you'd prefer not to carry paper.
I see MLSs making as much as $10,000 to $20,000 a month who delegate these tasks to students and interns.
Whatever New Year's resolution you've made for yourself, your family or your business, there's a bright new year ahead filled with new possibilities. The following assets will help position your business for success in 2025:
- Logo
- Headers for all your social media
- Business cards
- Website or landing page
- Professional email address
- Social media posts on regular basis
There's no limit to how much you can make in this business; you just need to put in the work by investing in yourself and your business. Want to know more? Keep reading The Green Sheet and consider following me on LinkedIn, where we can share ideas and support each other. 
Allen Kopelman, a serial entrepreneur, is co-founder and CEO of Nationwide Payment Systems Inc. and host of B2B Vault: The Payment Technology podcast. Email him at allen@npsbank.com and connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenkopelman/ and Twitter @AllenKopelman.
Whether you want to upgrade your POS offerings, find a payment gateway partner, bone up on fintech regs or PCI requirements, find an upcoming trade show, read about faster payments, or discover the latest innovations in merchant acquiring, The Green Sheet is the resource for you. Since 1983, we've helped empower and connect payments professionals, starting with the merchant level salespeople who bring tailored payment acceptance and digital commerce tools, along with a host of other business services to merchants across the globe. The Green Sheet Inc. is also a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals.
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