By Adam Moss
Charge Card Systems Inc.
It's another wonderful day in the merchant services world. And as a merchant level salesperson (MLS), you are charged with earning the business of merchants and business owners looking to do what is best for them. Ultimately, you seek to help them lower the cost of doing business, specifically related to their credit card processing.
And while you are excited about all the industry has to offer, your enthusiasm is tempered by the knowledge that many other MLSs are feeling the same sense of excitement and challenge. How can you achieve your goal of boarding merchant accounts and not letting the competition get the best of you?
My advice is not to sell yourself short. How you conduct business and represent yourself will go a long way toward beating the competition and earning you more business. Too often MLSs speak to merchants simply about price and guaranteed savings. They believe a better price is all merchants seek.
I beg to differ. Business owners of all types want to do business with people they trust. If you have been in our industry for any amount of time, spoken with enough merchants or read the blogs, you have heard the horror stories – from business owners who have been told they need to lease terminals only to find out they are paying thousands of dollars for equipment they can get for free, to money being held as the result of poor underwriting, to bait and switch tactics that promise merchants one thing and deliver something entirely different.
At the end of the day, MLSs sell themselves, not the processor and not the ISO. The true trademarks of successful salespeople are honesty and integrity.
Business owners are inundated with offers of savings every day from salespeople who walk into their businesses or phone from call centers, pitching their services. Merchants do not know whom to trust. Why not change the dynamics of the sales process?
Rather than telling merchants all that you have to offer, speak with them about their businesses. Instead of promising a savings in their processing fees, provide them solutions that will enable them to run their businesses more efficiently. By simply changing the nature of the conversation, you allow merchants to see you in a better light. No longer are you the hard-charging credit card processing salesperson; you are the consultant who wants to help businesses grow and improve their cash flow and bottom lines.
Our success is rooted in the ability to write multiple merchant accounts each month. Not only do we want to earn the business of particular merchants, but we also hope they will refer us to their friends and colleagues who, in turn, will refer us to their friends and colleagues. Treat a merchant right; you never know where it may lead.
Here is how one MLS took himself out of the running for referrals:
A merchant processing approximately $40,000 a month was approached by a bank rep who claimed he could save the merchant $200 a month. Based on the fact the rep was from the merchant's bank, the merchant agreed to switch. The merchant received the first statement from the new company only to find that the savings was about $35 a month, not the $200 promised. As a result of the rep's dishonesty, not only did he lose this merchant, he also lost the opportunity for referrals and gave the bank a black eye. Misleading merchants is simply not worth it.
I have been in this industry for over 11 years and have seen many changes. What has not changed is the recipe for success: honesty and integrity. As long as you are upfront with your merchants from the beginning, price your merchants competitively and support them when needed, not only will you continue to earn their business, you will likely earn the business of their friends and colleagues. Yes, it is another wonderful day in the world of merchant services. 
Adam Moss is the Chief Operating Officer of Charge Card Systems Inc. He can be reached amoss@chargecardsystems.com or by phone at 888-505-2273. For additional information on CCS, please visit www.chargecardsystems.com/gsadvisoryboard or the corporate website at www.chargecardsystems.com.
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