By Dale S. Laszig
DSL Direct LLC
Imagine a world of fax machines, business cards and printed newsletters, a pre-digital world of door-to-door selling and phoning in orders. That was my world in 2002, when I became a vice president of sales. The promotion was a personal milestone and opportunity to be part of an experimental new team at Hypercom North America, led by Lisa Shipley, senior vice president, and OB Rawls IV, regional general manager.
Away from the job, I had been active in a local writers group, performing at local venues and occasionally getting published. Writing was a passion, but the idea that I could make a living at it seemed improbable and almost too good to be true.
Corporate life provided plenty of writing opportunities, and I jumped at every one—from creating sales proposals and training presentations to internal reports on customer preferences and technology trends. I even tried my hand at copywriting in 2004, when Lisa Shipley asked me to help edit some marketing content about our team and what we were all about. This would, of course, be entirely optional, she added, offering to share the copy that needed editing.
Without hesitating, I accepted the assignment but decided not to read the original draft. I had been living this story for two years and wanted to tell it from the heart, without being influenced by outside color. It took all of five minutes to ghostwrite a blurb for my boss's boss, which subsequently appeared in Issue 2 of Hyperline, an internal newsletter published in March 2004. I was just as amazed as everyone else at how quickly it came together. Here it is, in full.
"In October 2002, a new business unit at Hypercom was created, focusing solely on the ISO community. Led by Lisa Shipley, SVP, this small, elite group of sales professionals canvassed the national scene, soliciting ideas and advice from seven U.S. geographic regions. The response was phenomenal. ISOs were eager to meet with Hypercom and share their ideas on how we could become a better partner.
"Over the next few months, Lisa's team had hundreds of new relationships with ISOs. As word grew about the 'new Hypercom,' more agents and offices logged into the new Hy-Inside customer connection portal, a unique website designed especially for ISOs. Here they could find tools to help them sell even more effectively. They could add their logos to product slicks, download sales and training information. Best of all, they could earn points for selling Hypercom devices, points that could be redeemed for prizes and even free terminals!
"More than a year has passed and Hypercom's ISO program continues to grow exponentially. Thousands continue to register on Hy-Inside to participate in the array of offerings and information – designed to help you do what you do best: sell!
"Are you in the game?"
The question, "Are you in the game?" bears repeating regardless of our respective roles in this ever-changing industry. Scrolling through archival issues of The Green Sheet, I'm reminded of individual and collective contributions to merchant acquiring, payment card processing, cybersecurity, POS device manufacturing and value-added services.
Through good times and bad, I've seen merchant level salespeople (MLSs) give their all to the companies they serve and the products and services they sell. Behind them, vast armies of humans and chat bots strive to pick up calls by the third ring, answer questions and resolve issues. Today, from high up in the bleachers, I cover a game that's reliably consistent. It's only the players and technology that keep changing.
After interviewing payments industry leaders about when they first heard of The Green Sheet, I recalled seeing my first copy in a tradeshow bag and feeling proud of my company's full-page ad. Soon after that, I went online and subscribed. Education has always been my favorite section; expert opinions are relatable and have a way of bringing abstract concepts to life. I wanted to contribute a story to The Green Sheet and signed up for an adult ed journalism class.
My professor and fellow students had never heard of The Green Sheet or MLSs but helped me brainstorm story ideas. Free terminals were big in 2007, so we came up with a headline, "Comes with free terminal." The course gave me the confidence to take the next step, but I kept putting it off. Fortunately, a friend passed my name to Laura McHale Holland, The Green Sheet's current editor in chief, who invited me to join the magazine's contributing writers program.
Ever conscious of the fundamental rule in writing, "write what you know," I initially stuck with two topics in my early articles: selling and POS. My first article, "Changing Lanes on the Merchant Expressway," was published March 24, 2008, in Issue 08:03:02.
"How many times has this happened to you?" I wrote. "You overcome all the objections that arise during a sales presentation, get a merchant to sign your application, and then your new client just doesn't want to change POS equipment. You can't even give a new machine away."
Sources have described The Green Sheet as an initiation into payments. In a similar way, The Green Sheet helped me find my true calling as a writer. My monthly column opened doors to paid assignments and led to a step-up challenge: helming the Street SmartsSM column from April 2013 to March 2014. Happily, I found writing a column for every issue was doable and even fun.
I first met The Green Sheet's editorial team at a tradeshow and will never forget the words of one editor. "You're a gifted writer and I enjoy reading your articles every month," he said. "The difference between your work and ours is that we have to execute quickly and at scale."
Those words have stayed with me from the beginning, when I joined the team in November 2014, and three years later, when I was promoted to senior staff writer. It has been a great ride.
Happy fortieth birthday, Green Sheet! 
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