The Green Sheet Online Edition

May 27, 2024 • Issue 24:05:02

Best-selling business strategies – Part 2: Online selling

By Allen Kopelman
Nationwide Payment Systems Inc.

Merchant level salespeople (MLSs) laughed when Square, Stripe and PayPal hit the market, but the laughter quickly faded when their brand promises of quick, fast and easy payments began to resonate with young business owners.

Even now, with Stripe reaching a trillion-dollar milestone in processing revenue, ISOs are looking for ways to leverage this type of technology and business model. One thing is certain: we need to convince business owners of the benefits of working with real, accessible people instead of giant tech platforms with no phone support.

If you are calling on businesses, what do you want them to see when they search for you online? First of all, you want them to find you. Part 1 of this series, on bestselling business practices, explored how MLSs can become more discoverable in the real world. That journey continues in Part 2, which details how MLSs can stand out to prospects and partners searching online for processing solutions.

Build on what works

Following are some tried-and-true best practices:

• Build an online presence: MLSs need to have, at minimum, a basic one-page website, electronic business card, LinkedIn profile with up-to-date photo and Facebook page, as well as other social media, such as Twitter and Instagram. To project a professional image, link your email address to your website and avoid using a generic Gmail address. Frequency is key, post interesting items once or twice a week and comment on others’ posts.
• Build out your online assets: Project a competent, professional image to reassure people that you are a qualified consultant in the payments industry. A credible business website includes a business name, tagline, location, address, phone and email addresses. A contact form helps partners and prospects get in touch and an "About Us" section provides an overview of products and services.
• Build your professional network: Reach out and connect with business owners through social media. I frequently hear from people who do not know how to leverage these platforms and encourage them to take free classes and use social media posting tools, like Canva, which are inexpensive and can help them build their networks and followers. Most social media postings can be scheduled ahead to maintain a consistent schedule.
• Create an electronic business card: Create an elegant electronic business card that can be sent by text or email. The ways in which business people communicate have changed. Paper business cards are still around, but professionals in the electronic transactions business need digital business cards to extend reach beyond face-to-face meetings. It is also advisable to have a PDF about your business that can be emailed to clients, partners and prospects.
• Join online communities: Become a joiner by affiliating with professional industry associations and groups on social media where you can meet people virtually, but vet these groups carefully before you join. Consider starting a local group to promote your local business community and invite others to visit and join the page. Drive traffic to the page by allowing people to post and comment on trending issues and local events.
• Write professional articles: Writing blogs and articles can help you be found as an expert by people who are searching for you online. Yellow Pages were popular back in 2001. Today, people use Google to find each other. Writing articles and blogs can help raise your online profile. Sponsored content, which you pay for, promotes your business. Educational articles, shared in trade publications, inform readers about trends without selling.  
• Create a podcast: Podcasts, like educational articles, are designed to inform but not sell. If you would like to be considered as a guest speaker, submit a guest profile with a few examples of prospective topics, such as POS systems and why they are important; how to protect your ecommerce business from fraud; or how to deal with chargebacks. Be prepared to talk about your company and share knowledge without being overly promotional.
• Build a virtual pipeline: Don’t expect results unless you put in the work. You can't call on five to 10 people and say it's hard; you need to call on 50 to 100 people a day to build a pipeline. People fail at online selling for the same reasons they fail in the outside world. They don’t call on enough people; they let warm leads get cold or they don’t do enough follow-ups and networking. Have the discipline to set and achieve your goals and consider paying for advertising on social media and Google.

Want to know more? Keep reading The Green Sheet and consider joining my Facebook group, where we can share ideas and support each other, at www.facebook.com/nationwidepaymentsystems.

Allen Kopelman, a serial entrepreneur is co-founder and CEO of Nationwide Payment Systems Inc. and host of B2B Vault: The Biz to Biz podcast. Email him at allen@npsbank.com and connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenkopelman/ and Twitter AllenKopelman

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