hat qualities make a merchant level salesperson successful? Tina Louise Penn of Signature Card Services in Los Angeles contributes her success to having confidence, good listening skills, and always being honest with her customers.

Early on in her career, she also asked industry veterans many, many questions, which helped her build a solid understanding of the payment processing industry. In the following interview, Penn shares her success story.

The Green Sheet: What brought you into this business?

Tina Louise Penn: I fell into this business by a simple referral from a friend of mine. Signature Card Services had been in business for a couple of years before I started working for them.

In 1998, I interviewed and was hired as an inside salesperson and their first employee.

I am now an outside representative for Signature Card Services. The inside position and the learning and experience gave me the tools to go off on my own and start my sales office.

GS: What did you do before?

TLP: I owned and operated a commercial and industrial cleaning company in Los Angeles and Orange County. I knew nothing about [this type of business]. I went into an environment where I had some concepts, but I did not know the workings of how to build it. I actually grew from just myself to 35 employees because once I grasped the concepts, I took off like a jet. After eight years, I sold that business.

GS: Did you have any sales experience before starting in the merchant services industry?

TLP: Yes, in the mid 1980s to early 1990s, I worked in real estate.

GS: How did you apply this experience in your merchant services career?

TLP: In real estate as well as anything, you do a lot of cold calling; you do a lot of door knocking. In sales it's all about the relationships you build that allow you to be successful.

From real estate, having to cold call to see if someone wanted to sell their home, if they knew anyone who is looking to sell their home, now or in the future, asking for referrals, going out door-knocking, it pretty much has the same actions [as selling bankcard processing].

GS: What type of industry training did you receive?

TLP: It's really about who has done this before, who can I go to ... and really inquire about processes? When I was hired at Signature Card Services, the CEO Cliff Teston had an extensive background in this industry; he came from a very large ISO.

For me, it's about going to that individual and asking as many questions so that I can put the pieces of the puzzle together. [Once I did this], it was easy for me.

GS: How prepared are newcomers now versus when you first entered the industry?

TLP: I believe that in this industry, ISOs understand that training is the utmost important aspect of doing this business. They are providing the tools and support so that their independent representatives can succeed as well as be compliant with all aspects of bankcards.

GS: Is the training better now?

TLP: There are absolutely better resources ... you do have a lot of newbies, if you will, that come into this industry, that are just given what they need to present: "Here's the rates, go sell the product, and do your very best." That happened when I started in 1998.

It's important to me to then take a lot of my knowledge and provide it to a merchant, because bottom line, I go into it saying to myself, "I am going to make this merchant stay with me forever."

It's not going to be a now situation, which unfortunately there are some agents out there who are only into today. I do believe at this point in time, all the big ISOs out there are doing a tremendous job in their training aspects to keep good salespeople.

GS: How do you approach potential clients in the first meeting?

TLP: You have two different categories [of merchants]. You have a category of existing merchants who already know what bankcards are about. Then you have your new businesses that have never heard [about] bankcard.

For example, when I tell people what I do, they [ask] "What? What's that?" They have never heard of it and never knew that you could do a job and make a living from it. When I go out and approach potential clients, I either approach existing merchants or ones who are looking to open their business to accept credit cards.

GS: What techniques help you close a sale?

TLP: I really don't like using the term "closing a sale." It has a negative overtone for me. Well, we all have different and unique techniques when you use the word "close." I take a very simple approach: honesty and integrity.

The merchants today are very knowledgeable on bankcards; they have the Internet to research this industry, so for me it goes back to being a good listener.

GS: How much of it is on a case-by-case basis?

TLP: Merchant A may not need as many bells and whistles as merchant B. If they are a very detailed type of merchant looking for specifics, then I can formulate that package and present it to them. If it's more simplistic, then that's the easier route for them.

They're out there researching. They're getting so much information that either they get lost, or they're given something that perhaps really might not fit their need, and they might be oversold, or they might not have enough.

GS: How do you overcome prospects' reluctance to buy when you know a certain product might be good for their business?

TLP: If I am going to go into an existing merchant that I know just takes credit cards ... I will then introduce myself and ask questions about things other than what they are currently doing. If they are not taking checks, I want to know [how many people want to pay with checks]? Would it be to their advantage? Those are the types of questions where I am planting seeds for them.

So now I am going to start opening this relationship, because I'm not going to go after their merchant [bankcard] account.

I'm going to go after their merchant account after they see how I service them in the check or gift card process. If it's something that they don't need, then for me it's all about asking for a referral because I would never ... sell somebody something that they don't need.

GS: What are the basic tenets of your business philosophy?

TLP: Honesty, integrity, excellent customer service and continually educating merchants when an issue comes up and how they can best come to a solution, with my help, and move forward and grow their business.

GS: What do you think about the level of honesty and integrity among merchant level salespeople?

TLP: I can tell you that to this day I have a lot of merchants that say, "You know, Tina, no one has ever explained this to me." That's the unfortunate part, because we as business people have to have that sense of integrity to be able to go home at night and feel like [we] have done a good job.

GS: Do you think the industry does a good job of regulating itself?

TLP: The industry is structured so that I as a salesperson can operate with honesty and integrity because it is important to me to have an ongoing relationship with my ISO. [It] not only protects their interests [but also] mine.

There cannot be a free for all ... for an agent to go out there and just do their own thing. There must be guidelines on which one must then conduct the way they are doing their business. It's either you play or you don't.

GS: Describe a typical workday.

TLP: I do my best at practicing organizational skills the day before. First thing in the morning I meditate, pour a cup of coffee and read for an hour on the bankcard industry. [I] check my task schedule, make calls to existing client needs, [make] 20 introduction calls to businesses (they must be live not voice mail), 10 walk-in introductions, then I take care of internal paperwork in my office.

I am involved in a great business group once a week with true referrals, and I have the support of my local chamber of commerce. I like to [call them] introduction calls and not cold calls because in truth I am introducing myself and my products and services.

GS: How has The Green Sheet helped you?

TLP: I love the information The Green Sheet supplies to our industry so we as independent sales representatives can make decisions that can help grow our businesses and gain knowledge of what is happening in the bankcard world.

GS: Where do you see this industry in the future? Will there still be street sales?

TLP: There will always be sales. Sales has always been and always will be the way of the world. Sales is what makes the world go around, whether you're a Fortune 500 company or an independent sales rep. Everyone sells.

GS: Are you satisfied with your progress so far?

TLP: Yes I am. My residuals tell me so!

GS: What has contributed to your success?

TLP: My drive to always want to learn more because that's the most exciting, that's the challenge. To me sales ... isn't about the money. Because anything that anyone does in sales, the money always comes.

It's how you approach the marketplace that provides you with that end result, and that's the success. And I've been very successful at what I have done. That's because when I entered this business in 1998, I couldn't get enough of it.

[The senior executives at Signature Card Services] will tell you that I was always coming to them and asking them questions. How does this work? Why does that happen? Why do Visa and MasterCard do that?

The more that I obtained from the knowledge and experience that they had, then it was a no-brainer for me. It became very exciting and more of a challenge: How much more business can I get? How can I get out there and conquer the merchant world and tell them what I know?

GS: Would you have done anything differently?

TLP: Yes, [entered] into the industry in 1988 instead of 1998.

GS: Do you have any advice for newcomers?

TLP: Find a good ISO who can train [you], help you set goals, encourage, motivate and provide you with the tools for success.

I am very fortunate to have found Signature Card Services. The partners and customer service staff have been the guiding force to my success.

GS: Any final comments?

TLP: Embrace this industry, have fun, grow to the potential of being the best at what you do, as I do every day, and always know that there is plenty of business for everyone. Just do it!