The value of great sales training

As the world of payments advances, it is consistently making an impact on the way sales professionals present products and services to merchants. In order to stay competitive, sales people must continually stay up on the latest POS techniques, merchant software applications and consumer purchasing habits. As a result, the level, quality and relevance of payments industry training offered by a merchant services provider is often a deciding factor when sales agents and ISOs look for a new processing provider to represent.

"In today's evolving payments market, continuing education has never been more important to the sales professional," said Keith Ashcraft, Director of Corporate Recruiting at Electronic Payments. "That was the reason we enhanced our ISO training program in 2015."

A winning formula

Electronic Payments’ inaugural continuing education program for payment agents and ISOs consisted of bi-weekly webinars and regional agent meetings sprinkled throughout the year. The online training venue, branded Webinar Wednesdays, featured one-hour live webinar sessions focused on relevant industry advancements. These live training events not only provided valuable insight, updates, sales tips, and strategies, but also encouraged sales professionals – who can often feel isolated from peer sharing – to actively interact with subject matter experts and veteran sales professionals.

The program also included four in-person training events, timed to coincide with the regional payment association conferences. Through these intensive, person-to-person forums, sales agents were armed with everything needed to successfully position their business as a full-service POS and omnichannel-solutions company. Sessions presented hands-on point-of-sale demonstrations and focused talks on how to package the right mix of acceptance options for a merchant vertical, utilizing big data to help customers, management of back-office transaction details, and handling residual and merchant account information. Current Electronic Payments’ initiatives and new product advancements were also covered to keep everyone abreast of corporate level initiatives and successes.

Through surveys and feedback, Electronic Payments learned the program was beneficial to sales representatives and had impacted their applied knowledge in the field. The increased understanding gained about current market dynamics, as well as in demand omnichannel products and services, proved to help many of them more effectively target and close deals. Attendees also confirmed the sessions enhanced their ability to anticipate and address merchant challenges and questions.

"As a partner-centric company, the biggest takeaway from past regional meetings is agent feedback and insight,” Ashcraft added. “With so much momentum surrounding point of sale, agents are seeking unprecedented access to our wide array of resources. The collective experiences and successes of our agent base motivate our educational initiatives, and this roadshow is a tribute to these points."

More of a good thing

The wide-reaching interest of agents in the Electronic Payments’ ISO Training Roadshow transcended into several additional training programs offered by mid-year 2016. Training Tuesdays were implemented, utilizing the live webinar format to focus exclusively on point-of-sale selling and the Exatouch product. These webinars covered the rich feature set and capabilities of Exatouch, going more in depth on how the product is best sold and implemented into unique verticals.

In 2016 alone, Electronic Payments connected with over 100 ISO/agent partners during five different events across the United States. The increased demand and feedback inspired the company to expand the training program even further in 2017.

In addition to offering the bi-weekly Training Tuesdays and Webinar Wednesday trainings, the 2017 Roadshow schedule is already gaining momentum with five scheduled stops and several more dates to come:

February 1, 2017 – District Hall in Boston, MA
March 2017 – Charlotte, NC
May 2017 - Las Vegas, NV
July 2017 – Chicago, IL

The new and improved Roadshow objectives center around providing agents with what they need to:

• Learn about industry advancements and what's to come
• Better understand the current market and the omnichannel products/services in high demand
• Obtain sales tips that can be utilized immediately
• Exchange best practices with other payments professionals
• Gain insights on addressing merchant challenges and outstanding questions

As before, participants will have the opportunity to interact with veteran payments professionals, enjoy a free lunch, and learn more about leveraging their Electronic Payments’ partnership. Focused sessions will cover the latest releases of the Exatouch POS, as well as other EPI products, along with how agents can use these products to drive opportunity and better leverage the marketplace.

Additional details on the Roadshow, as well as instructions for how to register for any of the Electronic Payments training events can be found at www.epiroadshow.com.

If you are not currently an Electronic Payments ISO or agent, we invite you to check out our acclaimed training programs and learn more about the company. For more information about Electronic Payments’ ISO and agent program and services, please email Keith">href="mailto:keith@electronicpayments.com">Keith Ashcraft, Director of Corporate Recruiting, or contact him at 800-966-5520, ext. 223. Visit www.electronicpayments.com for details.

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