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Education
StreetSmarts SM
“Setting up your ISO for success”
WITH
AARON NASSEH
Successfully recruiting
experienced agents
By Aaron Nasseh Determining factors
Finical Inc. I've found that the top three determining factors for an
agent seeking a new relationship are pricing, service and
hen I started my career in the payments technology.
space over a decade ago, I started as an
agent/ISO recruiter. Within a few years, • Pricing: Yes, pricing is important, because to be
W my colleagues and I were procuring 4,000 competitive in today's marketplace, MLSs must
new applications per month from our recruiting efforts. have aggressive pricing. And if they have sales
Although my responsibilities have changed since that teams under them, they want to be able to offer
time, I am still very much involved in the recruiting competitive pricing to their sub-agents while
efforts for my own company today. In this article, I will retaining good profitability for their own sales
share tips that may help you with your efforts in recruit- office. However, as previously mentioned, pricing
ing qualified merchant level salespeople (MLSs). by itself is no longer the deciding factor since
obtaining competitive pricing from ISOs is easier
There are many ways to recruit experienced agents; your today than ever before. Very seldom do profitable,
methods will partly depend on your budget. Common experienced MLSs switch relationships over a
methods include online marketing, social media few extra dollars. As long as you are able to offer
engagement, placing ads in respected trade magazine such competitive pricing, your focus should be on
as The Green Sheet, attending tradeshows, and conducting service and technology.
email campaigns.
• Service: When pricing is not an issue, what
However, having consulted with a number of ISOs, I've differentiates your ISO from another is the
noticed that many ISOs run pricing-focused marketing level of service and technology that you offer
when seeking new MLS relationships. Sure, pricing is to a potential sales office. More agents leave
critical to potential agent partners, but the reality is that I relationships due to servicing issues than pricing.
can pick up the phone and call five ISOs and receive just Sometimes it's simply because they're not able to
about the same proposal from most, if not all of them. To receive adequate support from their relationship
successfully recruit experienced MLSs, you must offer manager, their customers are experiencing
more than just competitive pricing. ongoing support issues, or they have other
concerns about the level of service. In short,
they don't feel that their ISO partners value their
business. Remember, while MLSs can clearly
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