Selling merchant services is a unique job. Yes, most businesses need what you have to offer, but it’s near impossible to sell successfully without a mix of interpersonal skills, business insight, and industry knowledge.
So, how do you get started? In this article, we’ll look at what merchant services are as well as give you seven actionable tips to help you start off on the right foot in this exciting career.
What Are Merchant Services?
With new tech and software —Broadly speaking, merchant services are the financial services and technology that allows businesses to accept and process credit and debit card payments from their customers.
These services typically include credit and debit card processing, electronic payment gateways, and point-of-sale systems (POS). Merchant services facilitate transactions between the business, the customer, and the financial institutions involved.
How to Sell Merchant Services: 7 Tips for Success
While there are many nuances to selling in general, these seven tips will help give you a leg up as you prepare to talk to prospective clients about merchant services.
Learn the Merchant Services Industry (and stay current):
A big part of successful selling is being able to confidently answer questions about a product or service. The same goes for merchant services. You don’t want to come into your first meeting with a potential client having to go through FAQ sheets together.
Instead, take the time to learn the payment industry solutions that are used to take payments such as gateways, point of sale systems, and terminals. The easiest way to get started is by reading blog articles from merchant services industry websites or watching videos on YouTube.
However, for the most up-to-date and accurate information, you should also leverage the support you can get from your partner merchant services provider. For example, CardConnect not only offers their partner sales agents interactive webinars, but they also offer opportunities for new sales partners to be assigned a Partner Development Manager who can help agents understand the latest trends in the industry.
Create and Use Your Ideal Customer Profile:
Some new sales agents make the mistake of trying to sell to every type of merchant. While you may be able to include new merchant verticals later on, you should first identify your target customer such as retail, restaurants, or e-commerce and master it.
Why not just hit up every merchant type? Because a one-size-fits-all approach to selling merchant services rarely works. Each vertical has its own challenges and needs, and you need to be able to know them, understand them, and offer solutions to each of them. For example, e-commerce clients will want agile and secure online payment options, while restaurants will need to be able to accept multiple forms of payment through an in-store system. If you can anticipate what a potential client may need before they do, it will go a long way toward building trust.
Know Your Unique Selling Point:
Before speaking to any prospective clients, you need to be able to answer the question, “What makes my offerings different from my competitors?” It’s a question merchants may ask, as they may already be working with a sales agent or have talked to others.
Are you providing competitive pricing? Excellent customer service? Technical support? Are you offering one piece of the payment puzzle or a complete solution? Your sales pitch needs to clearly lay out what makes your offering unique.
Set Realistic Goals:
Setting both long-term and incremental goals can help give you a clear direction and keep you motivated. In the case of merchant services, you’ll want to figure out your target volume and value of sales based on factors such as your chosen merchant vertical, your region, and the current market prices. You should also consider establishing goals for new merchant acquisition, retention rates, and upselling or cross-selling services.
But don’t be discouraged if you can’t reach your goals at first. Ask any famous author and they’ll tell you about all the rejection letters they received before publishing their first book. Popular comedians also often talk about their struggles to find their voice, bombing a few sets before hitting their stride.
Selling can also be full of “no’s,” especially as you just start out. The key here is to not use it as an excuse to give up. If a merchant turns you away, learn from the experience and ask yourself why it happened. And instead of just thinking about it, write it down. Write out the details of the meeting — how you presented your pitch, what everyone said, the outcome. Writing this out will help you step back from the situation and see it more objectively. Then, try to find things you could improve for your next pitch.
Start With Who You Know:
One of the easiest ways to start building your customer base is by first speaking with people you know. This could include family members or friends who have businesses, or even a local bar or coffee shop that you frequent.
First, broaching the subject of merchant services with these people is much easier than cold calling businesses. You have already built trust and familiarity with these people, so they may be more willing to hear about your service offerings.
But don’t just ask them off-handedly if they want to work with you. Instead, use this as an opportunity to perfect your pitch. Go through everything just as you would with a client you don’t know. Then, ask for feedback. Did you address all of their payment needs and concerns? Did you sound confident in your product knowledge? What resonated and what could be presented better? If everything goes well, you may just come out of the meeting with a new client and a better pitch.
Build a Referral Program:
Once you get a few clients to say “yes,” make sure you continue to establish trust and rapport with them. Reach out periodically, whether by calling or emailing or even dropping by their storefront. This can help you build long-term relationships that are buffered against competitors.
You’ll also be more likely to get referrals from these merchants. Getting a warm introduction to people they know who need to take or already take credit cards can increase your odds of success. And if you continue this process with the next merchant, you could potentially gain even more referrals.
Just remember: Don’t wait for a merchant to offer a referral. Ask. As marketing guru Seth Godin once wrote, “More than features, more than benefits, we are driven to become a member in good standing of the tribe. We want to be respected by those we aspire to connect with.” If your service and support is great, merchants will likely want to tell their peers about you as it could help build their standing within their industry.
Use a Mix of Digital and Traditional Marketing:
If you started with who you know and have built up some referrals, you may have a few clients under your belt. But in order to truly grow, you need to do some marketing.
One of the easiest ways to get started with digital marketing is by building out social media accounts for your business on platforms you know your target audience uses. You can then use your account to post industry news and updates as well as your own thoughts on merchant services for your selected vertical. Plus, you can use this account to set up paid ads, further expanding your reach. As an added bonus, sales partners who join the CardConnect Partner Program gain access to a suite of ready-to-use marketing assets - including customizable social media tiles to fuel agent sales efforts.
If you want to dive deeper into digital marketing, create a website and set up a blog. A website, if search optimization is properly implemented, can help you get found in search engines, but a blog on that site can do even more. Your posts can help establish you as a subject matter expert in the industry, as well as give a place to publish case studies and customer testimonials. Just make sure you share your articles on your social media accounts to drive more traffic to your website.
Even though digital marketing is extremely important, don’t forget to consider traditional marketing methods as well. This includes print ads in industry publications, physical sales sheets, or even networking at trade shows and conferences within your target vertical. Even if you don’t get a sale directly from one of those methods, you’ve started to establish name recognition, which makes it all the easier to get a “yes” to a first meeting.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to attract new merchants and build your portfolio, becoming a CardConnect sales partner can give you a head start!
Cardconnect provides a variety of resources for the success of a sales agent such as competitive pricing and commissions, a robust suite of payment processing solutions, agent demo sessions, product training, and help desk support. We also provide a weekly news aggregator that highlights everything you need to know to remain successful in the marketplace, and a fully stocked resource center. You could also be assigned a Partner Development Manager for one year to assist you in getting to know the ins and outs of CardConnect.
If you’re an ambitious sales agent or ISO looking to grow your portfolio with a range of powerful and patented solutions backed by a Fiserv payment platform, look no further than the CardConnect Partner Program.