By Greg Hansen, Fiserv VP of Partner Sales
Greg Hansen is Vice President of Partner Sales at CardConnect, a Fiserv company, overseeing Agent and ISO partner growth across the payments ecosystem. He has over 20 years of experience in merchant acquiring, payment processing, and partner sales strategy. Greg focuses on helping partners scale through secure, flexible CardConnect technology and data-driven solutions.
Top Agents Ask These 5 Questions: TL;DR
Choosing a payments partner isn’t just a branding exercise. It’s a business decision that affects your earnings, efficiency, and long-term portfolio value.
Experienced merchant services sales agents tend to ask the same core questions before committing to a new partner:
- How will I actually get paid, and how does this scale over time?
- How easy is it to board and manage merchants day to day?
- Will this partner limit what I can sell?
- How will this help me reduce attrition and protect my residuals?
- Is this partner stable enough to grow with me long term?
Below, I’ll break down why each question matters and how the right answers directly impact your success as an experienced agent.
1. How Will I Actually Get Paid, and How Does This Scale Over Time?
This is always the first question, and for good reason.
Experienced agents aren’t looking for vague promises or one-size-fits-all answers. They want to understand how compensation works across different deal types, how residuals grow, and whether the model rewards long-term portfolio building, not just short-term volume.
What agents are really asking here is simple:
Will this partnership help me build predictable, recurring income or will I constantly need to chase the next deal to stay whole?
The strongest compensation models give agents flexibility. They allow earnings to scale based on portfolio mix, merchant needs, and solutions sold, rather than forcing every deal into the same structure. That flexibility matters when you’re working across multiple verticals or selling more than basic processing.
How CardConnect Answers This
CardConnect structures agent compensation to support long-term residual growth, not just upfront wins. Earnings scale based on portfolio composition and solutions sold, giving experienced agents room to grow without being boxed into a single model.[1]
2. How Easy Is It to Board and Manage Merchants Day to Day?
Time is one of the most overlooked costs in this business.
Agents don’t leave partnerships because the rates are off by a few basis points. They leave because the back office slows them down, creates friction, or pulls them into unnecessary operational work.
This question is really about leverage. Agents want to know:
- How quickly merchants can be boarded
- How intuitive the application process is
- How easily they can manage accounts once merchants are live
The easier it is to onboard and manage merchants, the faster agents can move from selling merchant services to growing their portfolios. Operational simplicity isn’t a “nice to have”; it directly affects earning velocity.
How CardConnect Answers This
CardConnect focuses on fast, streamlined merchant onboarding and intuitive agent tools that reduce friction. Agents can move merchants live quickly and manage portfolios efficiently, without getting buried in administrative work.
3. Will This Partner Limit What I Can Sell?
This is where many agents get burned.
Some partners lead with a single product or tightly controlled stack. That works until a merchant needs something outside that lane. When that happens, agents either lose the deal or lose control of the relationship.
Experienced agents know that flexibility is revenue protection.
Merchants don’t want to hear “we can’t support that.” They want solutions that fit their operations, software preferences, and growth plans. The more adaptable an agent can be, the fewer deals they lose and the more doors they open.
Flexibility isn’t just about winning new business. It’s about keeping existing merchants as their needs evolve.
How CardConnect Answers This
CardConnect offers agents flexibility across POS, gateways, hardware, and integrated software. Agents aren’t locked into a single product path, making it easier to support a wide range of merchant needs and verticals.
4. How Will This Help Me Reduce Attrition and Protect My Residuals?
Residual income only works if merchants stay.
Price-driven portfolios churn faster. Solution-driven portfolios last longer.
Experienced agents understand that the best way to protect residuals is by becoming operationally relevant to the merchant. When payments are integrated into daily workflows – e.g., payroll, scheduling, inventory, reporting – the account becomes harder to replace.
This question is about durability. Agents want to know whether a partner helps them embed themselves into the merchant’s business or leaves them exposed to the next rate-cutter who walks through the door.
How CardConnect Answers This
By enabling agents to sell beyond payments, CardConnect helps create stickier merchant relationships. Integrated solutions increase retention and make portfolios more resilient over time.
5. Is This Partner Stable Enough to Grow With Me Long Term?
The payments industry changes fast, from acquisitions and rebrands to new platforms and new competitors.
Experienced agents look for partners that offer both innovation and stability. They don’t want to rebuild their book every time the market shifts or a provider disappears.
This question is about trust. Agents want to know:
- Will this partner still be here in five years?
- Will the platform continue to evolve?
- Will merchants recognize and trust the brand?
Stability doesn’t mean standing still. It means having the resources and scale to adapt as the market changes without disrupting agents or merchants.
How CardConnect Answers This
Backed by the scale and reliability of Fiserv, CardConnect combines long-term stability with ongoing investment in technology and tools that help agents stay competitive as the market evolves.
The Bottom Line
Experienced agents don’t ask these questions out of caution. They ask them out of experience.
They’ve seen what happens when compensation doesn’t scale, tools slow them down, flexibility is limited, or partners can’t keep up with change. The right answers create leverage. The wrong ones create friction.
When agents choose partners that support flexibility, efficiency, retention, and long-term growth, they stop rebuilding portfolios and start compounding them.
Turning the Right Questions into Stronger Portfolios
The right partnership doesn’t just answer your questions, it removes them over time.
For experienced agents, CardConnect is built to address the exact concerns that matter most when choosing a payments partner: scalable earnings, operational efficiency, flexibility in what you can sell, stronger retention, and long-term stability.
By combining fast onboarding, flexible technology options, and access to solutions that go beyond basic processing, CardConnect helps agents protect their residuals while adapting as merchant needs evolve. You’re not boxed into a single product or forced to compete on price alone. With us, you’re equipped to build durable, high-value portfolios.
If you’re an experienced payment sales agent evaluating your next partnership through the same five questions outlined above, CardConnect is designed to meet them head-on. Sign up below for a free consultation.