Merchant Sales Podcast

Learn how Electronic Data Payment Systems successfully competes with Square. "Service is paramount," explains Bill Treciak, the firm's president. Plus James and Patti discuss Square's recent price hike and how ISOs and agents can leverage that to flip Square merchants.

Square is now on a level playing field with the ISO world. Be ready to compete. Two misconceptions about Square are paralyzing our industry! Get rid of the wrong viewpoint and seize the opportunity to compete with Square on a level playing field.

Jaron Rice describes how he built and maintains a successful local brand, Magothy Payments. Hint: he makes it his mission to stay visible & to stand firm on integrity. Plus James explains the art of follow-up, and Patti reports on same-day funding trends.

Make a plan specifically designed to compete with Square. Compete with Square and win! I’m giving you my approach and secret weapons. You CAN get their accounts.

Learn how Danny Hernandez built a successful ISV (integrated software vendor), Global Payment Technologies, from the ground up. Plus James offers advice on creating pipelines of big deals, and Patti reports on consumer spending trends.

How can we compete with Square? Notice their weak points. Is our industry sleeping while Square jumps ahead? Wake up and put a plan in action. You’re in trouble if you don’t know how to compete with Square. I’m giving you my secret weapons for victory in the competitin.

Josh Rosenwald describes how the firm he founded, Hello Lending, enables ISOs and agents to grow revenues by offering merchants a safe and secure digital process that produces qualified financing offers in minutes instead of days or weeks. Plus James and Patti discuss factors contributing to the rise of cash discounting.

My secrets on how to sell your portfolio and get the best deal. Do you need extra capital to take your business to the next level? Be prepared to maximize the value of your portfolio sale. I’ve sold seven portfolios in the industry and learned the good, the bad, and the ugly. Learn from my experiences…

Laura Demke-Calixte, Founder & CEO of EPNA, describes how she's building that ISO, a certified woman-owned business enterprise, on a foundation of trust and integrity, with unique flourishes, like operating a retail storefront where merchants can get statements analyzed and product demos. James drills down on the skill set needed to support successful agent training, and Patti discusses POS debit trends.

Do you want to have more leads and less cold calling? Learn how to dominate your market. There are many different ways to do that once you identify your niche. All these strategies can be simplified into three steps

Cash Discounting programs may still be covered by the Durbin Amendment, and here is why. There has been a lot of talk the last few days that suggests service fee cash discounting programs are no longer compliant. In this video, I want to present the other side of the argument.

This week's podcast features an interview with Ben Brown, Founder and CEO of Journey Business Solutions, who describes his formula for building a high-performing sales team. It includes a combination of W2 and 1099 reps, and a strong focus on in-field training. Plus James explains how investing in agents drives value, and Patti discusses new insights on debit card usage.

Find your best target niche to deepen expertise and customize your value proposition. Focusing on one vertical or business type at a time is the key to continuing education. As your expertise grows, larger opportunities will be within reach.

Sam Zietz, CEO at Touchsuite talks Kiosks and selling technology to QSRs. In this week's episode, Sam Zietz, CEO at Touchsuite talks about self-checkout and how this trend is changing the POS landscape. He also covers "Grubbrr" Touchsuites new self-check ecosystem that is ready for re-sellers. Patti reports on the separation of BA Merchant Services from First Data, and James explains how to construct powerful agent compensation program.

Our new eBook is out! www.ccsalespro.com/steps to download "How to Sell Merchant Services in 6 Steps". These 3 tips will usher your prospects to a decision. Don't fill your pipeline with "maybe." Find a way to get a "Yes" or "No" from every prospect.

Payment processing and facebook marketing automation work together with Adszy. This week Jon Grayem explains how his firm, Adszy, harnesses social media and point-of-sale data to help brick and mortar merchants better understand customers and how to reach them. James discusses why MLSs who rely on scheduled-appointment leads should mix it up and add walk-in sales to their routines. And Patti reports on the Fed's plans to build a real-time payments network and what that could mean for payment processing.

Our new eBook is out! www.ccsalespro.com/steps to download "How to Sell Merchant Services in 6 Steps". How do you build a pipeline of interested prospects? Use these keys to help you build and balance. Keep your pipeline full!

Learn how Matt Hoskins, Founder & CEO of PayProTec, built a successful ISO leveraging POS ISV partnerships to support innovation and superior service. Plus, Patti reports on what the break-up of BAMS and First Data could portend for competition in merchant services, and James explains the value of demos in the sales process.

Our new eBook is out! www.ccsalespro.com/steps to download "How to Sell Merchant Services in 6 Steps". There IS a negative extreme possible while striving to become an expert. Avoid the pitfall of information paralysis. This paralysis occurs when a sales person thinks...

Building profitable portfolios by playing to your sales strengths. Managing the myriad of relationships associated with merchant portfolios diminishes time spent at what ISOs and MLSs do best: selling. Jordan Zahler, Vice President of Sales at IRIS CRM, explains how automation simplifies this process, and delivers front-end consistency in the face of upstream consolidation. Plus, Patti reports on FaceBook's crypto-currency play, Libra, and James offers tips for overcoming merchant objections to changing the status quo. Discussion

How to Hit 6 Figure Residuals in a Competitive Market. Victor Travaglianti, Owner/Operator of Credit Card Processing For Less, explains how he built his merchant portfolio into a 6-figure residual stream. Maintaining mutually beneficial relationships has been key. Plus, James describes how to use "show-and-tell" as a prospecting tool, and Patti reports on top performing payment gateways.

Our new eBook is out! https://www.ccsalespro.com/steps to download "How to Sell Merchant Services in 6 Steps". This first episode highlights the importance of sounding like an expert in front a business owner when selling merchant services.

Transform your ISO with the right technology partnerships. Find out how the ISV Gas Pos is building out channel partnerships. "We're all about putting cash into [ISO and agent] pockets immediately," says CEO Josh Smith. Plus Patti discusses revenue opportunities from POS installment lending, and James offers tips for closing a merchant who says "maybe."

Pull your head out of the sand! Change in our industry is already happening and happening quickly. Most merchants will want different things in 36 months than they want today, and someone will be offering it to them between now and then. Will it be you?

Learn how to sell Clover, Restaurant POS and Train Agents to Pitch Value from a 15 year veteran. If you are serious about transitioning away from price to a value sales presentation, don't miss our interview with George Passias, Founder and CEO at Great American Payment Systems. Patti talks about how large Retails are pushing back against the card brands and James shares tips on converting "Maybe" into "Yes."

In this week's podcast Ben Trombley describes how his firm, Encytro, helps ISOs and MLSs grow revenues through a merchant data security and chargeback reimbursement program. Patti reports on the ongoing need to protect against POS hacks. And James offers advice on overcoming barriers to productivity and profitability.

Right now, I see an underlying need in our industry. You can seize the chance to fill that need. Enable business owners to buy your technology with a lower barrier to entry. Make a lot more money and a lot more sales…

IS merchant sales getting harder? After watching and participating in the industry for ten years, I can offer really interesting thoughts about that question....

Learn legal ins and outs, plus tips for managing sales teams. This week's podcast features a far-reaching interview with Industry Attorney Adam Atlas. Learn what he has to say about issues like registering your brand and negotiating contracts. Plus James offers insights on managing a successful sales team, and Patti explains why ACH payments should be part of every merchant services product mix.

Surcharging and Cash Discounting are hot topics in our industry right now. I've already published a lot of content about these. Today I'd like to help sales people and business owners decide whether these are worth a try...

Contract transparency, pitching trials & check services. Learn how Jaron Rice, Founder & CEO of Magothy Payments, successfully lobbied for a new Maryland law requiring transparency in merchant contracts. Think Truth-in-Lending-style disclosures and caps on termination fees. Plus, James explains how agents can drive sales by pitching trials, and Patti sheds light on the value prop of check services.

Interchange Plus or Cost Plus pricing is the most transparent structure. However, reading that kind of statement is the most challenging. Here are some tip-offs which will help identify over-priced situations. We have created a special website to help, too...

Learn about the two levers of sales success, tech partners and more. In this weeks episode James explains the two levers successful sales reps rely on to amp up their sales. In addition, Jamie Spoto, Director of Operations as JR's POS Depot, describes why ISO's and ISV's outsource technology sales and deployments to POS specialists like JR's. Also, Patti reports on how contactless card payments appear to be ready for prime time.

Learn about the value of simplified statement analysis, cash discounting and exit plans. This week James describes how agents can provide prospective merchants with price quotes, instantly, without ever having to request statements. Plus Patti explains the importance of exit strategies and James reviews the case for cash discounting.

I've seen thousands of credit card processing statements during my eleven years in this industry. Reading and understanding them is a bit easier for me now. Allow me to give you some keys to interpreting statements on tier pricing. There are some ways to know if the prices are competitive...

Reading and understanding credit card processing statements is difficult. But today I’m offering good news. This episode will give some simple solutions.

The road to success is paved with well-established relationships. This week's episode features a conversation with Hawkins Siemon, Founder and CEO of Elevate Payment Alliance, on building long-term value through well established relationships. Frequent contact with merchant clients is key, he says. Plus, Patti reviews things to watch out for when negotiating contracts with upstream partners, and James explains the pros and cons of surcharging.

The merchant sales process has changed a lot over the last few years. To stay on the cutting edge in sales, changing your own sales process is crucial. The number one key to developing the sales process is...

Insights on building a successful business, merchant-pricing and consumer payment preferences Marc Beauchamp talks with James about is book How to Survive & Thrive in the Merchant Services Industry, which he describes as a blueprint for elevating an MLS's business. James continues his ongoing explanation of pricing models, this week focusing on the concept of passing along merchant processing costs to cardholders. And, Patti provides an update on consumer payment preferences.

For merchant sales professionals one habit is more important than any others! This is a common theme for experienced or brand new agents. Here are some unique tips to help you develop that all-important habit.

Helping merchants tame the charge-back demon Merchants lose billions of dollars a year to unnecessary charge backs. In this week's episode, Gary Cardone describes how Chargebacks9-1-1 leverages data and analytics to drive down charge backs, and by extension card declines. Plus, Patti discusses how the Internet of Things could change payments, and James explains the pros and cons of subscription rate pricing.

In this week's episode, Vijay Sondhi, CEO of NMI, explains how NMI works with ISOs to help small & mid-sized businesses compete with the big guys through omni-channel enablement. James describes the pros and cons of flat rate pricing. And Patti reports on the latest trends in credit and debit card payments and acquirer rankings.

Compliance is always a challenge! There are regulations and rules which apply to surcharging fees. Today I’ll discuss some interesting trends regarding these as related to the use of debit cards.

I'm finally publishing five keys for selling merchant services on the phone. This is probably the most requested topic I've ever had. There's a very good reason I've never published an episode on it before...

Learn how one ISO minimizes churn with merchant options for passing along costs to customers Phil Ricci, Vice President of Sales Operations at Clearent, describes how Clearent supports different paths to success in helping merchants pass along card processing costs to customers. Options include cash discounting, surcharging, and a combination of the two. Plus James explains tiered pricing and Patti reports on Apple's credit card gambit.

Help merchants boost revenue by up to 11% with intelligent reconciliation Troy Zentner, CEO and Co-Founder of Gold Star Payments, describes a revolutionary approach to reconciliation; that helps merchants realize revenue bumps upwards of 11%. James explains the pros and cons of Interchange Plus pricing. And Patti reviews the latest trends in corporate payment frauds.

There is an underlying cost structure for every ISO and processor in the merchant services industry. To make a profitable book of business, making sure fees are covering costs is crucial. And saving merchants money is the methodology of the industry. Let me help you understand this vital topic…

Mastering the art of relationship building The key to building lifetime relationships is in keeping it super simple, RJ Horsley, President of SpotOn Transact, explains in this week's featured interview. Plus, James discusses urgency killers and ways to overcome these in order to close deals, and Patti describes the latest trends in e-commerce sales.

I have some interesting experiences when traveling and consulting. I also see many trends in our industry. One illogical one I've noticed lately is...

Learn why cash discounting is a win-win & how to close deals when selling on value This week's podcast features an interview with Adam Ackerman, head of the ISO Sales Channel at Merchant Lynx Services. Adam explains how cash discounting is driving value for MLSs and their clients. James offers more insights for selling on value, specifically how to close a value sale. And Patti provides an update on crypto-currency trends.