Praise The Sun

The Scenario: You find yourself with an opportunity to successfully complete a sale with a large merchant. Excitedly, you have them sign the application and graciously accept the most recent processing statement. Finally, you submit the application and think about your imminent future success.

It seems like you did everything right. You may have even stayed completely by the book on how to successfully control a sale and gain satisfaction. However, one important part of sales in the payments industry is making sure to ask the right questions.

The Outcome: You find yourself getting calls from underwriting saying they cannot assure that your newly acquired merchant can be approved. They explain that this new client, although they have a storefront, is considered high risk – and after double checking the credit policy you notice that they are indeed listed as high risk.

There are ultimately two serious problems that occur during a credit card processing service sale:

1. You lose control
2. You ignore the credit policy

When both of these mistake merchant services agent program  s are made, it could result in a loss of time, money and ultimately the sale as a whole.

Controlling the Sale

There are many books available for merchant service providers that can be used as a guide. They’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of what to say and do that will lead to satisfaction. However, in most cases, it’s not only about what you say during a sales call that ensures success, but it’s what you don’t say and don’t ask that could lead to failure.

As a merchant service provider, it’s important to have a complete understanding of the client’s products and services as well as their processing history and sales practice to assure that they are the right fit for your specific credit card processing service. Ultimately, failing to take the time to develop an understanding of your potential merchant could lead to a loss of control. Without having a game plan, you may find yourself overestimating pricing, setting unrealistic goals and expectations and leaving the merchant in charge to dictate the actions.

Focusing on the Credit Policy

In order to be better prepared, be sure to become familiar with the types of merchants and categories that are listed on the credit policy. With a better understanding of the categories, a merchant service provider will be able to identify risk classification earlier in the process. Here are a few tips for identifying typical low-risk merchants:

• have face-to-face transactions
• offer no future delivery options
• have a ticket size of $500 or less
• handle less than $3 million in the annual merchant processing volume

By controlling the sale and remembering to focus on the credit policy, your credit card processing service can stay on a path toward financial success.