MLS agents are the Kings and Queens of selling.  We build our empires on millions of transactions and every one of them is a sale.  Every transaction is a successful close.  Every time someone says yes to our merchants, we all do a little bit better.  Imagine all the sales that occur every second, over dial lines, Ethernet/IP, WiFi and cellular networks.  That’s an oceanic current of positive energy, and it’s keeping our lights on, too!
Imagine if we could sell that much, that fast.  Imagine walking into a new merchant, having a handshake and going back to the office with an approved merchant application.  The good news is: It really can be that simple!  If we build the right kind of referral networks of happy customers, they will begin to look a lot like the electronic networks that manage all the credit card transactions.  That’s right, “If you build it, they will come!”
What else can we learn from our clicks?
1)   Trust:  Today, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) are a critical part of every merchant’s processing.  Transactions need to be “cleared for take-off” by using industry compliant hardware and software.  It’s also a good rule of thumb when you meet with prospective merchant customers to ask yourself if the business owner and company meet your own standards of respectability.  If there is any question in your mind about the person’s trustworthiness or the legitimacy of their business, walk away.    When you see them on a Most Wanted poster at the Post Office, you’ll be glad you paid attention to your instincts.
2)    Technology:  Clicks are only as good as the hardware and networks that manage their itineraries, from point of entry through authorization and settlement.  Technology is their ride, and it also speaks volumes about who we are and what we do.  Are you a Mercedes or a Yugo?  Our merchants deserve the very best equipment and processing software systems, which will deliver fast response times and won’t break down when they need it most.  How often do we hear from merchants about machines failing in the middle of their peak season?  Let’s create our own Cash-for-Clunkers programs and let them trade in the old lemons for modern processing systems.  Remember, whatever they use is a direct reflection of us and our companies.
3)    Support:  Sometimes a transaction will fail on its way to an authorizing host.  What happens when the system says, “No response from host?”  As we all know, network and hardware issues are a fact of life.  Support is a critical component of building long-term relationships with your merchants.  You can have the hottest looking machine out there and split second transaction times, but none of that will matter if your merchants are placed on hold for fifteen minutes when they call your Help Desk.  Let’s keep them happy with unprecedented customer service.
4)    Back-up:  Transactions have two primary objectives:  get authorized and get settled.   If their primary method of communication goes down, they search for a secondary method.  For example, if a transaction can’t be transmitted on Ethernet/IP, many systems will “fail over” to dial.  The concept of having a secondary way of processing is a great way to keep merchants productive.  Some of these fail-over systems are so smooth that merchants don’t even know when a fail-over has occurred.  Fail-over or having some kind of back-up plan is also an essential part of any good processing system.  Offer your merchant a virtual terminal that will stand in for a credit card machine in the event of equipment failure.  Sell them peace of mind with a monthly merchant club membership that will get them an overnight replacement if their terminal breaks.
5)    Value:  Clicks are just clicks, right?  Not if you consider the many ways that cardholders use their credit cards to get points, miles, or extra float on large purchases.  You could say the same thing about our business.  Is it just a machine and a rate, or are you offering your merchant customer an extension of their brand identity and business?  What additional value can you offer your merchant that sets you apart from your competition and gives them some bragging rights too?
Click on!
To summarize, there aren’t too many people who understand the complexities of the merchant services business, a multi-billion dollar industry built on gazillions of tiny little transactions.  Merchants sell, cardholders buy, and we’re the people who make it all possible.
Although we’ve all heard that we’re in a recession-proof industry, we also know how competitive it is out there, and how fast technology is changing. If clicks could talk, they’d probably thank us for everything we’re doing, and tell us we’re doing a great job.  Hopefully, we’re hearing that from our merchants as well.

This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of Merchant Times, a publication of Performance Training Systems.  http://www.surviveandthrive.biz/

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