The Best Tips For Growing Your Merchant Services Business

Now is a great time to get started as an independent sales organization (ISO) agent.

If you're looking to become an ISO Agent or grow your existing business, you're in luck.

It's estimated that ISO agents open 80% of merchant accounts, while banks only open 20% of the merchant accounts.

Credit cards also have the highest growth rate among payment types, growing over 10% by volume and just over 6% by value.

If e-commerce trends continue, and we have no reason to expect that they won't, ISO Agents will continue to play a pivotal role in opening merchant accounts to more and more businesses.

If you're ready to grow your merchant service business and take advantage of these trends, we have a few tips in the article below that will help you along the way.

Make A Daily Schedule And Commit To It

The business of ISO sales comes with a lot of freedom.

ISO Agents are responsible for their schedule.

No boss is hovering over your shoulder telling you what to do and when to do it.

With this freedom, you will have to find ways to keep yourself motivated, on track, and productive.

To make sure your time isn't wasted, you should plan your days down to the hour.

Figure out how you like to start your days and end your days.

Structure your day the same way every day, and to help set you up for success.

Maybe you want to start your day promoting on social media, or perhaps you prefer cold calls.

Maybe after lunch, you like to follow up and check in with existing customers.

Once you figure out the routine that works best for you, and provides you the best opportunity to grow, stick to it every day.

This ensures you don't waste any time as an ISO sales agent, and you get the most out of your business.

Invest in Training

Selling hasn't changed in centuries. Learning how to sell a pen is the same as learning how to sell merchant services.

Once you know your product (more on that later), you can use the same selling principles that have worked for people for centuries.

While the fundamentals are the same, there have been shifts in how your customers will expect the sales process to go and how new sales tools, like social media, impact the delivery of proposals and services.

That's why you need to stay up to date with current trends and how to build and nourish client relationships in the new, tech-focused modern world.

Make The Calls

You can't sell anything if you don't have contacts to sell to.

Sometimes people get overwhelmed thinking about sales calls.

They worry about if they're calling enough, if they're calling too much, if they're calling at the right times, and so on.

But the biggest key to success is making the calls. You can optimize calling times and strategy, but you likely won't find out the best way until you start making calls.

Get a pitch you're comfortable with and commit to calling people every day, and don't stop until you've reached your quota for the day.

This gets the ball rolling, and you can expand from there.

Know Your Product

Cold calling is important, but 100% of your sales aren't going to come from cold calling.

You need to know your business and your product inside and out so you can educate your potential clients.

The knowledge you have will build confidence, impress potential clients, and land you more sales.

Merchants want to work with an agent that can educate them on new trends and products and explain the details of the business.

You also need to take time to really get to know the merchants you sign up.

They might have an additional business, or they will likely know of other businesses they can refer you to if they like the services you're providing them.

Your contacts in this business are vital to your success, so you need to take care of them.

Try To Close Every Deal

If you've answered a lead's every question, and there are no more objections, a close may be imminent.

As an ISO agent, you need to close the deal as quickly as possible.

Leads like this don't grow on trees, so you need to be sure to close the ones you get.

You do not want to give them time to get second thoughts, and any hesitation on your part can make them second guess your offering.

Pick The Right Partner

At the end of the day, nothing is as important as the product you're selling.

A great salesman can sell anything, sure, but once people find out what they're selling isn't good, leads will dry up, and the business will struggle.

That's why it's crucial to partner with a company like Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS).

With EMS' agent program, you never have to work alone. They will work with you to offer customized agreements, gain merchant approvals, provide marketing assistance, and 24/7/365 support for anything you need.

If you contact a relationship manager at EMS, you will get a callback or reply by the end of the day, guaranteed.

With EMS, you can seamlessly manage your business anytime, anywhere.

MyPortfolio is their robust, transparent, and user-friendly portfolio management system that allows you to easily manage the entire sales process, from acquiring the merchant to customizable reporting for your sub-agents and partner.

Another significant benefit of working with EMS is that their relationship with five sponsor banks, the most of any merchant service provider.

That means there are more verticals open for you to get into and grow your business.

With five sponsor banks, you can find a home/secure the deal for those hard to place clients.

Choosing a partner is the most critical decision you will make for your ISO business.

You deserve an Agent Program that provides support and transparency and assists you in the growth of your portfolio.

We’re a team! When you succeed, we succeed.