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Taking a consultative approach when selling merchants products and services can guard against merchant attrition, says Scott Goren, vice president of sales with SB Direct Inc., a Newburgh, N.Y.-based merchant-service provider and independent sales organization. "If you provide the value from day one, you might keep them longer than just signing them up," he says. The consultative approach, however, may mean fewer sales up front. The approach "sometimes hurts the sale, but it's better in the long run," Goren says. He describes speaking with a daycare merchant who is paid primarily by state or local social-service agencies and not by consumers. Though the merchant believed she needed a merchant account, Goren persuaded her not to get one. "I talked myself out of a sale because I wouldn't want someone to say she's stuck in a contract" that she doesn't truly need, he says, adding that unhappy merchants can hurt an ISO's word-of-mouth business. ISOs can retain their relevance with merchants by providing expertise and increased value, says David Fish, senior analyst at Maynard, Mass-based Mercator Advisory Group Inc. (CardLine, 8/1). "It's not really about price anymore. It's all about value," he says. The merchant-level salesperson is "someone that the merchant is contracting with to serve as an expert" in payment systems, Fish says.
