IMGCAP(1)]
From the September/October 2009 issue of ISO&Agent.
Often when Jan Powers, a merchant-level salesperson who runs Banc Card Midwest in St. Louis, talks with customers over the telephone, she recalls a prop that a friend keeps on her desk: a mirror. Powers' friend uses the mirror to see if she is smiling during a call.
"When you know you're smiling, somehow it comes across during a call," Powers says.
In a business where ensuring merchants are happy, competition is swift and ruthless, and margins constantly condense, any edge an ISO has is important.
Using the telephone as an effective sales tool evolved long ago, and it no longer is simply means to read off well-worn scripts. Now, regardless of the size of the sales staff, using the phone effectively requires an understanding of what merchants expect, observers say.
Powers, who started selling merchant accounts 12 years ago and counts three reps as colleagues, knows just what that experience is like because she receives several sales calls each week.
"Sometimes I pretend I'm not me," especially when the caller has the telltale mark of reading from a script and lacks natural enthusiasm, she says.
Powers, like many others in the merchant-services industry, uses that experience to improve her own sales efforts. A small-business owner for the past 12 years, she relies on some best practices she has picked up along the way.
The first step is to determine the name of the decision-maker, then call and ask for that person. When the merchant responds, Powers asks if the time is convenient. If not, she find out when a better time might be and calls back then.
"Sound like a real person and not someone hired just to make calls," Powers cites as important for every call.
GETTING A NAME
At Impact PaySystem, a Memphis, Tenn.-based ISO, Emily Karawadra is the executive vice president in charge of preparing most of the call scripts the company uses. She spends at least one hour per week making sales calls, using different wording to gauge a merchant's response.
Though sales agents use the scripts, they are guidelines Impact PaySystem expects agents to incorporate into their personalities, says Karawadra.
"We don't want them to sound like a robot," she says, noting Impact found that a casual conversation over the phone is more successful than a heavy sales pitch.
That is exactly the approach Impact has adopted for its ImpactMD product, a payment service for medical offices that integrates with specialized medical-office software, requires a different approach than calling a traditional merchant, Karawadra says.
"You would be a little more professional and know who the decision-maker is, such as the office manager," she says. "They would bring any new product to the doctor for a signature, and sometimes they can [approve] new products."
As leads come in, those without a person's name are placed in a queue so sales agents can place preliminary calls to get the name of the buyer at the office and determine when it would be most convenient to call that person, Karawadra says.
"When we go to make the [sales] calls, then we know who to ask for and when to call," she says.
Often when making the sales call, Karawadra notes that she spoke with the receptionist, who "said you would be the person to talk to." This introduction usually accomplishes a couple of things, she says. It suggests to the prospect that a colleague has at least judged the sales agent worth talking to, and it can be a hook to explain how the agent knows the prospect.
Contrary to expected methods, the initial question for the merchant is not, "How much are you paying for credit card processing now?" Karawadra says. When the sales call is about the ImpactMD product, the agent usually starts by asking how the medical staff checks a patient's insurance eligibility.
Once the merchant answers that question, the agent explains that ImpactMD can check a patient's eligibility and process payment for services, Karawadra says. The next statement from the sales agent usually is, "We understand your frustrations with your product, but we have found this product that offers 'XYZ and solves 'XYZ' problem," Karawadra says.
Though ImpactMD is a specialized product for a particular merchant category, the sales pitch for other merchants is not much different, especially regarding the perception of saving money in a tough economy, Karawadra says.
Telesales also can help lower an ISO's costs. At Impact, agents usually must visit merchants to pick up copies of their processing statements so they can assemble pricing proposals, Karawadra says.
"We're trying to eliminate that step," she says. "The more information you can provide to the salesperson, the more likely they will have a closed deal."
MORE WORK
"Merchants are much more receptive right now than six months ago to a telemarketer," Karawadra says. "When you talk about saving them money, they're willing to listen."
But that does not make it any easier to persuade merchants to change their service providers, she says.
While a more-scripted approach worked well enough a few years ago, that model is no longer fruitful, Karawadra suggests. "Now you have to be a more inquisitive with the prospect, asking questions before pitching the product," she says.
That may mean making more calls before actually pitching the product. "The days of closing a deal in one day are done," Karawadra says. "Now it's more like two to three calls."
The sales cycle may be longer than in the past, but those calls build a rapport between the merchant and the sales agent, Karawadra says. "They've had two to three calls to go over the specifics," she says.
Clayton Denton, owner of Centurion Payment Solutions of Dyer, Ind., believes in eschewing formalized sales pitches altogether. "I don't go in with a pitch," he says. "A lot of time when I'm training someone, the trainee will ask, 'What's the pitch?' There's no pitch. No angle. The pitch is to help the [merchant] and hopefully make a little money."
Denton, who trained as an actor, got into merchant sales in 2000 and realizes his theater training has prepared him well for sales. Denton's approach, however, is no act, as his personal philosophy demonstrates.
"The mission is to do the greatest good for the most amount of people," he says, noting that extends into merchant sales, too. "I know my product. I know my service. I know my pricing."
His exacting methodology dictates that he not write a deal if he has any concerns that it will not help the merchant. "If I have to fudge something, I won't do it," Denton says.
Denton has stumbled into some gray areas, however, such as not providing answers to important unasked questions. Holding back information always comes back to haunt a salesperson, he says.
"Every time I walked into the gray, it came back to bite me," Denton says.
At First American Payment Systems L.P., a Fort Worth, Texas-based payment processor, scripts are not standard issue, says Rhoda Steward, director of sales.
"I am not a huge advocate of using scripts," Steward says. "We arm [sales reps] with questions to ask the merchant. Really, what I want them to do is to let their personalities shine through."
Someone with an engaging personality can build a rapport with a merchant, she says. For that to happen, however, Steward looks for individuals with pleasant personalities.
"We look for someone with passion, who has a lot of energy," Steward says. "That's something you can't teach."
Banc Card Midwest's Powers says sales agents should not be too familiar with the prospect. "Don't be too casual," she says.
A positive attitude is another top indicator of a sales rep's potential in phone sales, Powers says.
"Someone with a negative attitude is like a cancer, and it can spread and bring down the morale of your team," First American's Steward adds.
LISTENING ALSO IMPORTANT
Another critical element of telesales is listening, and it represents 85% of the consultative sales method, Steward says. By asking about the problems and frustrations they have with their payment service or their business, sales agents can learn what ails the merchants.
"Their issues and frustrations can answer a lot of questions for you," Steward says.
Denton says he has had sales meetings go for two or three hours, and only the last 10 minutes actually were spent talking about merchant accounts. He starts by asking the merchant how he can help them.
"Then I just shut up and let them go," Denton says. "They will go another 10 minutes about something that went wrong."
He takes his direction from the merchant. "They're the ones who give you the pitch," Denton says.
Denton maintains that listening to the merchant is the best way to secure a sale. "I probably wrote 1,500 deals in 10 years and probably have 1,500 different pitches," he says.
CRAFTING A SCRIPT
United Bank Card Inc., a Hampton, N.J.-based ISO, says merchant services sales scripts should be produced with goals in mind.
* Establish a relationship with the customer. Establish trust and confidence. It is the merchant's bank account and money to which the credit card processor will have access.
* Explain all fees and monthly charges up front. The moment charges or fees come out of the merchant's bank without their knowledge or approval is the moment that you have lost the customer's trust.
* Learn the industry. Knowledge is power. If you are able to sell the customer and answer all their questions, the merchant will feel confident in your ability to handle all of her credit card processing needs. It is the key to a merchant's business success.
* Merchants are only interested in the bottom line, which is saving money. They will also be affected by the slow economy, which will be a factor in all the decisions they make for their business. They will complain that business is slow and they do not want additional overhead. Some individuals also just need to accept credit cards and understand it will cost them.
* Although it may cost a merchant about $100 per month in fees, charges, leases, etc., to accept credit cards, the merchant's ability to accept credit cards will actually increase sales. It will not put the merchant in an embarrassing situation of turning away a customer because the merchant prefers payment in cash.
TELESALES TIPS
* Sales agents should have engaging personalities that embody professionalism and enthusiasm for fulfilling the merchant's needs.
* Ask the merchant to identify problematic elements of their business and payment service.
* Sound like a real person.
* Leave a phone number at the beginning and end of a message so if the merchant has to replay the message to retrieve the number she does not have to wait until the end to hear it.
* If the option is available, review messages left for merchants to ensure they are as the sales agent intended.
* Treat each merchant professionally. The owner of a mechanic's shop deserves the same respect as a doctor's office.
* Go into a sales call with a merchant with the expectation that when the call is over you walk away happier than when you went in.
* If at merchant's office, look around for something to talk about that is not about business, such as a photo of a trophy fish, as a way to make the merchant comfortable and create a conversation.
Sources: Jan Powers, Banc Card Midwest; Clayton Denton, Centurion Payment Solutions
