ISOs face fierce competition when they try to woo mainstream merchants into signing up for card services, but the playing field becomes decidedly less crowded for ISOs that focus on specific industries and become experts at supplying what those merchants need, one ISO executive suggests.
A strong emphasis on the veterinary-services industry, for example, has yielded gratifying results for U.S. Merchant Services, a Port St. Lucie, Fla.-based ISO, according to Steve Norell, the firm’s sales director.
“We realized there are several specialized types of industries where the managers need help running their businesses, and they don’t have a clue about merchant services or the time to deal with it, either,” Norell tells ISO&Agent.
After studying a few different veterinary practices, Norell and his firm realized vets shared certain problems that an ISO could help solve.
“We got to know their business and offered [services] that made their lives simpler by streamlining and improving their card-processing services and selling them add-on services they needed, such as help in tracking their accounts receivable and mobile-payment options,” Norell says of the value-added services veterinarians need.
“We introduced them to all kinds of products and services they needed that they didn’t know about,” he adds. “And we were able to do it because we had learned their business and spoke their language.”
U.S. Merchant Services then took the proceedings to the next level by working with Best Friends Animal Society, a Kenab, Utah-based nonprofit that operates one of the nation’s largest sanctuaries for homeless animals, and by setting up a program to enable merchants and veterinary clinics to help support the organization.
“We offer veterinarians and other merchants the opportunity to ensure that every time they process a card transaction, the animal sanctuary receives a contribution at no extra cost to them,” Norell says. The ISO supplies participating merchants, including many veterinarian offices, with marketing materials to promote the program at their offices.
One of the most-effective ways for an ISO to zero in on a specific industry is to “focus on three to seven different types of markets and really get to know each one,” Norell says.
The key to success is learning about a specific field, then “talking to the office managers and practice managers in these specialized fields and finding out what their specific business problems are and how you can solve them,” he says.
“You may have to get to know the pharmaceutical sales reps; you may have to get to know a whole lot about animals or ophthalmology or dentists,” as Norell explains it.
“But there are plenty of industries out there that are still untapped if ISOs want to take the time to look closely at them and deliver good services,” he advises.
