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Three Reasons I Don’t Like Credit Card Processing Salesmen

If you are like many small business owners in America today, you undoubtedly receive a steady stream of phone calls and visits from credit card processing sales people. Today I want to share with you three reasons why I don’t like the average credit card processing sales person and what sets my company apart from these less experienced competitors.

Reason #1 - The average credit card processing sales person works as employees, exclusively for one credit card processing company. This allegiance and loyalty may seem like a great idea, but in reality, many credit card processing companies have programs designed purely to generate a profit rather than to benefit you as a small business owner. As part of the Transaction Expert national network of electronic payment professionals, I am not tied to any one credit card processing company as an employee. Rather, I’ve chosen to play the part of an independent broker to ensure that I always find the best rates and programs for my small business clients.

If you’re tired of dealing with credit card processing sales people on the phone and in person who seem only interested in promoting a canned agenda from a credit card processing company, let me encourage you to consider working with an independent broker like myself who understands your needs as a small business owner.

Reason #2 - Lack of experience. The credit card processing industry attracts a great number of sales people who, while honest and trustworthy as individuals, lack experience in the electronic payment processing space. Unfortunately, many credit card processing companies in our industry recruit these sales people and put them out into the field with very little training and experience. Their goal is to reduce the fees you are paying. However, they do not understand the broader context of costs associated with processing credit card payments.

Many times these inexperienced reps charge prohibitively high fees for the use of basic credit card processing equipment. In addition, although they are vaguely aware of changes in the industry (such as mobile payments and the new smart chip cards), they don’t understand how to train your employees to implement better processes at the point of sale in order to lower the costs of interchange and fraud that are now vitally important in our industry.

My goal as a Transaction Expert includes providing a competitive fee structure while helping you understand how fraud prevention and new forms of payment can both increase your revenue and lower the cost of processing electronic forms of payment. Many times I can offer insights for simple operational process changes at the point of sale which allow the underlying costs from banks and card brands like Visa and Mastercard to be reduced significantly.

Reason #3 - A lack of vision for the future. Most credit card processing sales people are focused only on today and earning that next commission check. Our industry is dominated by inexperienced sales people whose desperation for the next commission check causes them to create short-sighted solutions for their clients. Often this takes the form of tier pricing or bundled rate pricing which is not a transparent cost structure. These “simple” cost structures do not allow you to experience the benefits of reductions in cost. Rather, in that cost structure, you are charged one flat rate or a small number of bundled rates in order to “simplify your statement.”
This approach may seem advantageous, but it is really designed for the sales rep who lacks a deeper understanding of the future of electronic payment processing. In reality, the U.S. will most likely go the direction of other developed countries such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom where the cost of processing credit cards is 30% to 60% less than in the U.S. The reason processing credit cards is so much cheaper for them is because of the implementation of new forms of payment security like EMV chip cards which are now coming into place for the U.S. market.

As these new fraud prevention technologies take hold, the cost of processing check and credit cards will drop significantly. However, if you are on a flat rate or bundled rate cost structure, those additional savings will become additional profits for the credit card processing company rather than cost savings for the small business owner. As a Transaction Expert, I always provide interchange plus pricing to my clients. This cost structure creates more transparency, as well as a clear flow of savings to the small business owner. Instead of the credit card processing company deciding the percentage you pay and then pocketing the profits, we show you exactly the cost for each transaction and have a uniform mark-up over those costs. As our industry changes by reducing fraud and risk for the banks and as the costs of processing your transactions go down, we will pass 100% of those savings on to you through interchange plus pricing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email today. If you have any questions at all or would like to schedule an appointment to meet with me, simply reply to this email. I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have.
I hope you have a wonderful week!

Michael Whitlock
703-981-5486