The Payment Industry has new advancements in technology that frequently alter merchant expectations. As they continue to experience increased products and services to help grow their business, the market grows even more competitive. What are you doing that’s part of the trend, and how can you adjust your strategy to stand out from the crowd?

Expand from Merchant Processing 

Today’s merchants get incessant offers and calls to switch their processing. The same pitch is heard over and over again, promising lower rates. You may find yourself spending an unreasonable amount of time trying to obtain a statement from your prospect. When you finally create a proposal and show your prospect the amazing savings promised, they sometimes end up ghosting you. Well, what can you do now? The key is to have multiple selling points apart from guaranteeing lower rates.

Have Open and Honest Conversations with Prospects

Once you put in all the effort and the merchant decides to take your hard work back to their current processor it becomes laborious to peak their interest again. Having open and honest conversations with prospects help identify their needs before you exhaust resources. They may value payment security or operational efficiency more than a huge savings on fees.  What can you provide that their current processor can’t? Many merchants are looking for more than just payment acceptance. 

Managing Expectations Day One

Make an effort to manage expectations from the start of the relationship.  Pinpoint different product offerings that specifically resolve an issue the merchant may be experiencing. Openly discuss areas where you can add value and ease to their day to day operations. Keep in mind the end consumer and how their wants impact the merchant. Offering a better quality of service overall will help seal the deal. 

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Advantages of a BOLD portfolio

Building a portfolio with BOLD is a unique experience that many may struggle to find elsewhere. Whether you are building off of an existing book of business or starting from scratch, BOLD has the resources to assist with your company’s growth. Unlike what most find in our industry, BOLD has complete transparency and a network of diverse team members. One of BOLDs top benefits is the lion’s share of the revenue. Providing full control over your portfolio the BOLD team works to curate a personal experience that best suits every partners’ needs.

Working with the Partner Relationship team can help meet goals and maximize return on investment. It is important to understand the benefits of residual income and ways it can drastically help your business. I have partnered with BOLDs Senior Partner Success Manager Ciara Watson to bring you her top three tips on growing a portfolio. Ciara has twenty years of industry experience under her belt and as a previous business owner herself, she understands the needs of merchants.

Tip #1 Keep an Open Mind

When you first start building your book of business it is a good approach to stay focused on a specific target market. As your portfolio continues to grow, having an open mind to other markets will allow you to be a part of endless opportunities. Branching out into new markets may bring up some unexpected obstacles. Becoming educated and staying informed on new avenues can be the key to overcoming any hindrance and generating a great deal of revenue.

You may try new pricing structures or different product offerings depending on a merchant’s needs. For example, some ISVs and VARs are hesitant to dive into Dual Pricing. Dual Pricing has proven to be successful with many of our partners as it allows merchants to save considerably on processing fees. Given proper education on the subject many merchants find themselves open to potential savings. While your customers continue to be approached by salesmen looking for their business, give them a reason to stay. Additionally, having accessibility to a variety of product offerings may also improve merchant retention.

Tip #2 Have Confidence in Your Skillset

Understanding your strengths and knowledge within this industry will help build a profitable strategy. Networking and attending different trade shows can help develop known weaknesses. The BOLD team finds that people are eager to educate others when given the chance. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals and have an open line of communication with merchants. Reach out to software companies directly if you are unfamiliar with their product. All it takes is one new software or product to master, and a new target market can be acquired. Continue to build your existing skills and portfolio expansion will follow.

Tip #3 Analyze Your Current Book of Business

When analyzing your current book of business, growth can be measured in a number of ways. With BOLD you have full control over your portfolio. Growth may be tracked by revenue earned, merchant accounts boarded, monthly volume, or customer satisfaction. Reviewing current accounts is a good place to start forming a strategy for growth. Can you identify businesses that are not producing? You may find valuable resources are being misplaced. Ciara likes to refer to the 80/20 rule also known as The Pareto Principle. It is important to exert the right amount of effort to achieve desired results.

Conclusion

Applying Ciara’s tips and suggestions to your business will help revenue grow at an accelerated pace. Remember to always have an open mind when selecting a target market and be willing to explore new strategies. Have confidence in your current skills and determine areas of improvement. Continue to build on existing skills by analyzing your current book of business. Asking the right questions is essential and can help you properly allocate valuable resources. At BOLD we strive to meet our core values and exceed partner expectations.

Coming Soon

With all these things in mind, we look forward to bringing you part two of this series where Ciara’s tips will be implemented on a partner portfolio and real results will be presented.

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The industry and what we consider “cash discounting” is changing. As regulations from the card brands begin to mount, many merchant processors are looking to offer a variety of compliant fee-based programs for their merchants. As BOLD continues to uncover details, the direction of the card brands is becoming apparent. To understand where we might be headed, it is important to understand where it all began.

History of Cash Discounting

“Cash Discounting” found its niche in liquor stores and gas stations in the early 2000s as business owners looked for cost-cutting measures. Before card brand regulations in 2011, companies were charging card paying customers excessive fees in order to cover the cost of merchant processing, and then some. However, since the introduction of the Durbin Amendment Act, rules were put in place to protect card-paying customers and business owners while opening the doors for businesses to run a “compliant” Cash Discounting program. 

In § 920 Section 4 of the Durbin Amendment (Reasonable Fees and Rules for Payment Card Transactions), the term “discount” is defined and makes abundantly clear that any program adding a fee to the regular price is not a “cash discount” as defined by the Durbin Amendment.  This is the rationale for using terms such as “non-cash adjustment” rather than “cash discount” and is a large reason as to why we are in the current situation.

Current State of Cash Discounting

In terms of Cash Discounting, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Durbin Amendment is that business owners MUST treat their program as a DISCOUNT on their regular price rather than a FEE. Many merchants began promoting their regular pricing to include a non-cash adjustment allowing customers who pay with cash to avoid the NCA (non-cash adjustment). “Cash Discounting” programs were quickly branded as in-kind incentives and or non-cash adjustments with this pricing model in place.

However, card brands have recently faced difficulties regulating merchants running these types of programs. Cardholder complaints have drastically increased over excessive and inconspicuous fees as merchants implemented unregulated programs which were NOT forthcoming in the difference in pricing (violating  § 920 Section 3).

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Possible Future of Cash Discounting/Fee-Based Programs

The Card Brands (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) regulation on terminology and how the program is presented has ignited software vendors and merchant processors to make changes to their software and practices in order to adopt the current updates. 

Terminologies such as “in-kind incentive” and  “non-cash adjustment” are being phased out and replaced with a “Dual-Pricing” structure. As of the day this blog was originally posted, Dual Pricing is the safest method of running a fee-based program without the need to register with the card brands. Dual Pricing will vary from state to state based on state and local laws but here are some of the high level bullet points of this type of program :

• • The credit card receipt will no longer contain a separate line item informing the customer that they will be charged for using a credit card (i.e.- non-cash adjustment). 
  • Cash pricing and credit card pricing will more than likely need to be displayed separately on menus, shelves, and promotions.
  • All cardholders must be notified of the charges of the final total BEFORE running the credit card. (more than likely the terminal/POS system will need to be able to distinguish and provide a cash receipt and a credit card receipt)
  • Signage will still need to be highly visible throughout the establishment informing the card holders of the varying prices.

BOLD will continue to monitor and update this blog as changes arise. In the meantime, should you have questions, please contact us by filling out the form below or emailing us at info@boldpay.io.

Disclaimer- The information provided does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials are for general informational purposes only.

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