By Evan Schweitzer

Congratulations! You have made the transition from being a sales rep – the feet on the street so to speak – to opening an office on your own. You are now an Independent Sales Office (ISO). Priority #1 is the evaluation and selection of the company you are going to partner with and represent and how they can help you grow your business.

This is no more evident than in the credit card processing industry. As a leading credit card processor, we see firsthand that the landscape for ISOs is constantly changing. Unfortunately, many ISO’s now find themselves in financially difficult times. Why? Because they either a) didn’t take the time to research their partner provider; and b) may simply not have known the right questions to ask. After all, picking the right partner is critical to your present and future success.

With this in mind, we are authoring and posting a series of articles on what to look for in an ISO provider in this industry. Following are questions pertaining to the sales, marketing and informational support that should be considered.

Key “Support” Questions when researching ISO provider partners:

· Comprehensive On-Demand Agent Portal

One of the most essential things to look for when selecting a provider is the information portal ISOs like yourself can access anytime online that contains all the information you need on a daily basis. Many providers today have nothing more than a simple database with minimal information.

To optimize your sales efforts, you need a partner who offers a comprehensive on-demand agent portal. For example, we provide our ISOs and direct sales reps with access to a proprietary ISO Agent portal where you can:

- Schedule daily appointments

- Track and manage submitted deals from stage 1 to activation

- Review commission breakdown in detail

- Access all training material / documents

- Receive a detailed breakdown of residual report

- Keep track of sales reps performance from month to month

Much more than a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, the ideal agent portal should also be able to:

- Submit merchant applications online to expedite customers through the approval process

- Provide batch reporting on a daily basis

- Flag alerts to customer service issues

· Marketing

When it comes to marketing, first and foremost is the quality and key focus of your prospective partner’s website. After all, this is generally the first place prospective customers go to. Is it a) professional and b) most importantly, is it merchant facing? Too many times, these sites can be geared more for ISO recruitment than new business lead generation. And obviously, lead generation is priority #1.

Other questions regarding marketing to consider: Do they provide you with compelling collateral that helps you communicate the benefits of your organization to your customers and prospects? Is this information downloadable in easily printable PDF format on their website to you? Can print and go when you need it? Do they supply pitch books which help you tell the story in a consistent, easy-to-follow layout? And, are the materials they do provide updated in an expeditious manner or are they using statistics from 1995?

· Training

Training is another key area for your success. Do they help train YOUR staff to grow and position you for future growth? How often is the training – daily, weekly, monthly, never? Let’s face it, having training sessions available on a daily basis, and not just once a month, makes for a most knowledgeable, more successful ISO. In addition, try to uncover the quality of the training and the credentials of the trainer? Do they have a dedicated full professional trainer on staff that has successfully trained thousands of ISOs and sales reps or are sessions conducted by an employee who does that it on his spare time?

If you can do you due diligence, follow the above guidelines regarding sales and marketing support, you should be able to gather enough information to pinpoint the right partner to work with you and help grow your business in these key areas. Please refer to other articles in this series where compensation and other significant areas are explored.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Evan Schweitzer (CPA) is the Chief Financial Officer for Federated Payments. Evan has spent the last 20 years aiding the growth of mid-sized companies and taking them to the next level. He is an expert in all things financial and works with the management team, ISO’s, and sales representatives to focus their efforts of profitable strategic growth initiatives. Prior to joining Federated Payments, Evan worked for Lipman Electronic Engineering (now VeriFone) and its global affiliates as Chief Financial Officer.

Federated Payments is a premier provider of credit card processing solutions and related merchant account services for small to medium size businesses within the U.S. and Canada. Federated takes a consultative approach in developing long-standing relationships with our merchant customers, Independent Sales Offices and Cash Advance Partners enhancing the way they do business. Federated offers a diverse suite of cost-effective solutions that include credit and debit card processing, equipment leasing, gift and loyalty card programs, cash advances and check approval services as well as its industry-leading Agent Partner Portal.

By Michael Kyprus

No matter the industry, the ultimate goal of any business is to build their profit margin. In business today, there are a plethora of tools that are available to streamline office management and enhance your bottom line. Marketing tools, sales tracking, and database management systems exist for the sole purpose of allowing your business to understand what processes are working, and which are not.

Customer Relationship Management, CRM, systems offer a combination of marketing, sales tracking and database management in one streamlined solution for your business, but how do you know if a CRM system would benefit your company? The following criteria fit every CRM customer:

* Does your business use any form of marketing tools to let clients know about your products, services, news, or enhancements? Any business that uses marketing tools, whether they be online or print, would benefit from the implementation of a CRM system. Using the powerful sales reporting systems available with CRM, they can better assess the behavior and goals of their target market, and adjust their marketing tactics to match.This type of targeted marketing shows much higher returns and is much more cost effective than randomly throwing marketing materials based on a bulk mailing list. Your potential clients will appreciate your researched approach and the money you save on marketing enhances your profit margin.
* Do you operate with a sales team that handles your leads? A CRM customer’s sales team has the advantage of real-time reports and customer behavior tracking, arming them with the in-depth information they need to bring a more personal touch to their sales pitch.
* Continuing this personal touch theme, a CRM system will allow your sales team to easily access and transfer specific customer details from phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries, or any other little tidbit of information that comes up in a conversation that will enhance the customer-salesman relationship and allot your company a better chance of continued business with that client. Many times, clients are lost due to miscommunication or frustration due to misinformation. A CRM customer will rarely fall prey to this loss due to the cumulative, accessible and real-time reports and content that is available to their sales team at any time.
* If your business uses quotes and invoices for your clients, then your bottom line will benefit from the integrated invoicing, quote tracking system available in most CRM solutions. Not only does using an integrated solution save your staff time when attempting to get a full perspective on any given client’s account, but you will save money by using one solution to handle all your customer sales needs. Your business will run more efficiently and with each day of increased productivity, your bottom line will rise.

KarmaCRM is a web based CRM application that provides you with a simple way to streamline all of your sales contacts and tasks. It aims to keep your daily sales routine simple yet provides powerful functionality at the same time. Click on the link above to sign up for a free account.