ISO vs Sales Agent
In this industry, you will often hear the words “merchant services agents,” “Member Service Providers,” and “Independent Sales Organizations” used in a similar context, as if all three of these things are the same. The truth is that these terms actually refer to distinct roles in the credit card processing business. If this seems confusing to you, don't worry; all of these terms will be explained in this article, as well as their relationships to the credit card associations. We will also go over how you might go about becoming a merchant services ISO or an MSP.
After we've sorted all of that out, we'll go over what the advantages and disadvantages are of working in the industry as each of these roles. Getting an idea ahead of time of what each of these entails will hopefully save you from making a lot of mistakes early on in your business ventures.
What Every Term Means - First of all, let's get everything perfectly clear by defining the terms that we've mentioned so far:
ISO (Independent Sales Organization) – This is basically the ISO credit card processor, the company that serves as the middle man between the credit card companies and the merchant. It will often provide terminals to the merchants, as well as tech support, training, and customer service. Another common term for this is “merchant service company.”
MSP (Member Service Provider) – ISO is a term often used by Visa, and so MSP is basically MasterCard's version of this. They both mean roughly the same thing. However, to make things a little more obscure, MasterCard also uses the term ISO, but it means something different. Basically, in their case, an ISO offers services that are not processing and transaction services, like customer service and lead generation. For our purposes, though, don't worry too much about these subtle distinctions. They are basically the same thing. For the sake of simplicity, let's just assume that we're including MSPs when we use the term “ISO” from now on.
Sales Agent – This role is completely different from the above mentioned roles. A merchant services agent is a third party that sells the services of merchant services ISOs and MSPs. Since merchant services companies often like to concentrate on processing credit cards and offering POS solutions, they will contract sales agents to find merchants to work with. A sales agent doesn't have to pay the high association fees like an merchant services ISO does, but he can't do business in his own name and have a merchant services ISO program with an ISO or MSP company.
What is the Relationship Between an ISO / MSP / Sales Agent and the Processing Banks? - You probably realize that merchant services ISOs are not banks, and that these organizations need banks to ultimately perform the transactions. Every merchant services ISO will need a sponsoring bank, one who is a member of Visa and MasterCard's respective associations. In practice, these banks will usually not take on small merchant service companies, and actually most merchant services ISOs use larger ISOs as intermediaries between them and the banks....... Read More
Benefits of Merchant Services Sales Jobs
When it comes to merchant services sales jobs, there is a lot to love. This is the reason that it is such a popular industry. Merchant services has long been one of the most lucrative and enjoyable fields, but that doesn’t mean it has its drawbacks. For most people, the risk is well worth it to enjoy the benefits that often come along with working in merchant services sales jobs. Here are some of the many benefits that you can enjoy when you choose a career in merchant services sales and use our free tools to find your next merchant services sales job.
Income
One of the greatest benefits of being in merchant services sales is that the income potential is basically unlimited. If you want the benefit of working in a field where your only income limiting factor is how hard you are willing to work, then this is the field for you. In merchant services sales, you are generally paid out on a commission basis. This means that for every sale you make, there is money involved for you. If you are looking for a field where your income can reach sky-high limits, then merchant services sales could be the ideal landing place for you.
Flexibility
Another amazing benefit of working in merchant services sales is the flexibility that this career often allows those that are in it. When you work in merchant services sales, you generally work for your own company or as a contract employee. This means that you are generally able to set your own schedule and enjoy the benefits of a great career while also getting a work-home balance that you’ve always wanted. It is the ideal solution or anyone that values flexibility highly in their work-home life.
Work Life
When you work in merchant services sales, you work for yourself. This means that not only do you have a lot of schedule flexibility, but also that your work life is more pleasant and geared towards how you actually want to spend your day. Instead of being beholden to a supervisor, set schedule, and set of rules that you don’t want to follow, you will be free to run your merchant services business as you please to provide you with a much more pleasant work life.
Rewarding
For some people, it is very important that they feel happy and fulfilled in their career with merchant services sales. In the case of this career field, it is pretty easy to achieve that sense of fulfillment. As a merchant services sales representative, it will be your job to work with small and medium-sized business wonders to find the solutions to the problems that are holding them back when it comes to payment processing. Through your work, you will be able to help small businesses operate more efficiently and improve their business. This bolsters the economy and helps the backbone of the economy all while providing you with a lucrative and rewarding career.
Finding Merchant Services Sales Jobs
To enjoy all the benefits of merchant services sales jobs, you first need to know exactly what to look for when partnering with a merchant services company to offer their services to your clients. This brief list of the main factors in finding a merchant services sales job with a company that will help you to succeed will give you some of the most important factors to look for in a merchant services company.
Area
Though many merchant services sales agents can work remotely from just about any location, it is still important to consider where your merchant services company is located. Much of this will depend on whether any in-office work is required and what travel is required. If you can work completely remote with the company that you have chosen, then this is not much of a concern at all. You can easily find which area your company has offices in simply by asking.
Reputation
These days, it is easier than ever to learn more about a company and the reputation that they have in the industry. Simply do some online research to determine what others have to say about the company and whether they consider the company to be a good partner to their agents.
Customer Support
One of the most important aspects in getting and keeping merchant services clients is the ability to provide them with high-quality and responsive customer support. Typically, this is the responsibility of the company that you have partnered with to offer the merchant services. Therefore, one of the first priorities that you should have when assessing merchant services companies to work for is their reputation and quality of the customer support.
Payout & Commission
Another factor that you should evaluate when choosing the next merchant services sales job for you is the payout and commission. It is important to select a merchant services sales job that has a high commission structure and is well-known for paying accurately and on-time. It’s important to make sure that they have a trusted payout structure in place so you can ensure you are paid for your efforts.
Our Merchant Services Sales Jobs
If you’re looking for the best merchant services sales jobs that fit this criteria, then you are in the right place. We provide merchant services sales jobs lists and other resources that help you to find an amazing career.
Payment Processing Sales Training
Do you want to become a merchant services agent, and you are wondering where to start? You might be convinced that this is what you want to do. It is true that payment processing is a highly lucrative industry, and this makes it attractive. Becoming a successful merchant services agent is not easy because you will need some training to learn how to do this successfully.
The earning potential of a merchant services agent is incredibly high, but to get there, you will need to take steady steps towards attaining success. One of the steps is to seek merchant services sales training. Merchant services have some key pillars that you need to be aware of in order to be successful.
The following are the crucial credit card processing sales training structure that will increase your chances of becoming successful in the merchant services industry.
Learn Quality Partnership
This is one of the most critical concepts that you need to be familiar with while pursuing merchant services sales training. As a merchant services agent, you will need to partner with a merchant services provider. Your partnership needs to be solid in order to facilitate success. We can say that the merchant services provider will be the epicenter of your business.
The provider you partner with should be able to offer reliable payment processing services to your merchants without failing. They should also be able to offer the additional perks and tools that you need in the merchant services business.
Some key things that you are going to learn in the quality partnership training are the ability for the merchant services provider to offer good payment structure, offer prompt payments, good communication & support, the handsome share of profit, regular bonuses and modern and technological tools to help you succeed in your business.
A good merchant services provider you chose should be able to provide all these. You will be closer to your success and business goals if you are careful in selecting a quality ISO partnership. A good merchant provider will help you enjoy great profits as well as passive income from your merchant services business.
Pricing Structure
Another key thing to learn in merchant services training is the pricing structure. In addition to being able to make sales and getting new leads now and then, you will want to be sure of the right way to price your products and services. To have meaningful success in the merchant services business, you need to take your time and optimize your pricing.
A good pricing structure will enable you to have the appropriate profit margin. This will help you to keep on running a sustainable merchant services business. With the right pricing structure, you will be able to raise your income as you grow.
Learning about the pricing structure will help you to do things such as offering discounts, upselling, and many more. For now, the pricing structure may not seem to make a notable difference in your business, but as you start to accumulate hundreds and thousands of transactions, you will note the impact. It is, therefore, critical to fully understand the pricing structure in the merchant services sales business.
In Merchant Services, More Options Are the Best
In training to become a merchant services agent, you need to understand that a good merchant services provider should offer as many options as possible. There should not be limits to the payment processing options your merchant services provider is offering.
This is because if sometimes your customers happen to require something, you should be able to get it from your merchant services provider. On the other hand, if there are limits to options they can provide, then you might end up disappointing your customers.
As a good merchant service agent, you should lookout for a provider who allows access to a wide range of options, such as in payment processing. They should offer credit cards, debit cards, cash, ACH, and more payment processing options. If your provider gives you these options, you can offer them to your customers, and this makes them happy.
Several options mean that you will have the flexibility, and you will be able to offer solutions to your customers without running out of options. This is a win-win situation.
Customer Service
This is an important lesson to learn in merchant services sales training. The customer is the most important player in your merchant services business, and therefore they should be your highest priority all the time. As a payment processing agent, you should strive to keep your customers happy, and if you fail to do so, you will have a very hard time. It might even become very difficult to succeed in your business.
You should, therefore, brace yourself for customer service lessons in payment processing sales training. Customer services training will help you master the techniques that successful salespeople use in order to close more sales. They are always keen on the customer's needs and devise ways to fulfill these needs.
You should be able to attend to your customer’s queries in the shortest time possible. It is also critical to realize that when it comes to customer services, your merchant services provider will also play a key role. This gets us back to the previous point of choosing the right partner. If something happens that is beyond your control, you should be able to reach out to your provider for an effective and speedy solution.
Free Terminal for Your Merchants
For success in the merchant services business, the secret is to have a free terminal included. Merchant love bonuses in their payment processing packages. Note that you will be offering a POS which is designed to increase efficiency in payment processing. The terminal you provide should offer exceptional user experience for the satisfaction of your merchants.
For a strong bond between you and your merchants, you should be providing incentives. This will make them feel that they have the right agent by their side. For increased conversion rates, it is highly recommended that you offer a free POS terminal to your merchants.
You want to be a successful merchant services agent, right? The above learning concepts are the key to success in the payment processing business. Therefore you should ensure that you fully understand these in merchant services sales training.
How to Make HUGE Income Selling Merchant Processing Services
Do you want to become a merchant services agent but don’t know how to make a massive income selling credit card processing? Well, don’t fret, we will help you not only choose the best career in the merchant services field, but we will also help you understand how you can truly help your merchants save tons of money in fees while doubling your own income. If you are excited to know all of this then we suggest that you stick to this guide till the end: +
Which Career to Go For?
When you are selling merchant accounts, there are different models that you can choose from. You can go for the typical model of trying to reduce the fee paid by merchants in credit card processing. Or, you can also try to eliminate this fee, yes you read it right, you can make it vanish. The latter one is a more attractive career option as there are more chances of earning a decent amount. Most of the agents selling credit card processing will be trying their level best to reduce the fees that businesses pay for each transaction. However, if you come with your zero-fee solution, then who wouldn’t get your services? Every business likes to make as much profit as it can, which is why you will have a better chance of converting the merchants. Besides the merchants, you will be making way more money than you would’ve made when trying to reduce the merchant’s fee. Now you might be thinking, what is this zero-fee merchant services reseller program? Well, why not we explain it to you in detail and show you how it can increase your income...... Read More
TOP RATED: Best Merchant Services ISO Agent Sales Partner Programs
If you've done any research at all, you've probably already realized that getting into credit card processing sales field can be extremely profitable. Just about every serious business needs a merchant account, so the number of prospects that you could work with are countless and the market is ever-expanding as the economy recovers.
You might also realize, though,å that starting an ISO or a credit card processing company yourself can be expensive, but luckily this is not your only option when you're looking to break into this field. One of the best ways to get into the credit card processing sales industry is to start your merchant service career out as a sales agent. The upfront costs are minimal, and you can learn the business inside and out with a lot of room for growth. It's one of those coveted sales positions where you not only get commission at the time of the sale, but you usually receive residuals for the life of the account.
The key to success as a merchant services agent is choosing the right partner company to work with—this is an ISO whose products and services you will be offering to merchants. Since finding the right sales agent program is so imperative to your future, take your time to consider who will be the best fit for you.
Top Reasons Why ISO Partners Choose North American Bancard
Each year, hundreds of merchant service agents choose North American Bancard as the best merchant services company to work for. If you’re wondering why everyone gravitates towards this merchant services agent program, then get ready to have all of your questions answered. Here are some of the greatest benefits of working with North American Bancard’s merchant services agent program.
Accurate On-Time Payments
When you work with the North American Bancard ISO agent program, you’ll be working with a partner that understands the importance of accurate, on-time payments. This will never be a source of stress for North American Bancard sales partners.
14X Profit Based Bonus Structure
We offer a performance-based fast start bonus that is payable for anyone that onboards more than the standard threshold of clients in the first 4 months. This program is designed to reward those experienced sales members that join our team and quickly learn how to sell this product. The bonus can reach up to $20,000, making it one of the most lucrative and competitive in the industry. We will look at how much profit is generated on the account after they have been processing for one month and you earn 14 times of the total profit. Example: If we retain $100 in residuals in that month, the bonus would be 14 x $100 or $1,400. You would have already been paid $600, so we would pay you an additional $800 on that account. This bonus is capped at a max of $5,000 per merchant per location. With our Cash Discount Program it is easier than ever to earn huge bonuses with a 14x profitability bonus. This dual pricing model enables you to maximize your bonus at $5,000 on almost every merchant processing over $45k.
Lifetime Passive Income
You will receive 50-70% of residual income based on the pay structure you select. You will share income on every available revenue stream. With NAB, You Get a True Interchange Revenue Split. Unlike other merchant ISO agent programs, there is no basis points off the top for BIN sponsorship or for what they call hidden losses. Our sales partners earn more residual income with our 50/50 partner program than you would with our competition who claim to offer a higher percentage because their interchange cost (buy rate) is higher.
Free High-End Processing Equipment
Selling businesses on a new processing plan is much easier when you are able to effortlessly jump over the hurdle of the cost of the equipment. With this program, you can offer your clients free POS terminal equipment that they will need for their processing provider change. This lowers the barrier to switching and creates a higher conversion rate for you.
Cash Discounting Program (Dual Rate Processing)
When you are selling merchant processing services, one of the best assets of any partner program is more rewards and incentive programs that saves your merchant money. The cash discount program is one of the hottest new commodities in credit card processing, as it is designed to save the client thousands of dollars in credit card processing cost, instead passing on the fee to the consumer in a way that isn’t damaging to their own conversion rate and revenue. We offer this program to our clients and make it easy to understand and present for our sales partners.
Multiple Processing Platforms
Even though we still use Global Payment and First Data as our processing platform, we have partnered with the EPX platform. EPX can optimize interchange, which means we can process the same transactions for less. This allows you to save merchants a ton of money and make more money yourself.
Backoffice Tracking System
With our Sales Partner Portal (Dashboard) you can track your residuals all the way down to the transaction. You will have access to what your merchant paid for a specific transaction, how much the expense was and how much you were compensated. You're able to look at the merchant’s statement for comparison. With 100% transparency, you are now able to check whenever your want so you can be confident in building a profitable portfolio.
Registered DBA Program
If you're serious about helping your merchants grow their businesses, we want to partner with you. Whether you're interested in becoming a ISO Sales Partner, are already providing merchant services as a registered ISO, or you're a Sales Partner who wants to sell under your own name, NAB is the ISO merchant services partner you want. Our Registered DBA and ISO programs can get you up and running in as little as 2 weeks, saving you thousands of dollars in card brand registration fees in the process.
Marketing Resources
One of the things that North American Bancard Agent Program is known for is providing our agents with the resources that they need to survive and thrive in a competitive business environment. This means marketing materials, frequent promotions, and other tools that help you to have more success and earn more commission!
Customer Support
North American Bancard’s responsibility and premium services don't just stop at the sale. Build the relationship with your merchants to new heights by providing them high-quality customer support to help them with any issue they are having with the merchant services they are provided.
How to Become a Registered Merchant Services ISO/MSP
If you’re looking to make a name for yourself in the merchant services industry, then you have probably, at one point or another, considered how to become a registered ISO. In the merchant services industry, becoming a merchant services ISO is one of the highest levels that you can achieve. Becoming an ISO is a highly desirable position to be in because it opens up your earnings to an entire new world of potential. You’ll gain access to more revenue streams and you will also be able to market your services under your own unique brand instead of having to operate under the umbrella of another company.
However, the process of how to become a registered ISO/MSP is not one that happens overnight. When you become an ISO merchant services, it requires that you have a large budget for paperwork, legal, and administrative expenses. You will need a considerable amount of resources to become an ISO for merchant services in a timely manner and have success in the transition process. This short guide will show you the steps that you will need to take if you want to become a registered ISO and enjoy the benefits that the status has to offer.
Steps to becoming an ISO
Pick Your Business Name
The first step in the process is picking your business name. Though it seems like an arbitrary thing, you should take great care in selecting your name since it could play a large part in your branding and marketing efforts.
Pick A Business Type
Once you have a name picked out, the next thing that you will need to decide is which business type you want to register as. This decision will vary based on your situation and who you are going into business with.
Register With Your State
Next, you will need to register your ISO merchant services business with your state. It is important that you make it known to your state that you have registered as a business so that you can legally be identified by the right business name.
Get Your Permits
Without the right permits, you won’t legally be allowed to conduct any business. Be sure to not neglect this very important step. Consult your local relevant governing bodies as well as your state and federal guidelines, as well. Get your business permits and any other permits that you need to operate a business in your area.
Register With Relevant Tax Agencies
If you are going to operate a merchant services ISO, then you need to ensure that you are compliant with all tax regulations as well. Be sure to register with the relevant tax agencies to make your business known and compliant.
Find A Sponsor
The next thing you will have to do is find a ISO sponsorship that you will operate under. Though you will retain your own name, the sponsor that you select will be providing the merchant services that you sell to your clients. Finding a good one is very important to the success of your business.
Sell Your Services
Once you have finalized things with your sponsor and completed every other step of becoming a registered merchant services ISO, you are ready to sell your services. You can bring other agents on board and start expanding your lines of revenue with a lucrative merchant services ISO program business model.
How to Sell Your Merchant Account Portfolio
Want to understand the process for selling the merchant accounts portfolio? Maybe you want to know the policies of credit card processing sales programs when it comes to deciding merchant account residual buyout? Well, whatever your query is, this guide will definitely solve it.
We will discuss tons of useful things in this article which will help you have a solid and fully secure exit strategy if you are starting your career as a merchant services agent. You will also learn things that will help you sell your portfolio for a better price. So with that said, let's begin:
What is a Merchant Account Portfolio?
If you don't know, your merchant account portfolio is actually the product of your years or months of selling merchant accounts. This simply means that the number of accounts you have sold till now will be in your merchant account portfolio. However, these will only be the active merchant accounts and not the ones that canceled the services for any reason.
We will discuss the merchant account portfolio throughout this guide you need to understand that it is a set of all the merchant accounts that are currently active and earning you some merchant account commission on a monthly basis.
So with that said, we need to understand what goes into selling your merchant account portfolio if you decide to make an exit for any reason. So to know this, you will need to:
Ask These Four Key Questions:
Ask if You Own the Residuals:
To know if or how you can sell your merchant account portfolio, you need to reach out to your merchant services ISO program and ask them about it. You need to ask them that do you even own your portfolio or not.
There are some credit card processing agent programs that do not let the merchant services agent own the residuals in their portfolio. This means as long you keep working for them, you are getting the income, but as soon as you try to make an exit, the portfolio will be taken over by the company.
There will be no one offering you merchant account residual buyout if you decide you leave, and you cannot reach 3rd parties as well. This is what some merchant services reseller programs do, so you need to first ask yours if you can even sell your portfolio or not.
What Will Happen if Something Happens to Me?
If the ISO partner program says that 'yes you can sell the portfolio,' then it's good news, but your job is not over. You will have to further drill them down and ask a few very important questions to ensure you are fully secured and have a solid exit strategy in case you need an exit in the future. So the second question that you need to ask is what will happen to my residuals if something happens to me?
This means if a merchant gets into an accident and is not able to work for a long period of time, what will happen to their residuals? This is important because you do not want to work with someone who doesn't pay you your residuals if you are not maintaining a certain number of sales per month. There are many credit card processing sales programs that will not pay you the residuals if you are not fulfilling their monthly sales quota.
Also, some might even rip you off of your hard-earned residuals if you are not able to perform consistently throughout the months. In this case, you won't be able to sell your merchant accounts portfolio because the buyer needs surety of getting to keep all the residuals they are buying from you no matter how their sales numbers are.
If the processor says; yes, you will own your residuals whether you are working on more sales or not, then ask them to show it to you in the contract. Having this in writing inside the contract will help you safeguard your interests in the future, and you can show it to the potential buyers of your portfolio for their assurance.
What if The ISO Sells Out?
This is another very crucial thing to keep in mind because sometimes the people behind the ISO decide to make an exit and sell their company to a third party. Now, if this happens, you need to be sure that your own portfolio will not be affected by this. Most of the time, what companies do is that they will give you a very low multiple of the total amount you are making per month and give your portfolio to the company that they are doing business with.
In this case, you might get paid 10x to 15x of your total monthly income. So if you are making $10,000 a month and you sell it for the multiple of 10, then you just get $120,000. While the ISO might sell your portfolio for 20x to 25x to the company they are dealing with.
So this is something you need to keep in mind. You have to have it written in your contract that either you will get a good multiple like from 20-30X, or you will get to keep your portfolio even if they sell the company.
Can I Sell It To a 3rd Party?
Last but most important question to ask is whether you can even sell the portfolio to a 3rd party or not. Most of the processors would not allow you to sell your portfolio to a third party and would bound you to sell it to them instead. Now this kind of condition puts a limit to the potential of money you can get by selling your portfolio because getting 10 to 20 bids from people in your industry is better than just being bound to selling for a price that your processor agrees to.
Now we are not saying that you should not work with the Processor that bounds you to sell your merchant account portfolio only to them. There are two key factors that you need to look for to ensure that even if you sell your portfolio to back to the processor, you will make a good amount of money.
- Merchant Account Residual Buyout Multiple: The way that the merchant account portfolio selling works is by multiplying the total income you are getting per month to a specific number, which can range anywhere from 15x to 30x or even more. It depends upon the quality of your merchant accounts and the monthly income. So if the company offers you a very handsome multiple like anywhere between 20x to 30x if you agree to sell your portfolio to them, have it written in your contract so there are no surprises at the end.
- Meeting 3rd Party Cost: Sometimes, the processor might not allow you to sell the portfolio to a 3rd party, but they may give you an option to get bids on it from the 3rd parties. Now once you are done getting the bids, you will have a number that will be higher than all other bids. The ISO will then try to meet or beat that number to get your portfolio. In this case, there is nothing to worry about as your future is pretty much safe with them. Regardless of how favorable the terms are for you, make sure to get everything in writing so that there are no problems towards the end.
Understanding the Merchant Account Pricing and Attrition Guarantee:
As mentioned above, the price of the portfolio is decided by looking at different factors like the age of portfolio, the number of merchants, the size of merchants, consistency of income, attrition rate, and so on. So if the portfolio is old, let's say 2 years old, the size of merchants is big, the income is consistent, and the attrition rate is 10 percent then you will get a better price than the portfolio having 1 year age, varying income, and 20 percent attrition rate.
Now when you sell your merchant portfolio to someone, you are selling the future residual payments that portfolio will yield, which you don't know about. So the price will be decided on the current income. A multiple of current income will be offered to you, and you can get paid that amount if you sell.
As for the Attrition Guarantee, it is a guarantee that the merchants in your portfolio won't leave a few months after you sell it. This makes sense because if the buyer gets the portfolio and then most of the merchants cancel, they will suffer huge losses.
So what many buyers do is that they get an attrition guarantee, which means that they will pay a part of income multiple upfront, and spread the remaining over the months or years. So if the attrition rate is under the decided percentage, you will get your remaining multiples.
Over to You:
The things we have discussed above are not covered in almost any of the merchant services sales training, which is why it is imperative that you remember these things from the start.
Whether you are aiming to sell your portfolio later for a good merchant account residual buyout or not, you need to have an exit strategy from the beginning because who knows, plans change all the time.
Accept Crypto Payments : Bitcoin Merchant Account Services
The cryptocurrency industry is booming, with over 1.1 million transactions per day through Ethereum alone. And even though most retailers are still wary of accepting bitcoin payments, the list of companies that accept cryptocurrency payments is growing continuously.
As more and more online and offline brands start accepting cryptocurrency payments, the number of people willing to use it increases as well. You can, too, start receiving crypto payments from clients around the globe. But first, you should know how it works, the potential benefits and drawbacks, and how you can start accepting bitcoin and altcoin payments on your website and physical store. Let's discuss all of that and more below.
It's exactly what it sounds like; using cryptocurrency to make payments for services and goods. However, it should be noted that crypto has not yet become a legal currency anywhere around the globe except El Salvador, which only accepts bitcoin payments. Nevertheless, you can trade crypto in most countries as if you're trading a property.
You can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Monero, etc., on exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, Bitfinex, Coinmama, and Binance, etc. Still, many online and offline merchants accept cryptocurrency payments, including AT&T, Microsoft, KFC, Starbucks, Namecheap, Whole Foods, NewEgg, and so on.
Since cryptocurrencies are typically designed for easy peer-to-peer transactions, receiving cryptocurrency payments is as straightforward as sending coins from one wallet to another. The customer can use their phones to scan the QR code or copy the hash code of the merchant's wallet and make a transfer without involving any intermediary......... Read More
Merchant Services Partner Program : Payment Processing Partnerships
Do you want to become a merchant services agent but don’t know which program to join? Well, then we can help you find one. We understand that you will have various questions in your mind, like do I really need to work with the best merchant services partner program? Or, what are the benefits that a good merchant services partnerships program can offer?
We will answer all of these queries and will also suggest the leading merchant services reseller program so you can kick start your career and make a decent income. With that said, let’s get started:
Yes, it is extremely crucial that you have the top merchant services reseller program working with you. There are many logical arguments that we can make here but to keep things short...... Keep Reading
Pros and Cons of Selling Merchant Processing Services
All around the world, there are thousands of businesses that use vital services that are referred to as merchant services. These are services such as payment processing, which is what allows businesses to accept and process payments so that they can make a profit on their product. Without these services, businesses would be unable to function in the modern world. You might think that the fact that these services are an absolute necessity to these businesses make them an easy target for selling, but that is now always the case. There are definitely some positives as well as some negatives when selling merchant services.
This guide will show you some of each and hopefully give you some insight as to whether a career selling merchant services is right for you.
Pros:
Undoubtedly, there are some very positive aspects of selling merchant services for a living. If you have had a sales job that is similar in the past, you already have known some of these benefits. Here are some of the best things about selling merchant services.
There is always a market
One of the best things about working in the merchant services industry is that there is never a lack of demand for these services. There are always new businesses sprouting up as people chase their passion for owning their own business. And existing businesses are always evaluating their options and ensuring that they are getting the best deal on the market. For that reason, you won’t ever have to worry about the industry as a whole drying up. People will always need to spend digital money and businesses will always need to find a way to accept it.
Set your schedule
For many that are in a commission-based sales job, one of the greatest benefits of it is being able to get to the point where you are working when you want to work instead of punching a time clock when you get to work. When you are a partner in a merchant services sales program, you will be able to set your appointments on a schedule that works well for you.
Build passive income
Finding and signing clients to lucrative merchant processing contracts is hard work, nobody denies that. However, all of the hard work that you put into this process could end up paying out tenfold throughout the years. One of the greatest things about being a merchant services salesperson is that your accounts can earn you passive and residual income long after you have closed them to a contract. This could help you build passive income for years to come and eventually phase out the bulk of the labor that is involved in this career.
High commission rates
When you compare merchant services to other industries out there, you will find that it has a very competitive and comparatively high commission rate compared to those other industries. The high price of the contracts and the fact that they continue to pay out for years to come is what makes these sales so valuable and why some of the best salespeople in the world turn to merchant services when they want to increase their earning potential.
Cons:
Just as there are many pros to selling merchant services, there are also some aspects that could prove difficult. You should watch out for these aspects and consider whether they are something that you are able to overcome and overlook.
Highly competitive industry
There is always a lot of demand for merchant services, but this fact also means that there is a lot of competition. One of the hardest aspects of selling merchant services is that you will always have competition breathing down your neck, waiting to provide your client with a better rate. This is really where your ability to create and nurture relationships will come in handy with client retention. This industry is not for those that don’t like competition and healthy capitalist tendencies.
Dependent on success to make money
When you are a merchant services representative in any industry, you know that your ability to make money is heavily dependent on the success that you have when selling your product or service. It’s no different in selling merchant accounts. If you want to have a good income, then you will need to become skilled at selling these products. If you don’t feel confident that you can do that, then it might not be the right choice for you.
10 Tips for Selling Payment Processing Services
Credit card processing and financial services are some of the most essential services that any business will purchase. Without these services, a business is not able to function. In theory, it should be easy to sell any business on the idea that they need a merchant processing account. Unfortunately, there are so many options on the market today that gaining the business of a company looking for these services has become highly competitive. To help you know how to sell these accounts to local businesses and provide them with processing solutions that meet their needs, this list of 10 tips for selling merchant accounts will give you some proven steps to closing more contracts and building your network of clients.
Include Yourself in the Pitch
When you are selling merchant accounts to businesses, the personality and character of you as the salesperson is every bit as important as the functionality and efficiency of the product that you are selling. If you want to have success with selling merchant accounts to your business clients, then they need to see that you are a trustworthy, knowledgeable person that they can get along with and feel comfortable talking to when they have questions and concerns. If you learn to sell yourself as the rep at the same time that you sell the product, you will have increased chances of creating a level of comfortably and trust.
Respect Your Margin
When you are trying to sell services to businesses, you might be tempted to slash prices to increase your chances of closing a deal with your prospective client. However, data suggests that this is not always the best way to do things. Yes, a lower price or processing rate might be more attractive to businesses on a budget, but you won't have long-term success as a rep if you constantly give your profit margin away. Instead, it is better to provide value to them in other ways like offering your knowledge and being a good merchant services partnership.
Always Follow Up
In the world of business, things are constantly changing. When you are in negotiations to provide any business with merchant payment processing services, it is very important that you never forget to follow up with them following an in-person or online meeting. If they see other services around, they will undoubtedly get curious and you may lose a sale all because you failed to be present at the time they wanted to make a decision. A merchant services sales rep that wants to be successful is one that will follow up in a timely manner to ensure the client’s needs are met right away.
Always be Exploring New Leads
In a challenging field like merchant services sales, it is important to ensure that your pipeline of prospective new clients is always flowing. You want to bring in the consistent commissions, so attacking new merchant account leads and always ensuring that the stock of your leads is fresh is of paramount importance. You shouldn’t be afraid to look into any industry or corner of the business world to find your clients and it’s always a good idea to be innovative when figuring out how to attract clients.
Big Merchant Accounts are Key
You always want a steady flow of sales from all sizes of businesses, but what will really set you apart from others and increase your earnings potential is the closing of contracts with big merchants. Larger merchants have more to spend and invest in their payment processing infrastructure and they will offer you more potential sales and even recurring sales if they continue to grow. These contracts are what will keep you afloat in hard times and push your commissions to new limits. Emphasize robust technology and good support No IT system, payment processor, or any other software is going to work 100% of the time without ever having a flaw. However, if you want to really reel in the clients, you should focus on the tech of the payment processing solution that you are offering. It’s unreasonable to expect that there will never be a technical issue, but what businesses really want is to know that this will rarely be an issue. When payment processors go down, it costs the merchant money. Make sure that they know that this is very unlikely to happen.
Establish your credibility
Since you are in merchant services sales, you know that not many people look favorably at those that sell merchant services. If you want to have success in this business, always put your best foot forward and make sure that the businesses know that you want to help them succeed. When they have questions, be polite and address them completely. Make sure that they know that you are not just in it for a paycheck, but because you truly have a service that can improve their business.
Fees are Expendable
If you have a customer that is on the hook and you want to close the deal, you might be tempted to reduce the rate that you are offering to the client. However, this path only leads down the way to reduced profits and margin. If you truly want to maintain your residual income, it is better to waive one-time fees and other single charges in an attempt to convince your prospective buyer.
Be upfront and honest
Business owners, more than perhaps any other segment of the population, are very wary about signing contracts. If you have a good product and have a fair contract, then it should be your priority to be upfront and honest with your clients about the contract that they are signing. Sitting down and going through the merchant services contract with them will establish trust and credibility with your merchant and ensure that they trust you enough to do business with you.
Education is priority
Having a good product and being a good merchant service agent is one thing, but to be an industry expert and get the most out of your career, you need to make your education a priority. Your education as an industry professional is paramount because it will help you to understand the current, modern needs of the sector that you are serving and guide your clients with an expert hand towards the best merchant solutions and implementations with your product. Stay on top of industry news and developments if you want to have success in selling merchant processing technology.
Why North American Bancard is ISO of the Year
NAB believes in the American dream of opportunity for everybody. We believe in it because we live it daily. North American Bancard opened for business on day one the same way many entrepreneurial companies do - with just one employee and NO money coming in. Now, we have over 900 employees and process billions annually.
NAB has achieved success following the simple-focused mission of assisting businesses grow and prosper. Today, we have over thousands of happy merchants and ISO partners that can back up our commitment to that mission. By providing the best free equipment, industry-leading customer service and sales support, and the guaranteed best processing rates, we help our merchants grow because they have more cash to spend on their business-building needs. Our ISO partners benefit just as much. With unrivaled support, flexible compensation, and innovative, one-of-a-kind sales and management tools, our ISO partners have more money and time to spend on their own business-building projects. By providing every type of payment processing solution, we ensure our ISO partners have the ability to offer customized solutions to help drive both their and their merchants' success!..... Read More
Steps to Become a Registered ISO for Selling Payment Processing Services
Merchant services is a very lucrative and flourishing industry with many possibilities, making it one of the most attractive industries to be in right now. One of the best ways to get in on the fun is to become a registered ISO. Becoming a registered ISO means that you will be authorized to work with a provider of merchant processing services to provide your merchants with the services that they need to effectively and efficiently process payments. If you want to become a registered ISO with North American Bancard, then there are certain steps that you will have to take to make it happen. Here are the various parts of the process that you’ll have to go through if you’re ready to start an engaging, rewarding, and lucrative career.
Benefits of Becoming a Registered ISO
When you are a registered ISO, you’ll be able to gain access to better rates and have sub-agents that earn income for you. Being a registered ISO allows you to expand your network and grow bigger as you attempt to accommodate more merchant partners. As opposed to being a traditional agent, being an ISO is truly the next step in the merchant processing career and a great way to expand your income and your reach.
Steps to Become a Registered ISO/MSP
Becoming an registered ISO can be a very lucrative business and it deals with finance at a high level. Because of this, it is also a very tough industry to crack into and a lengthy and expensive process to gain approval. ISOs must be very trustworthy and legitimate organizations, which is why exhaustive measures are used to verify various aspects of the business and personal information of those that own ISOs. These are the in-detail steps of how to become a registered ISO for North American Bancard.
1) Finding a Partner
The first step of your journey to becoming a registered ISO is finding a partner. Finding a good parent company to have your ISO operate under is a crucial aspect for a number of reasons. Good companies include those that have a positive reputation, give you access to a suite of tools to increase sales, and always pay on time.
When you are finding a partner, there are a number of ways to identify a suitable partner for which to team up with. You should read reviews and talk with other ISOs to get an idea of how the relationship between a processing company and their ISOs is in terms of health, communication, and payments. You can learn a lot of information simply by poking around and asking about others' experiences with them.
If you ask about North American Bancard, you are very likely to hear good things. North American Bancard has long been the gold standard in merchant services and we have been providing our ISOs with quality service, superior support, and better-than-average payment times for years. If you are looking for a company that you can trust to partner with and register as an ISO, then North American Bancard is one of the best decisions that you can make.
2) Application Process
The next step in your process of becoming a registered ISO for one of the most reputable merchant services providers in the world is to do your application. The application is a very important part of this process and as such, much attention should be paid to it. During the application, you will be asked a series of questions that are designed to test your suitability for being a registered ISO. If filled out correctly, you should be able to have a successful ISO application process.
One thing that you should be aware of when filling out the application to become an ISO is that it is a very lengthy and very expensive process. Your financials will need to be investigated and you will likely need to hire a legal team to guide you through the paperwork and process. Be prepared for this.
3) Compliance
If you are approved for your ISO application, then the next step in your journey as an ISO is to remain compliant with all applicable regulations and rules so that you can stay a certified ISO with the right to work with North American Bancard. This industry is quite strict, so taking actions to ensure you remain compliant throughout your time as an ISO is essential. This means that you should keep a legal team on standby to help you with any issues that might arise.
Being an ISO is considered a privilege, especially when you are working with North American Bancard. With an ISO certification, you can spread your agency and ensure that you build a foundation of future earnings on a strong, compliant partnership with North American Bancard.
How to Start an Online Payment Processing Company
One of the most lucrative fields that you can get into as a salesperson is selling to other businesses. Unlike most end consumers, business owners keenly understand the value of investing wisely in long-term solutions, and not merely throwing away their money on something cheap. If you want to truly contribute value to other business owners, while making a decent paycheck every month yourself, one of the best ways to do that is to offer quality merchant services. You will be invaluable to your clients, and if you serve them well, they will continue to look to you for ways to make their business more efficient.
Why start selling merchant services on your own, though? Isn't that a lot more work? What are the benefits if you're already working in a commission-based kind of job? Well, here are a few of the major ones:
More Control - Even if you're working in a field where you get a relative amount of independence, like in sales, you still don't have complete control, and your whole work life revolves around satisfying someone else's numbers. You may have your own personal selling style, but the overall strategy that the company follows—the direction in which “the ship” is being steered—is not determined by you, but by someone else. This may not be such a bad thing for some people, but it also means that your livelihood is ultimately in someone else's hands. What if the owners of the company that you work for make a dumb decision that spells the end of the business? You will have to suffer the consequences anyway, even though it wasn't your fault.
More Cash - Of course, if you start your own merchant services business, you have the potential to make a lot more money than someone who doesn't. If you're an independent contractor, at the end of the day, the people above you are raking in the most money. Sure, as a salesperson, you might make a hefty percentage of that, but the fact of the matter is that your potential for financial growth is stunted. If you have a business that you control yourself, it is basically up to you how much money you want to make, and you keep more of the fruits of your hard work.
The Potential for Scale - The thing about a normal job, even a sales job, where you're working for someone else, is that you rarely have the possibility to scale things up. In other words, you can't “replicate” yourself by hiring someone else to do some of your tasks, and this can greatly reduce your long-term income potential. When you start a merchant services business, you can choose to run it in many different ways, but one way is to outsource the work slowly until your business can practically run on its own. For true residual, passive income, this is the kind of situation that you will want to be in. This is what makes it possible for you to work because you want to, and to make money even in your sleep. You just can't do this when you work for someone else.
Now, you may be thinking: How do I start a merchant service business? Maybe you've been a salesperson for awhile—maybe you've even been selling POS equipment and other important retail tools—but you're not sure how to make that leap into selling for yourself.
Well, unless you've invented and designed your own solutions, you're going to have to start by forming a partnership with a merchant services agent program that you believe in. They're going to have to make a product that you can really get behind because, if you're building a business for yourself, most of your money is ultimately going to come from the back-end, from repeat customers. This is why it is so important to take a step back and think about quality above anything else. By all means, find a program that is lucrative, but don't ever sell a product that you wouldn't feel enthusiastic about using yourself. In the end, this is what is really going to create repeat business.
What traits do you look for in a merchant services agent program, then? Don't be taken in by any fancy bells and whistles. Basically, these are the things you are going to want to see:
A History of Reliability - Again, there's no sense in selling shoddy services or products. Look up reviews of the company and decide if they are any good. Research their products and make sure that they are user-friendly. Find a way to use them if you can. The easiest products to sell are the ones that are actually good because they basically sell themselves time and time again.
Generous Revenue - Share Since this is going to be the core of your business, you are going to want to find a merchant services partner program that gives you a good cut of the sales. If you're doing all the work of finding and maintaining leads, then you need a fair percentage of what that customer is paying.
Residual Income - Part of what makes selling POS services so lucrative is that there is often a monthly fee involved or else the merchant services agent program takes a percentage of the user's sales. As a partner, make sure that you have access to a significant portion of that long-term income as well. This is what is going to pay you month after month, even long after you have made the initial sale. This is where most of your money is, really.
Lots of Options and Flexibility - The company you work with should have lots of different options when it comes to revenue sharing, that way you will be able to build a strategy out of the one that best suits your business.
So, what specific company can you go with that will fulfill all of these needs? There are a few, but one of the best and most reliable is North American Bancard. We provide real value to their clients, so you should have no trouble working with them and building a stream of residual income from their products. Ultimately, though, just focus on solving your customers' problems and finding a company that can help you do that, and you should be able to start your own merchant services business.
How to Earn a Stable Income: Selling Merchant Processing Services
Do you want to pursue your career in merchant services sales? Then, you should read this article before considering a merchant services career. Merchant services is not only to help businesses with payment processing it goes beyond that. You should fully understand how it works. If you are going to work as a merchant services sales representative, you need to partner with a merchant services provider. There is no doubt that the merchant services sales job offers you plenty of advantages, but it is not the same for all. In a merchant services career, you can sell the services to the businesses over the phone and even in person, but you can’t afford any hasty switch. So, you need to learn first what part of the merchant service job is suitable for you. For instance, if you have decided to work in merchant processing sales, you have come to the right page. Here, you will learn how you can earn more, hone your skills, and have more security by choosing the right company for payment processing...............Continue Reading
Best Way to Generate Endless (Merchant) Credit Card Processing Leads
Do you want to get more credit card processing leads but don’t know the best ways to get started? You have come to the right page! To generate more leads, there is a simple formula for guaranteed success i.e., spends time and involves greater investment. But investing money can’t generate leads unless you don’t know how to invest it in marketing approaches. Let’s find out together how to get merchant services lead generation.
The Problem in Credit Card Processing Service Industry for Generating Sales
Some problems exist in setting the appointment and prospecting selling merchant services.
The credit card processing industry is overcalled, and merchants are swamped with calls for merchant services.
Secondly, it is sad but true that most salespersons who call trying to find potential client, do it poorly and waste the time of merchants.
Most of the sale scripts and sales pitches that are used in telemarketing are poor and almost similar to each other. They communicate poorly, or benefits options are so little for merchants.
Moreover, when the merchant recognizes the sales pitch is trying to ask him to switch to the new payment processing services; he loses interest and starts rejecting the merchant processing agent. Who wants to listen to the same old sales pitch again and again about your merchant services?............ Keep Reading
What's a Payment Aggregator? How Does One Become a Merchant Services Aggregator?
Many businesses that are just starting out don’t know how to get paid online with ease. They usually create their merchant bank accounts after a tedious process and start accepting payments with just one or two modes. This is where the payment aggregator comes into the equation.
With their help, you can get paid with ease while not having to put up with the policies of a bank. Want to learn more about payment aggregation? Well, read this guide till the end; you’ll know what it is and whether it’s good or bad for your business. That said, let’s dive right in:
Simply put, a payment aggregator is a service provider allowing merchants to process payments via mobile or the internet. They are direct payment facilitators that let businesses accept debit card or credit card payments without the need to open a merchant account with a bank.
Instead, you use a 3rd party payment service provider, the aggregator, who processes online transactions for you. Since you won’t have your own merchant account, you’ll be the ‘sub-merchant’ under the aggregator along with other merchants.
So, for instance, if a client wants to buy something online, let’s say sports shoes, and you sell them, they will go to your eCommerce website, select the product and move to the checkout page.
On the payment page, he/she will be provided with a range of payment options by the payment aggregator. The customer can select the option they want and make the payment. The money will land in the account of the payment aggregator, who will then pay it to you.
If you want to skip the step of getting paid by a 3rd party after selling something, you can become a merchant aggregator and start a payment processing company. But that can be a lot of hassle, especially if you’re not a multi-million dollar organization.
Straightforward Application Process:
If you become a merchant aggregator, you’ll have to go through a tedious process involving piles of paperwork and some hefty fees.
Alternatively, getting a payment aggregation service involves very little work. Plus, the application gets accepted fast, so there are no lengthy waiting times.
Start Right Away:
It can be very overwhelming and anxious when you’re starting a business. Setting up everything on your own can also tire you. You don’t want long set up times when it comes to accepting payments. You need something simple and fast that can be implemented quickly, allowing you to accept payments from the next day.
If you’re that person, signing up with a payment aggregator is the right choice. Plus, you can accept payments from customers through a number of methods from the get-go.
Straightforward Fee Structure:
Most payment aggregators have a flat-fee policy which is pretty self-explanatory. Whichever payment aggregation service provider you decide to work with, visit their website’s fee policy page, and you’ll get everything in one place.
Go through it, and you’ll know exactly what they’ll charge depending on the type of transaction and payment method. Furthermore, Plus, you won’t have to sign any long-term contracts, so you can switch to a merchant service provider whenever you feel like it.
Cheaper for Short Term Use:
In the long run, when businesses are generating big profits, they find merchant accounts to be more affordable, especially if a large number of transactions are processed on a daily basis.
However, if you’re just stepping your toe into the business and expect the transaction volume to be low, a payment aggregator will be cheaper.
It Takes Time to Process Funds:
Although setting up an account with a payment aggregator is a breeze, and customer transactions are fast as well, getting paid takes time. When a customer pays for your product/service, the money lands into the aggregator’s account.
So they have control over when the funds are transferred to you. Most of them will have 24 to 48hours of hold on clearance of funds but can be longer in some cases.
Accounts Can Be Put on Hold:
Yes, this is a very real possibility. This happens because the aggregator takes a risk by accepting payment on your behalf, which can also include fraudulent chargebacks. So, if there’s any activity that’s suspected of fraud, your account can go on hold.
However, don’t let this scare you; it’s not like you won’t be able to get back. It can take anywhere from 1-2 days for the inquiry of the case; some can last up to a month as well, depending on how complex it is. But when it is done and you’re in the clear, you’ll get your account back. However, you won’t be able to get payments during that time.
Cost Efficiency vs. Transaction Volume:
As the volume of your transactions increases, the charges from payment aggregators can too. This is because the bigger a transaction is, the more risk a payment aggregator is taking holding it for you.
Some aggregators have fixed payments for different volumes of transactions; ask yours about that before signing up.
Parting Words:
When it comes to deciding how you should accept the payments, there’s no right answer. You can become a merchant aggregator and get payments right into your account or use one to avoid the hassles and the risks that come with being one. But if you’re a small business that’s just starting out, going for an aggregator might be the right thing to do.
Credit Card Processing Sales Commission Structure: Merchant Services Residual Income
Are you going through different merchant services sales jobs and thinking if you can make enough money from selling merchant services to afford a luxurious life? Well, the answer to this depends on how much work you put in. Since you will be relying on the commission and monthly residual income you get for each sale, your earnings will directly be dependent on how much you sell.
However, we have created this guide to give you a general idea of how to calculate your earnings and the things to consider when looking at the residual income structures offered by the merchant services agent programs. That being said, let’s dive right in:
How Much Can I Earn Selling Merchant Processing?
The first question that comes to mind of everyone taking up the merchant services sales jobs is; how much will I earn? And that question is fair because you need to pay the bills and keep your belly full. So to know how much you can expect if you become a credit card processing agent, you need to know about the sources of your income.
In merchant processing sales jobs, you have two ways to earn the greenbacks, the first one is by selling merchant services to the merchant. The second one is by selling/leasing the equipment like POS terminals. Now the most lucrative between both is the former one because by getting the merchant onboard, you will be getting residual income for as long as he is using your credit card processing company.
The second one is also not bad if you can manage to lease out or sell a couple of machines per month. You can combine both to increase your revenue as well, but since residual income is the most practical and long term earning approach, we will focus on it for this guide........ Keep Reading
How to be a Merchant Acquirer vs Payment Processor
When it comes to merchant sales and acquiring, terminology related to payments often causes some confusion. Merchant acquirers and payment processors are not the same thing even though some people use them synonymously. Understanding the difference will facilitate a smoother business process for sales of products and services overall.
How to Become a Merchant Acquirer
Professionals use three terms to indicate the same function: merchant acquirer, acquirer, and acquiring bank. As the last one indicates, a merchant acquirer is a financial institution like a bank that handles sales deposits and can process refunds.
In order to know how to become a merchant acquirer, a bank needs an established relationship with the major credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. They do not process the payments directly but do lend an important benefit to the entire merchant sales and acquiring process. After all, the many needs somewhere to go after a customer or client pays.
Through the card network relationships, merchant acquirers take on a considerable part of the responsibility for accepting payments. These banks uphold all regulatory requirements and rules for financial institutions and the credit card companies they work with. When they become a payment facilitator, they also engage in underwriting and oversight of the merchants connected to them through the payment acquisition process.
A merchant services independent sales agent works to connect sales companies with merchant acquirers and payment processors to facilitate the function of their business. They can help explain the differences between each and find ones that work for specific needs. Payment processing facilitators may even remove more of the complexity than that. First, understand what a payment processor is.
What Is a Payment Processor?
This term seems more straightforward as it describes the exact action taken by the financial entity. A payment processor maintains the technological infrastructure, connections, and security to process all payments swiftly and safely between businesses and consumers. They become a payment facilitator by handling the authorization of transactions and transfer of money between individuals, commercial entities, and banks.
Examples include credit card companies and online platforms that allow members to have accounts like PayPal and Stripe. These payment processors provide both merchant acquirer and payment processor services because they handle both the technical order management and the receipt of money sides of the payment equation. Larger brick-and-mortar banks also offer these types of things to smooth the process for their larger clients. Firms that do both are often referred to as merchant acquirers even though they are also payment processors, too.
When companies use a payment facilitator, they do not need to establish relationships with merchant acquirers or payment processors directly. This simplifies the entire thing and may reduce the risk of ever or security breaches because the payment funds go through fewer processes. A payment facilitator handles both sides of the transaction so the merchant enjoys a hands-off relationship with long list of credit card companies and banks. Choosing one of these services creates a highly efficient payment processing system for digital and real-world sales.
White Label Registered Merchant Services ISO Agent Sales Partner Program
Are you a merchant sales agent or an Indendent Sales Organization that’s looking to make it to the big leagues of the merchant industry; the payment gateway providers? Well, it might require some serious investment to set up a complete infrastructure that can even break your bank. However, there’s an alternative - white label merchant services.
It’s a low investment, low-risk solution allowing you to set up your own payment gateway without having to manage any technical aspects of the payment gateway. Curious? Read on to know more about a regular payment gateway, how a white label payment gateway is different and what main advantages it can offer you.
What’s A Regular Payment Gateway?
Let’s Discuss What Payment Gateways Do:
Before we move towards the payment gateways for white label merchant services, let’s talk about the regular ones to ensure everyone reading this is on the same page. Payment gateways are crucial for every business for credit card transaction processing. When the card is swiped against the machine, the payment is cut and sent through the payment ‘gateway’ to the processor for authorization. This additional gateway ensures the security of customer’s data and the authenticity of their transaction.
Once it’s cleared, the information of the transaction is added to the credit card networks and sent to the bank that issued the card to the user (customer). If everything is correct and there’s a balance available to be charged, the transaction is approved; otherwise, due to any reason, it can get declined.
How Payment Gateways Do What They Do?
Payment gateways equip the merchants with interfaces and tools to collect the information for credit card transactions from the customers. This can be done in several ways. Most of the gateways offer APIs (Application Programming Interface) that enable the websites, business software, mobile applications, and POS (point of sale) device to connect and send transactions right to the payment gateway for authorization.
They also offer virtual terminal abilities allowing credit card info to be input directly in a webpage form, which can then be submitted for a transaction.
You can also find a range of value-added functions in payment gateways allowing merchants to easily manage their business and transactions. These added features can be fraud detection, recurring billing, tokenization, PCI compliance, and more.
Merchant Acquirers & Payment Gateways:
Merchant acquirers and ISOs (Independent Sales Organizations) act as agents/salesperson of the payment gateways by reselling their services to the merchants. ISOs or merchant acquirers employ a team of salespeople and support agents to connect with merchants, nurture them and eventually sell them the payment gateway’s services and equipment like POS machines.
Since it doesn’t really make sense for the merchant acquirers to build and manage their own gateways, they mostly partner with existing payment gateway service providers and get a small chunk of the pie. However, there’s an alternative, providing ISOs or merchant acquirers with opportunities to set up and differentiate their own payment gateway brands. This is where White Label Payment Gateway comes into play.
What’s White Label Payment Gateway?
How does the White Label Merchant Services Work?
With the help of a white label payment gateway, you can get similar features and functions and perform the same duties as a payment gateway provider. However, there are many distinctions and benefit with the white label service. While the regular gateways get into contracts with the ISOs and merchant acquirers to resell their services, white label gateways allow and also prefer the ISOs and merchant acquirers to sell their services as their own with their own branding.
The merchant resellers and ISOs have the liberty to use their logo, play with the branding and color scheme to match it with their own, and service the customers however they see fit.
Advantages of Becoming White Label Payment Service Provider:
If you become the payment gateway provider rather than reselling someone else’s, you’ll have several unique opportunities at hand. As the white label payment facilitator, you can set your own profit margins and actively get your share of the revenue stream. This also means you will have the freedom to set up your very own brand, market it and get visibility rather than living under someone else’s shadow. You will have control over customer experience, and how you want to service them, which means direct customer acquisition.
Here are some more benefits that you experience when you become a white label service provider:
- You will not have to set up or manage the service by yourself. All the heavy lifting and technical aspects like infrastructure and security compliance will be taken care of for you.
- You will get access to the shopping cart integrations processor connections of the platform, enabling you to offer solutions to a wider merchant group and take care of their needs.
- You will get total control over the customer relations, meaning you will establish the rules for how your gateway equipment and products will be serviced and sold.
- Every effort put in by you and your team into the promotion of payment gateway technology will enhance the worth, reputation, and value of your brand.
- The use of a white-label payment gateway will solidify your relations with your merchants and put you in the position to meet their needs better.
Who Does the White Label Payment Facilitators Partner With?
First things first, you need to know if you have the kind of business that can benefit from the white label payment service provider. There are four kinds of resellers that will benefit from the white label model the most:
When opting for a white label payment service provider, work with someone having experience and a good track record of working with these business types.
Finding a Good Quality White Label Merchant Services Provider:
To get the most value out of your while label gateway experience, it is imperative that you work with the provider offering exactly what you need so you can meet and exceed the needs of your merchants. To find that kind of service provider, here are a few questions you should ask:
- Will you get access to their support service, guides, and training materials?
- Do they have an intuitive payment gateway platform? You don’t want something that’s buggy and complex.
- Can you rely on their platform? It should have 99.99% uptime; once it goes down, your payments won’t be processed until it's back on.
- What about the security level of their platform? It should be encrypted with the latest and most impenetrable technologies.
- Does it sell its services to the merchants directly?
What Branding Can You Do on Your White Label Payment Gateway Products?
You will require a highly flexible platform that allows you to leverage your or your designer’s creativity and customize every aspect of the product/service. You would want to make the payment gateway your own in the truest sense of the word. Therefore, make sure to find out the branding options they have available that’ll allow you to brand payment gateway exactly the way you want. Here is a small list of some things you should be able to make your own:
- URL
- Color scheme
- Logo
- Marketing guarantee
- Font
- APIs
- Login portal
- Brochures
Make sure to ask about all of these features’ customizability, so you know what to expect from the white label provider and if you want to go with them.
Types of Merchants to Have on Your Gateway:
If you’re wondering what kind of merchants I can put on my white-label payment gateway, then the answer is; anyone you want. However, not every provider agrees to this, so make sure to ask this beforehand. The payment gateway provider must be able to offer you the liberty to get anyone on board and do business with them.
Some Final Considerations:
You will also need to find out about the third-party integration options, SDKs, and API functionality of the payment gateway. Some more important things to consider are:
• Who will own the website’s domain name?
• Who is going to bill the merchant?
• Who will manage the SSL Certificates?
• What kind of shopping cart integrations will you get?
• How the customer support to merchants will be handled?
• What kind of merchants will you be able to provide a platform to?
Final Words:
Remember, the best white label merchant services will have incredibly useful features to help you crush the competition and get as many merchants on board as you can. This can only happen if you have the freedom to have any merchant you want and your platform is robust enough with tons of useful features that attract them.
Top 5 Merchant Services Agent & ISO Programs
In order to help you get started on your quest, here are five of the best ISO agent programs out there that you can look into:
Looking for a company that has a lot of experience and support? This can be especially important when you're first starting out. You don't want to just be left in the dust whenever you have questions or if something goes wrong. They're very committed to offering the best service possible to not only their end-users, but more importantly to their sales agents. They'll provide you with the latest technology, varied offers to give to your clients, and top-notch service. They also offer extremely fast payments, and in fact will pay you every day instead of making you wait for weeks.
If you are a sales-oriented individual with vast experience in the world of credit card processing or you are a driven and motivated professional looking for a new challenge, North American Bancard might be a great fit for you. With one of the most competitive merchant services commission structures in the industry, NAB will see to it that you are rewarded for your efforts.
As one of the top ISO/MSP programs, NAB has a history of a favorable commission structure, superior products, and sales support for thier ISO partners. With so much commission at stake, you will truly feel like a partner in the NAB business plan.
With North American Bancard's Registered DBA Program, you'll be able to market under your own brand, without paying costly fees! Your brand will be seen on the partner portal, marketing communications, merchant statements, and more.
2) CardConnect
Want to go with a leader in the industry? CardConnect is a great ISO with a lot of options for the ambitious sales agent. For one, they have a proven track record of service and have been around since 2006. They offer some of the easiest-to-navigate merchant applications around, a great support team, and in-depth training so that you can sell more effectively and grow in your payment processing career. They were among the firsts in the business to offer lifetime residuals from every deal that their sales agents close. If you want a reliable company that will let you build the passive income side of your business, you should seriously consider CardConnect.
Naturally, you are probably going to want to research more than just a few companies, but these are truly some of the best and brightest in the industry, and it's not a bad list to start with. Before anything else, it's important to perform a self-assessment and decide what your needs and wants are when it comes to an ISO partnership. Really, this means asking yourself: What kind of ISO is going to best serve my clients? If you still have no idea, that's perfectly fine. You don't have to limit yourself to a single ISO, and in fact it's probably a good idea when you are starting out to try several different processors.
Maybe you're looking for a very reliable company that has a history of great service and close relationships with their merchants and sales agents. In that case, you won't go wrong with PayProTec. They offer great customer support, as well as extensive online resources that you can use to build your business. When you sign up as a sales agent, you get a free website, a back-end portal where you can check your stats online, and the ability to look up trouble tickets and see any problems that your merchants are having. Like HarborTouch and a few others mentioned here, they also have a free terminal program.
Interestingly enough, they're not just paying lip service when they say that they care about their sales agents—they offer health care benefits and will reimburse half of your costs! This definitely helps to relieve one of the bigger headaches of being self-employed.
4) SHIFT 4 Payments
Shift 4 Payments (AKA: HarborTouch) is one of the largest providers of POS systems and payment processing services in the US. They handle over one hundred thousand merchant accounts across the nation, and billions of dollars worth of transactions. Part of the reason they are so ubiquitous in the payment processing field is no doubt due to their superior partnership program. They have smart, forward-thinking, and extremely competitive offers that make selling merchant accounts a snap compared to more “traditional” programs. For example, they helped pioneer the introduction of free terminal offers. In other words, you can provide the hardware to your client for no upfront costs to them, and still receive a handsome commission and great residuals afterwards.
“Free” is not a hard sell at all, so even if you choose another company, it's probably a good idea for you to make sure that your merchant services partner has a free terminal program. It's not always going to be a good fit for every merchant, but rest assured that more and more of your clients will be expecting free equipment.
Part of working in any field is having a niche, but oftentimes you can find yourself partnered with a company that won't approve of the merchants that you want to work with. Nothing is more disappointing than having great personal connections and prospects, but needing to turn them down because they run a “high risk” business, such as a liquor store, an e-commerce business, or any sort of retail store that would be subject to a lot of charge-backs.
With eMB's program, however, you won't have to worry about any of that. They will deal with just about any sort of merchant, including high-risk applicants. In fact, they approve about 95% of the merchants who seek accounts with them. This is good news for your clients and for you—especially since high risk accounts can be particularly lucrative.
Like the name implies, eMerchant Broker is a good choice if your merchant is an e-commerce business. They offer multiple gateways to make sure your client's shopping cart software will work perfectly with them. Give them a try, especially if your merchants tend to get rejected by other ISO's.
