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Features

The Green Sheet Advisory Board

What it takes to thrive in payments today – Part 3

T his is the third in a series of three articles shar- The MLS who can offer their wholesale prospect advice

on how to qualify at lower Level 2 and Level 3 rates,
ing responses members of The Green Sheet
what triggers a non-qualified downgrade or Electronic
Advisory Board offered when asked:
point out junk fees their competitor is charging has a huge
1. What top three tools of the trade are most critical Interchange Reimbursement Fee qualification, and even
for MLSs to succeed in payments today? advantage over the lazier MLS who just wants to offer the
lowest rate possible. MLSs who can act as a transparent,
2. Do ISOs need the same tools, or are other types of honest pricing resource will always be more successful,
aids more essential to them? sign larger merchants, get more referrals and retain more
3. What are the most critical needs for equipment, clients than those who don't take the time to learn the ins
software and systems providers? Are these different and outs of how credit card processing fees work. For me,
for long-time payment players than for payfacs and this was the biggest contributor to my success in sales.
ISVs new to payments? Technology and analytics
4. What top three qualities must all essential players
in the payments value chain bring to the table to Technology can be a huge advantage for MLSs today, which
foster success for themselves, their partners and is why this is my second tool of the trade. MLSs should
clients? work with merchant acquirers that make selling easier, not
harder. There's a lot of friction during the sign-up process,
The first two articles in this series appeared in The Green such as printing and physically signing apps, scanning
Sheet issues 18:05:01 and 18:05:02, published respectively on lengthy bank and processing statements, etc. This is the
May 14 and 28, 2018. Thank you to all the experts who took last thing a busy business owner wants to do. Companies
time out from their busy schedules to participate. like Square and Stripe are succeeding largely because they
took the friction out of the critical onboarding process,
Maurice Griefer, CPP something merchant acquirers should take note of. It is no
Maverick Bankcard Inc. doubt merchants will choose a provider that has a more
painless sign-up experience when given the same pricing,
1. The payments industry has changed dramatically over the and MLSs have a plethora of partnership options.
last decade with new players like Square and Stripe who've
put a lot of pressure on MLSs and merchant acquirers to As an example, we've completely revamped our application
reconsider their pricing strategies and service offerings. process to be more efficient and quicker. By offering a simple
Competition is more intense, so MLSs must expand their online application that ties into our proprietary dashboard
sales tools to succeed in today's marketplace. I think the and syncing it with DocuSign for digital signatures, our
top three tools of the trade today are: a comprehensive MLSs can spend less time managing applications and write
understanding of rates and fees; working with merchant more business. We also make the application process much
acquirers who have valuable technology and analytics; and more secure, too, since no sensitive information is shared
establishing relationships with POS companies, gateways, via email anymore, and the number of eyes is reduced to
and VARs. essentially just the underwriter. It would be in the best
Rates and fees interests of MLSs to find a merchant acquirer who has all
the resources and tools for them to stand out from their
Because of the Internet, business owners are much smarter competitors.
today and will do more research when selecting a new
merchant services provider (or potential vendor in general) Relationships
than previously. There are many different pricing schemes My last tool of the trade is for MLSs to establish relation-
today: interchange-plus, tiered, flat rate and now cash ships with POS companies, ISVs, and VARs. MLSs are sell-
discounting, leaving many merchants overwhelmed. Not ing fewer terminals today because merchants want more
only do MLSs need to understand what their competitors sophisticated POS systems, many of which the merchant
are offering, as well as the pros and cons of the various now must purchase from the POS company directly. The
pricing models, but they need to be able to dissect MLS has less power now because the POS company or soft-
processing statements entirely. Processing statements ware vendor may offer integrated payment processing, or
provide the MLS with valuable insight on not just the core refer the merchant to their "preferred" processing partner.
fees like the merchant's discount rate and transaction fee, The MLS today is expected to be more of a consultant, so
but their interchange qualifications and card brand fees, it's necessary for MLSs to know the different software ven-
too, which some merchant acquirers will mark up. dors so they can provide the best solutions. Additionally,

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