It's far more costly to gain new merchant accounts than it is to retain and upsell to existing merchant customers. This is common knowledge among payment professionals. This doesn't mean ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) should forego new account acquisition efforts; it just means outreach to existing customers should continue alongside outreach to new prospects. It turns out the same holds true for merchant verticals as a whole.
There is much to be gained by breaking into new market verticals, especially those that have been relatively untouched by competitors. However, this is a costly, time-consuming endeavor, and needs to coexist with other business-building efforts. The lead article herein takes a look at the opportunities found in bringing new services to verticals already in an ISO's or MLS's wheelhouse. Advancements in technology have made it possible to offer merchants sophisticated capabilities that didn't exist just a few short years ago. The payments landscape is indeed changing, and ISOs and MLSs have much to gain by researching and providing new features and functionalities that will drive greater value to clients in their existing verticals.
Part of serving existing verticals entails ongoing education, and industry experts featured in The Green Sheet make consistent contributions to that effort. Topics addressed in this issue include habits of ineffective ISO recruiters and what to do instead when building a sales team, the need for the big card brands to promote EMV implementation via advertising campaigns, legal issues pertaining to technology contracting that ISOs should be aware of, and using conceptual frameworks to understand and talk about technology you haven't seen in action.
We post news stories throughout each work week on our home page, www.greensheet.com. A number of recent stories are highlighted in News Briefs, including the delayed disclosure of the massive Equifax hack affecting approximately 143 million individuals, EMVCo's expanded EMV tokenization framework, the e-gift card growth reflected in the Blackhawk-CashStar merger, KFC's advancement of biometrics with the launch of its smile-to-pay pilot in China, and Burger King's introduction of Whoppercoin in Russia.
Also in these pages, you'll find data on connected-consumer commerce trends, new product and company profiles, and views from readers on potential losses from chips detaching from EMV cards, as well as updates on industry research, acquisitions and partnerships, appointments, special honors, and other achievements. Be sure to send your feedback to greensheet@greensheet.com and press releases to press@greensheet.com. 
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Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
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