hen you get right down to it, no matter what they're shopping for, people like to do business with people they like. Whether you're a customer or a vendor, the outcome of the sales process is often more complicated than merely negotiating the best price.

Setting yourself apart from the competition, when you're on the selling end of the relationship, depends as much on establishing yourself as knowledgeable, dependable and credible as it does on standing behind a quality product or service.

USA Card Services is a relative newcomer to the expansive field of merchant card processors, but it has hit on a way to differentiate itself from other companies. It's a pretty simple concept, but it seems to be pointing USA Card Services in the right direction.

The people at USA Card Services set out to give their customers more reasons to do business with them than anyone else. Beyond giving their retail and Internet merchants a few basis points and lower monthly fees, they've developed a program of value-added services to increase both the benefits they provide as well as customer loyalty.

Steve Mayes is Vice President of Sales and Marketing of USA Card Services. His company's program, he said, involves the elementary sales rule of thumb: It gets to know the customers and their particular business and keeps some specific needs in mind when designing a payment-processing package for them. Mayes said this basic principle raises USA Card Services' closing ratios and establishes long-term relationships.

"We've taken a different route from the beginning," Mayes said.

President and CEO Robert Harris incorporated USA Card Services in May 2002, and the company already has more than 400 accounts to service. These include retail as well as e-tail businesses; he said the company's average customer is a small-to-medium retail business with three or fewer locations.

What USA Card Services has done from the outset is seek out various value-added services to enhance its customers' successes. What it gets in return are referrals to other businesses; through one of the value-added benefits in its program, those referrals end up generating residual income for both USACS and the referring party.

"Nothing beats a referral in this business, or any other for that matter," Mayes said. "Businesspeople put a lot of stock in and appreciate a good word from someone else they trust. [The payment-processing services] industry is very competitive. There are a lot of people fighting for the same piece of pie. From the customer's standpoint, many times it becomes a price war. We want to be more of a benefit.

"We wanted to do something else. We had to think outside the box. We looked to the other side of the fence to see what kinds of products and services our customers can benefit from."

Through the art of conversation - both listening and sharing information - he said USACS has been able to differentiate itself from the competition.

"We look at who our customers are, whether they're a retail business on the street or an e-commerce customer. Their needs are different," he said. So USACS will design a different package for each. For example, e-commerce customers know the value of directing traffic to their Web site, so USA Card Services will partner with them to send visitors their way - a search engine - and that e-business will, in turn, use its payment gateway to process transactions.

According to Mayes, it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship in which everyone gains something. USA Card Services discovered a whole yard full of opportunities on the other side of that fence to swap back and forth between its merchant accounts and businesses whose offerings would add value to its clients.

USACS now has a formalized referral program in place. Through the program, when a customer or a vendor that USACS works with - such as hosting companies, design/development companies or ISPs - refers another customer looking for a merchant services provider to USACS and that referral results in a sale, USACS will pay the referring business monthly residuals.

"The referrals are a great shoo-in," Mayes said. "The residuals depend on the amount of business that partner generates."

In return for signing with USACS, those new customers receive a one-year membership with GoSmallBiz.com and will have their Web sites submitted to the top 30 search engines. Both services are offered at no charge.

Mayes said one of the company's strongest suits when it comes to acquiring new accounts is the partnership with GoSmallBiz.com. Owned by football great Fran Tarkenton and based in the Atlanta area, the company is staffed by professionals who are available to answer questions on every aspect of running a business, including human resources, insurance, marketing and small business loans.

Since most of USA Card Services' clients are small to medium in size, the business-consulting services that GoSmallBiz.com offers are a natural added benefit, he said. "Too often, small businesses don't get the advice they need for legal, marketing or accounting issues. I've found they usually go without professional advice since they can't afford to keep these professionals on staff or retainer." As a result, he said, the businesses suffer; lack of knowledge is one of the main reasons businesses fail.

Think what it would mean to be able to help merchants keep their businesses thriving - the bottom line is that the longer they're in business, the more residual income they generate for financial services reps through increased sales with longevity. Mayes said USA Card Services gives each of its customers a complementary one-year membership when they sign with USACS for payment processing.

He also said USACS has latched onto a few additional services. It is able to add in one year of Web hosting services for retail businesses to get them online.

For those businesses already there, USACS has arranged with an Internet service provider to submit Web sites to search engines such as Yahoo!, AltaVista and Excite, at no charge.

"Driving traffic to their sites means more transactions for us," Mayes said.

A complete package of e-commerce solutions, including everything from site design and Web hosting to payment gateway and search engine submission, is in the works. USACS also is working on finding ways to provide advertising solutions for retail customers.

On the acquiring side, staying competitive means that USACS offers rates for processing payment transactions and equipment that are as good as the best out there. "We see what the market is bearing, and we want to be competitive with that," Mayes said.

"We can do whatever we can to earn their business. We let the customer situation tell us whether to lease equipment or sell it. We're not tied to a particular line, either, so we can make recommendations to suit their needs."

The company's goals also include a major step that Mayes is confident will be in place by the end of 2003: "We're on our way to becoming a primary processor ourselves," he said.

That would seem to indicate a ramping up of workload in the near future. Mayes said that USACS has accounts all over the country although the vast majority of its retail accounts - 90-99%, he said - are in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. It has 15 people on staff, including sales and support, and up to now that number has been sufficient for handling its accounts. That's about to change, though, as the company grows into new areas nationwide and as it offers more types of services.

"We are focusing on expanding our ISO partner program," Mayes said. "We're depending on this outside sales force to make our growth possible." In fact, he said, the company is even advertising for agents in area classified ads.