he sales industry has an image problem. Who hasn't seen a parody of the profession, complete with a fast talker in a loud suit? However, those who take the endeavor seriously know sales is an art requiring training, commitment and a solid moral character. People without those attributes can enter the field, but they will not last long.

As Chairman of the Board, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer for U.S. Merchant Systems, Stuart H. Rosenbaum understands and respects the art of sales.

While growing up in Philadelphia, Rosenbaum watched his dad work 80 hours a week, balancing two jobs, so that Rosenbaum and his siblings could attend college.

Even so, when he was 18 years old, his parents told him that, despite his dad's hard labor and commitment, they did not have the money to fund his college education.

While he admired his now-deceased father, Rosenbaum also took from his dad's experience some valuable lessons about what not to do. "I loved my father dearly, but I never wanted to follow in his professional footsteps," he said. "At the end of the day, he had nothing to show for it. I decided very young that I would always be my own boss."

Becoming a grasshopper

Rosenbaum worked to pay his way through school, studying economics in his hometown at Temple University and at Stockton State College in New Jersey. Stopping just shy of a degree in 1982, Rosenbaum traveled to California, where he still resides.

Upon arrival in the Golden State, Rosenbaum secured a position as a wholesale sales representative for an electronics manufacturer. He chose the sales profession, in part, because people who knew him said his outgoing personality would be a good fit for a sales career.

Unfortunately, he soon discovered that a profitable sales career would require much more than a winning personality. After struggling for six months, he contemplated quitting and returning to the East Coast.

On one of his worst days, he called his mother from a pay phone, planning to ask her to front him the money for a plane ticket home.

However, as he waited for his mom to pick up the receiver, he had an epiphany. "I thought, 'If I quit now, life will never be the same. If I overcome whatever obstacles I'm facing now, I can do whatever I want in life,'" he said.

He decided to stick it out. Shortly thereafter, a sales manager gave him The Greatest Salesman in the World, a book by Og Mandino.

He read it cover to cover and soon after attended a seminar led by Sales Trainer and Motivational Speaker Tom Hopkins. He was hooked. "I came to understand it's [sales] a real profession," he said. "There are tools and learning; it is an art that one can master."

So, he educated himself and worked to master those tools. Or, as he said, "I became the Grasshopper" (the nickname of Kwai Chang Caine, the central character portrayed by David Carradine in the 1970s "Kung Fu" television series).

Rosenbaum absorbed as much as he could about prospecting techniques, qualifying, presentations and closing. "From that point forward, I was a top closer in pretty much anything I did," he said.

Being the boss

As he mastered his profession, Rosenbaum did not lose sight of his dream to be his own boss. He held several sales and management positions in the auto and consumer electronics industries.

Then, in 1988, he founded Dealer Accessory Service, a company that distributed and installed aftermarket auto accessories for car dealerships in Northern California.

After a few years, he sold that business and stayed on for a year to help with the transition. He then began looking for the best arena for his accumulated skills. A friend was selling bankcard terminals and suggested he look into it.

Rosenbaum's first employment interview in the industry was brief. So was his training, which consisted primarily of instructions on filling out paperwork.

"Armed with no more than that and my selling skills, I sold a deal every day for the first five days," he said. About six months later, in 1992, he and two friends, Larry Cohn and Ken Ruff, founded U.S. Merchant Systems.

For the next two years, Rosenbaum served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In 1994, he became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company.

During that time he was also busy with other projects, including co-founding PayQuake in 2001, an online merchant services program developed to compete with PayPal. He sold PayQuake in 2003.

In 1995, Rosenbaum founded and chaired IntelliPay Inc., an electronic transaction gateway. He sold that company in 2000 to Pacific WebWorks Inc.

Rosenbaum turned over his CEO duties at U.S. Merchant Systems to the company's former Chief Operating Officer, Cihat Zeyt, in July 2006. He stayed on as Chairman and assumed an even more active role as Chief Marketing Officer. As CMO, he is developing a complete training and marketing system to help sales agents grow.

"Even when I was the CEO, I was always the CMO," he said. "Now I spend most of my time developing sales and marketing tools. At some point, we will have the very best for all agents, and we won't need to reinvent anything. ... We will even have training on how to run a profitable sales office and how to run finances."

Becoming the teacher

Rosenbaum's entry into the financial services industry may not have been preordained, but it has been an easy fit. "My training in sales ... my knowledge of the sales cycle, closing and sales training was a perfect match for this business," he said.

He believes entering the payments area is the best business decision he has made. "The possibilities are endless," he said. "I've made best friends, friends for life. I've made a good living and a good retirement."

His career choice has also given him the opportunity to share some of what he has learned, transforming him from student to teacher. "I enjoy teaching new and even experienced salespeople new ways to market, prospect and close sales," he said. "I also enjoy teaching agents how to grow their office."

To date, Rosenbaum has trained more than 2,000 sales professionals in the financial services, auto and consumer electronics industries.

He thinks training is an area in which our industry could use improvement. He identified as risks to the industry the "lack of focus on training and development of salespeople and agent offices and a lack of focus on selling value and solutions, leading to ... price-only competition.

"Ultimately when this happens in any industry, only a few players will survive," he said.

Rosenbaum thinks if an ISO hires direct employees (those for whom a W-2 form is filed with the Internal Revenue Service), it is the ISO's responsibility to train them.

As for 1099 (independent contractor) agents, he said, "There are two types of agents: those who are loyal to ISOs and those that are not. But, there are also two types of ISOs: those that are loyal to agents and those who are not."

He mentioned that some agents work with six or more processors. "When it comes to salespeople, it's not easy," he said. "We have to hustle, and we don't know when the next paycheck is coming. At least what ISOs can do is create a culture that is motivating and that allows agents to see a career path and a future."

The free-equipment folly

Rosenbaum's passion for training is directly related to his opinion of the free-equipment frenzy our industry is experiencing. "Don't take the easy way out; anyone can give something away," he said.

He feels that using free equipment forces agents to work hard, rather than smart. "To sign up enough business to make a living, you have to make three to four times the sales calls," he said. "You are working harder for same the buck."

Rosenbaum conceded that free equipment isn't always a poor choice. "I don't think it's a bad idea, on occasion, to provide merchants with equipment," he said. "There are times when it makes a lot of sense."

However, he doesn't think it's wise to base an entire promotion or marketing plan on giving things away. "The problem with that is we are sales organizations first and foremost," he said. "We came about as a group because banks needed sales forces.

"The challenge is that when we supplant good sales training and techniques with giving something for free, we denigrate the entire industry. It becomes a game where anyone can get in, and it really hurts the professionals."

Rosenbaum also pointed out the negative effect he believes free equipment can have on the morale of sales agents.

"There is no greater pride and accomplishment than when an agent makes a sale and gets a commission that is going to pay rent or put food on the table," he said. "It [free equipment] will never build morale."

Rosenbaum thinks free equipment will hurt ISOs. "It may not look like it today, and there might be a few ISOs that get rich, but ultimately it will decimate the industry," he said.

"When it becomes the standard, no one has the advantage, and you've robbed yourself of your own margins of profits.

"In this whole free equipment debacle, the largest concern I have is for the well-being of the salesperson. Ultimately, if we don't train these folks effectively and teach them how to maximize their income, we'll all lose," he said.

A simple philosophy

Aside from avoiding free equipment programs and focusing on lifelong training, Rosenbaum also urged agents to focus on merchants. He encouraged them to "recognize that the merchant is their best friend and can be a true business partner.

"Never give someone something they don't need, and always get them to buy what they do need or will benefit from, and make a profit doing it."

In addition, he emphasized the importance of ongoing customer service and referrals. "Treat a handful of customers right, and you'll always have new clients ... if you ask your satisfied customers to send them to you," he said. "You'll make plenty of money if you care about the other person."

These methods are in line with Rosenbaum's straightforward philosophy, which is "Have a good plan that helps numerous people be successful, and you'll get what you want out of the deal."