Paul,
I happened upon your site today and even though it is for financial salespeople I thought some of the articles were extremely helpful to salespeople in general. Do you know of a site like yours that is geared for all salespeople?
Also, regarding your article on ISPs, issue 96:01:01: What source did you use to find the list of ISPs?
Thanks,
Sue
Sue:
We develop, through our own research, all the material you read in The Green Sheet. The material is directed at ALL sales people. If you would like more information on the Internet you should look to the May issue of our magazine, GSQ, which will be on the subject.
Good Selling!SM
Paul H. Green
Dear Mr. Green,
Hello, my name is Grey McLean, a consultant for Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group. On the behalf of a client interested in check authorization and guarantee, I am currently conducting research on the market players who provide check guarantee and verification services. As a result, I have a number of questions about the Green Sheet's 1997 Check Study, the market in general, CrossCheck specifically, and CrossCheck's "ChecksByNet" product.
1997 Check Study:
1. Can you tell me the source of the "1996 Guarantee & Verification? Market Penetration" table found on page 17? Is this an adjusted distillation of the information contained in Issue 644 of The Nilson Report?
2. In the second paragraph on page 17, The 1997 Check Study reports that "between 4% and 5% of the total value of 1996 retail checks" were outsourced to check authorization and guarantee companies. Can you explain this calculation i.e., what is the source of the 1996 value of retail checks? What is source of the 1996 total value of checks authorized or guaranteed by outsourcers?)
Future of Industry
3. In recent years verification growth is outpacing the growth of guarantee. What is your feeling on the future of the interplay between these two industries?
Questions about CrossCheck
4. Does CrossCheck have a relationship with CheckRite? I thought I saw a press release at some point, but now I have misplaced it. If a relationship exists, can you provide me with any publicly available information?
5. I found the "ChecksByNet" product very intriguing. However, I have one question: If a customer contests the debit generated by the check when it appears on his bank statement, will CrossCheck be able to prove that the client wrote the check or will CrossCheck have to absorb the value of the check?
I appreciate your consideration of my questions, and thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
Grey McLean
Mr. McLean:
The answers that you are looking for:
1. No, as you probably know, Spencer Wilson calls and writes many of us in the industry to get our actual numbers, when we will share, and for our estimates of others. These are my numbers, and they are as good if not better than Spencer's .
2. $255B of the $5T at retail which represents about 10% of the total $50.6T total U.S. checks.
3. Verification appears to out sell Guarantee three to one, due to the market that each product addresses. Verification has always gone after high-volume low-ticket, because the collection results on low ticket are very good, and because this market (Grocery, Petroleum and Wal-Mart, etc.) is very good at managing its own check numbers.
Guarantee, however, has been a high-ticke- low-volume market. This market is more interested in sales than declines and cannot stand to have the decline levels that are inherent in Verification. The risk also can sustain the slightly higher cost of Guarantee. This cost difference is generally due to the difference in hard collections on risky numbers needing to be 70% without consumer collection fees, and low ticket collections relying on collection fees to make money. In addition, the current trend, for organizations like Equifax and FDC (current owners of the old Telecredit and Telecheck) is to try and move the risk of checks back to the retailer. This means that organizations that were once strong Guarantee players are moving base to Verification, some of which are hidden in the form of ECP.
4. CrossCheck transferred their entire Verification base to CheckRite two years ago, and each organization points Verification or Guarantee business at the other. CrossCheck still pays CheckRite for Guarantee business, now that CheckRite belongs to NDC.
5. It is a cost of doing business, and our early experience tells us that it WILL not be a problem that cannot be managed.
Good Selling!SM
Paul Green
To: Greensht:
I would like to get some info on where I could buy your publication.
Thank you
Gene Miller
Gene,
You can purchase a subscription on-line by using a check, Visa, MasterCard or American Express. You can also call 1 (800)757-4441 and we will bill you.
Glad you found us on-line.
Good Selling!SM
Paul H. Green
Editor-In-Chief
Dear Paul,
Perhaps your readers know or perhaps they don't. Discover has a direct fax line for merchants looking to accept Discover Card. To the best of my knowledge, they do not get involved in issuing Visa/MasterCard Merchant Accounts . (Which Discover can do).
They do not charge an application fee and they will fax the Discover MID to the very same office that sends the deal to them.
There is still only an "attaboy/girl" in it for the rep or office but we have been getting less than that from Discover for a long time now.
The phone number is (800)347-3062. The fax number is (800)347-0262 or (614)278-5740.
Just for the record, the last time I spoke with a Discover rep I was calling on behalf of a merchant who needed a customer service phone number.
His response to me was "All I ever get from you is problems. When are you going to send me some business?" Well the fact is, I'm not.
The very company he works for has found a way for the real working reps to get around him and still help the merchant, (which is always the bottom line). Too bad for the good Discover reps though!
Had all of them been grateful to us this wouldn't have happened. Once Discover sees how much volume they can get from an ISO they would be crazy not to form an ESA partnership like AMEX did.
Hope I helped,
Rick D.
Merchant Account Solutions
Rick:
I have had a number of these comments, and yours is very helpful. We have asked Discover to comment on this situation. But they have not as yet.
Good Selling!SM
Paul H. Green
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