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Education

StreetSmarts SM

“Starting in the Street

and ending at the

Merchant’s front door”
Steve Norell

Targeting, researching, planning, executing

By Steve Norell
US Merchant Services Inc. I have never understood

or the entire time I have been in this industry why MLSs, in general, do not
(which seems like forever) the one thing that practice, train and study when
has driven me crazy is the lack of ability on the it comes to both the merchants
F part of merchant level salespeople (MLSs) to use
targeting, researching, planning and executing (TRPE) or they are approaching and our
a similar system that would enable them to be organized, industry as a whole. Doctors are
consistent and effective in their careers.
always studying. Athletes are
"A common area of weakness with many companies is
the absence of a systematic approach to selling," Wendy always training. Attorneys are
Maynard, co-founder of the Kinesis Inc. marketing firm always practicing.
wrote in "7 essential ingredients to create a remarkable
selling system" published on the company's blog.
"Most businesses lack a pre-defined, step-by-step set of of TRPE. In all fairness, I don't know many ISOs that go
interactions that their salespeople take prospects through out to visit every MLS in person to train them on this sort
in order to qualify and convert them. Instead, each of thing. It would be cost prohibitive.
salesperson operates by intuition, which means there is
no consistency or scalability." TRPE explained

Maynard's observation may be especially true of merchant Here's how I approach the art of TRPE:
services. We are an industry that revolves around the • Targeting: How many MLSs even have a target
independent contractor, and the accent is on independent. list of merchants or merchant types they want to
Most merchant level salespeople (MLS) do not treat this obtain? My experience is that most MLSs just use
job as a full-time thing. Many use the payments industry dumb luck to pick or choose the merchants they
merely as a source of incremental income. If they make sell to.
a few bucks great; if not, then they move on to the next
venture. I was told years ago that the national average of • Researching: What MLSs research the merchant
deals written by MLSs is one per month. If this is true, they want to sell to? Do they find out who the own-
then my point is made that most MLSs are part time at er is? Do they check the state of a prospect's web-
best. site to ascertain the type of business it is? Do they
Because of this, most MLSs never practice the art of TRPE. determine how the merchant currently processes
In some cases, this is not the MLS's fault. Often the ISOs cards and who the current processor is? And do
that agents write for do not train them to practice the art they identify what the merchant's primary pain
point is likely to be and how to fix it?

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