Good Monday morning everyone. One of the most damaging thing you can do to your merchant portfolio is not installing and activating your merchants quickly and correctly. For some reason many merchant sales people procrastinate the install process.
With out a doubt this will be very damaging to your merchant relationships because not only do they lose trust in you they also experience buyers remorse, there are also 3 specific issues that delaying activation can cause that will harm your portfolio and kill your cash flow as a merchant sales professionals, right when you are trying to get started!
#1 – Charge backs / Clawbacks / Buybacks. Whatever you call them, every processor has them and none of us what to have one, they will eat up your cash flow fast. For most processors, if you do not have the merchant account activated within 60 days, meaning they are processing a certain amount of credit card volume, the processor will take back the up front “Approval Bonus” that was paid to you. Don’t get caught in this trap! When you make a sale, get it installed / activated quickly.
#2 – Residuals. If you want your residuals to build, you need your merchants to process. If you are waiting 30 to 60 days on average to get your merchants processing,( Yes, I heard this on Saturday) you are delaying your own income by that amount of time. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your residuals will grow if you get your merchants processing quickly.
#3 – Inactive Fees / Attrition. One thing I have learned is that the majority of cancellations and attrition for a merchant sales professional happen due to inactive fees and buyers remorse. Remember on one last weeks articles we discussed that most processors have monthly minimums, statement fees and other fees that are charged to a merchant regardless of their processing volume. Even if they don’t process anything, they will probably get charged $30-$40 or more depending on your processor. I have found that these fees will erode trust. They don’t make sense to the merchant and they feel you scammed them by charging them for nothing. Get the terminal installed quickly so when they get their first batch of fees, they are already using processing with you.
I know what it feels like to need that next sale, that next bonus and residual check but please take the extra time to ensure that your last sale gets installed quickly and correctly the first time so you can truly move on to make your next sale, and perhaps even get some referrals to help you continue to grow your merchant portfolio.
Share some tips on how you handle installs, email me below.
Payment Lynx Daily 