Taking Inventory of Your Merchant Services Processing Business

Good Wednesday morning everyone. Now that we are being held accountable and are on a schedule to be successful we need to take an inventory of our product
offering. I was in an office supply store the other day and noticed several employees counting pencils. Yes, they were literally counting pencils. Since I used to work in retail and managed a dollar store it brought back horrific memories of staying late and counting inventory in preparation for inventory day to arrive.

I had almost forgotten all those long hours and all the product resets we had to do. Those are the times when retail stores determine what items remain in their inventory, what supplies they need to purchase, and what items just aren’t selling. The remaining supply will define their next sales promotion and identify their best sellers.

This is an important step for any business. You need to know if you have sufficient stock of your high demand items, as well as know which product is being a “shelf hog,” meaning the item that is taking up space which could be better served for something else. Once identified, these shelf hogs can be sold at a discount and new products with higher demand – and hopefully a higher return – can fill their place.

For those of us in the credit card processing business, it is important that we do an inventory as well. No, you don’t need to count the number of applications you have printed and the availability of pen refills. But you do need to inventory your product, identify your high demand items, and see which low demand products can be put on the back burner.

I might be going out on a limb here, but I would wager to say that most people who sell credit card processing have probably never done an inventory. As a result, they’ve probably been using the same sales plan since they started in the merchant services business. However, when a need arose, they found a source or product to fit the need. As a result, their product toolbox literally weighs 200 pounds.

I think it would be wise to complete an inventory, revise your sales plan and approach, and reduce the burden of your sales toolbox by eliminating any shelf hogs. Now before you balk at my suggestion in fear that this process will take days, let me assure you that it will probably take one hour or less.

When conducting your merchant services inventory, there are two areas you should consider, depending on how you primarily market your credit card processing business.

In both cases, the inventory is completed by asking yourself a series of questions. Telemarketing has the same questions as Face to Face, with a few others added in. Let’s focus today on Face to Face.

Face to Face

After you complete your inventory, be sure to fix any issues and if necessary, learn the product knowledge you lack. This way you are sure to find the time devoted to your inventory well spent.

Have you ever conducted an inventory of the services you sell through your credit card processing business?

What impact did it have on the services that are part of your toolbox?

Are you offering   any of these 10 tools below,