Avoid the Price War

Avoid the Price War

Feb 12

I rep just emailed me and asked about when people say they are going to show their estimate to their current competitor and see if they will match my rate.  In this particular case the customer had been with their current provider for 3 years and we were saving them $180 per month.  Here is how I handle that.  I say something similar to this every time I leave an estimate with a merchant even if they didn’t say they are going to show it to their current processor because if you leave and don’t close the deal, there is a really good chance they will show your estimate to their current provider.

Bob, I showed you that I could save you $180 plus per month over what you are currently paying XYZ Processing.  That means one of two things.  It could be that their cost structure doesn’t allow them to match my price which makes sense because I am a direct provider rather than a third party and in that case you would obviously want to switch over to me if they can’t match the rate, correct?  They say “Yes.”  You say, The other possibility is actually much worse, they may immediately agree to match my price in an effort to keep your business, in which case you would know that for the last three years they have been overcharging you for these services by $180.00 per month!  That means they have literally taken ($180 x 36) $6,400 in excess profit for their service when they could have easily saved you that money.  If this is the case, and if they are not willing to refund you the $6,400 in overcharges, I’m sure you would never consider staying with a company like that would you?

James Shepherd

james@multi-merchant.com