Why Every Merchant Should Accept Walmart Gift Cards – And Other Major Brands

Today I want to talk to you about why every local merchant should accept Walmart gift cards.  I’m actually going to do a plug for another company, without getting any financial compensation from them!  This is about a great unique solution which you can leverage to provide additional services to merchants.  Reps frequently ask what else they could provide to merchants to add value.

CLICK HERE to Become a Braandz Reseller

The unique solution was created by David Allen of Braandz, who was recently interviewed on our podcast.  Click Here for contact info for David and his team.  I’ll explain the solution and then zoom out to a broader concept of this.  Basically, they have a unique buyers’ network comprised of corporate buyers interested in buying gift cards that have a remaining balance on them.  These buyers are willing to pay 70% to 95% of the value of the gift card to the merchant who accepts it.  This concept integrates with a standard, stand-alone terminal.

So, imagine going into a merchant and saying, “Hey, you know I’m sure you get people stopping by all the time talking to you about credit cards and merchant services.  The reason I stopped by today is to acquaint you with a whole new market and allow you to accept gift cards from Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon, Target, and the major brands.  Anybody can bring in a gift card with an unused balance and swipe it through your terminal to buy something in your store.”  It’s an amazing idea.  Believe me, merchants love this idea.

I just wanted to share that with you because I think it’s really, really cool.  Go to Google and search “merchant sales podcast” to get all the details by listening to the interview.  We are on Itunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, etc.  There are three other reasons which prompted me to share this exciting idea with you.

#1.  Offering this service to merchants is simple for the sales rep.  Someone else will implement all the work once the terminal is in place.  When offering merchants added services to provide value, make sure you offer something simple.  Unless you have someone on your team to do the work, don’t offer complex things.  Offering free websites, for instance, will quickly overload you and take you away from selling.  Don’t offer anything which will keep you from making sales!

#2.  This gift card idea goes right into an Ingenico or Poynt terminal.  Added services offered to merchants must directly integrate with the payment processing.  You can say to a normal merchant with a terminal, “I’m going to give you a new Ingenico terminal which will do your payment processing, and you can run all the gift cards through it.  Now you can do marketing and advertising which says, ‘We accept Walmart gift cards.” Or ‘We accept all major brand gift cards.  Bring them in and use them in our store.’”

Not only is this a unique and exciting idea about which to talk, it is very simple and can be directly integrated.  If merchants accept the gift cards, they will need to switch to your provider because the gift cards go through the terminal.

 #3.  Offering this service won’t slow down the sales cycle time.  If you are going to provide something free, you should do it right along with the normal process, like this idea.  Or you need to be sure merchants understand there is a time line that happens after the sale.  For example, when offering a free website, say,  “If you sign up for our merchant services, we’ll give you a free website.  The way it works is we get you signed up.  Once you process $100 in volume, we start working on your website.  Then it takes about thirty days to complete.”  Makes sure you don’t slow down your sales cycle time.  Rather, leverage extra services to push or shorten the cycle by saying, “This special is only for this week (or this month, etc.)  Act now!”

Too often sales people use complex website marketing programs or point of sale systems which have nothing to do with payment processing.  They’ve managed to put it in front of the merchant services account which spreads out the sales cycle time.  That’s insane!  You want to get paid.  Make more sales, not less!  Make them faster, not slower!  Keep extras simple so you can still get in the field and sell.

Hopefully, those are some tips you’ll keep in mind.  Definitely make sure you go to the merchant sales podcast and listen to that interview.  I promise if you don’t listen to any of our other podcast episodes, that one is going to blow you away.  Imagine that pitch over the phone.  Think of setting an appointment with this line,  “I want to talk to you about accepting all major brand gift cards like Walmart, Target, Home Depot.”  Do you think you could get an appointment like that?  I hope so.