How to Maximize Portfolio Growth During Summer Months

The payment processing industry provides a unique opportunity to agents and ISO owners.  We build recurring streams of revenue that allow us to unplug while still making an income.  I celebrate this!  In fact, every summer I take several weeks off, completely unplugged, to spend with my family.  I know many of you do the same thing.

However, summer isn’t just about kicking back and taking it easy.  If you approach it correctly, the summer of 2022 can be a time of huge growth for your portfolio. 

I like to think of my summer as a time of extreme focus.  I take several weeks to focus entirely on my family.  I also take a good chunk of the summer to focus on growing my business.

Why should you focus on growth this summer?  Because there are several time-sensitive opportunities in payment processing that are first come, first serve.  The early adopters of these new trends are going to reap big rewards. 

In this edition of the Merchant Sales Insight, I want to discuss what I perceive as the three biggest opportunities that will allow you to see significant portfolio growth during the next 90 days.  Enjoy your vacation time. Spend quality time with your family and friends. But also take some time to secure your financial future. Position yourself for success in 2023 and beyond by focusing on these three opportunities.

1.  Dual Pricing

Over the next 90 days, you will see serious shifts in the cash discount / surcharge landscape.  As Visa cracks down on what it considers “non-compliant cash discounting / surcharging”, merchants and acquirers will begin to receive notices from the card brands. 

This is the perfect opportunity for shifting to a compliant alternative to these programs. One such alternative is the “Edge” program offered by this week’s sponsor, North American Bancard.  By leveraging technology to provide a cash and card price to the consumer at the point of sale, you can bypass all the confusion and grey area existing around what is and is not a compliant cash discount / surcharge program. 

Not only are these programs extremely profitable from a residual perspective, North American Bancard is currently offering up-front bonuses, free equipment options, and profit true ups, as well as a special promotional program that kicks off June 1st. They want to motivate their agents to kick into overdrive and get deals submitted right out of the gate this summer.

By the time you return from your “summer off”, you will find many of your competitors have already shifted to dual pricing or similar approaches.  

Why should you focus on growing your portfolio this summer?  Because the concept of passing the cost of processing to the consumer is changing rapidly. Change means opportunity.  You should go out aggressively in your market with a compliant, dual price program. Find every merchant doing non-cash adjustments and offer an alternative.  If you want to capture this profitable market share, you must move quickly.

2.  Integrated Payments

Hardly a week passes that I don’t speak with a new software / point of sale company looking for consulting services to help them roll out their own payment processing solution.  With dual pricing, cash discounting, surcharging, and other payments-related opportunities, the profits are too big to ignore.

How many of your merchants with a stand-alone terminal are going to leave you this summer?  One thing for sure:  every single one of your merchants will see multiple Facebook ads and advertisements in industry publications for specific software solutions that meet their needs.  You can also be sure that every one of these software options either has payments integrated today, or will in the near future.

North American Bancard is well known for its suite of integrations from their own, in-house Pay Anywhere solution, to their library of POS integration partners.  Make sure you are ready to take advantage of the remaining window of opportunity that exists to help merchants upgrade to technology that will work for them.

Not every merchant is ready to upgrade to an advanced software or point of sale solution. However, there are two things I believe you should consider, even for these merchants.  

When your merchants do eventually see a feature or software that peaks their interest, they should be coming to you to explore their options.  If they think of you simply as the payments person, they will switch to another software provider and eventually kick you to the curb.  However, if they think of you as a solutions provider who understands how to maximize the results at the point of sale, they will be with you for many years to come.

Take some time this summer to offer integrated payments!  Go after existing and new clients and learn more about their needs. 

3.  B2B Payments

I have talked about this so many times in the past. I still can’t believe how few agents have landed a large B2B account. These accounts are incredibly profitable, but you can also add tremendous value to the merchant.

Let’s start with the basics.  A “B2B” merchant is simply a business that accepts payments (usually large payments) from another business.  When you think about your pizza shop or hair salon merchant, ask yourself where these businesses spend their own money?  Where do they use their cards?

Any business that is accepting payments from other businesses is a prospect.  Our sponsor this week, North American Bancard, recently acquired Paytrace.  Paytrace has been one of my favorite B2B gateways for years.  I love this acquisition and the integrations which have already been made.  Paytrace auto-fills important information when the transaction is submitted in order to achieve lower interchange costs.

Imagine going to a merchant who is processing $5,000,000 per month with a $1,000 average ticket.  Let’s say the merchant is priced at 10 basis points and 5 cents.  The current margin on the account is $5,250.  With traditional processing, you might try and reduce the rates to 5 and 5, cutting your margin almost in half!

By leveraging technology offered by Paytrace / North American Bancard, you might be able to reduce this merchant’s interchange cost by 20 basis points.  This savings can be translated into margin.  You might come back to this merchant and offer to take them to 15 basis points and 5 cents. That’s right, you raise the processing fees! Yet, you save the merchant $7,500 per month!

How is this possible?  You lowered the merchant’s cost of interchange by submitting more information with the transactions, which allows these transactions to qualify for a better interchange category like “Level 2” or “Level 3.”  This can be done automatically by partnering with the Paytrace gateway.

Just like summer, B2B is heating up!  The landscape has become more competitive. I believe the next few months will be crucial if you want to get a head start on your competition and learn how to dominate these profitable verticals.  One reason I asked North American Bancard to sponsor this edition of the Merchant Sales Insight, is that I saw their new bonus program tied to B2B merchants.  NAB recognizes the long-term value of these accounts and is offering large up-front bonuses and profit true ups, in addition to competitive, lifetime residuals.

As you dive into B2B payments this summer, you will immediately be struck by the massive opportunity that exists right now.  With the right partner that has the integrations you need to succeed, and the software to automate interchange optimization, you can build serious profitability and longevity into your portfolio over the next 90 days.

Our Sponsor

North American Bancard is offering a special promotion for June 2022. 

About North American Bancard

 North American Bancard is re-imagining the payment experience. As a leading payment technology innovator, NAB has a diversified product platform that provides a modern end-to-end infrastructure to enable globally-preferred payment types. NAB’s superior solutions deliver seamless payments experiences in mobile, e-commerce, and in-store environments. Serving hundreds of thousands of businesses and with over $100 billion per year in electronic transaction volume, NAB delivers functional, feature-rich and frictionless solutions for the evolving merchant economy.

 Perhaps one of NAB’s most exciting recent announcements is the acquisition of PayTrace, a B2B gateway that offers Level 2 and Level 3 processing, enabling significant savings on B2B and B2G transactions, as well as a whole host of other features.

 Other offerings from NAB include its Edge Cash Discount program, which allows for the same profit margins from cash payments and non-cash payments alike, as well as its all-in-one payments platform, Pay anywhere, which offers payment processing solutions for mobile, retail, and quick-serve merchants, along with customer and employee management.

 And, to round out the resources, NAB launched its Payments Hub Developer Portal at the end of last year. The portal is a free, one-stop destination to learn about integrations, view product information, and connect directly with NAB’s Technical Sales and Engineering teams.

 NAB sales partners also enjoy industry leading compensation plans, as well as their award-winning bonus program.

• $600 upfront bonuses
• 14x profitability multipliers
• $10,000 cap
• Shopping malls

 NAB will be launching a summer promotion, so keep an eye out for additional emails and details!

Want to learn more? CLICK HERE to learn how you can become a partner!