How a Rep Tripled the Savings For His Merchant – Success Story

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Today I want to share a success story which has ignited our excitement and will blow you away, too!  This is the story of a sales professional who was able to save a merchant more than TRIPLE without lowering rates or margins.

A sales professional with a small office of four or five sub-agents recently set up our Instant Quote Tool.  Ben Shirey, my business partner, was doing a walk through by phone with this rep on a statement with a completed proposal.  They had chosen the business type, entered information for volume (about $100,000 per month for this particular merchant), and gone through the four assumptions in interchange summary.  One assumption concerns percentage of sales which are key entered from phone sales.  In this case, the rep already knew that percentage was 70%.  Upon entering that information, the resulting number was within $10.00 of true interchange savings which the rep had already presented to the merchant on a detailed proposal, offering the merchant savings of $150.00 monthly.  While that is good savings, it was not significant enough for the merchant with that volume to be interested in a change.  However, the rep was excited and reassured that our Instant Quote Tool is accurate.  Because of the new features we just added to the Quote Tool allowing adjustment of such things as percentage of key entered transactions, the figures are dead on accurate as long as you know numbers to enter.

Obviously, the rep was disappointed that the Quote Tool didn’t offer an opportunity for greater savings in order to interest the merchant in a change.  The sales professional mentioned to Ben that he had already suggested to the merchant the possibility of equipping his staff with wireless or EMV terminals in the field so they could swipe cards rather than key entering phone sales.  Although he could assure the merchant some savings by effecting such a change, he had no idea whether the savings would be significant.  Ben immediately recognized the opportunity to use the Instant Quote Tool to tell exactly to the penny how much could be saved.  By changing to 10% key entered sales rather than the previous 70% (a fairly accurate assumption for this merchant’s business), savings went from $150 per month to $550!  The sales professional was able to adjust mark-up so that he could increase the margin and still offer $5,000 to $6,000 annual savings for the merchant.  This rep was now able to print a new proposal and return to the merchant who would most likely spark interest in taking advantage of such significant savings!  Along with benefitting the merchant, the rep will also realize advantage by providing wireless terminals for the transaction.

Here are two reasons I’m sharing that story with you today:

1. Better understanding of the Instant Quote Tool. We’re not trying to digitize statement analysis but to remove it.  The Quote Tool works for any processor.  Although we load starter programs to help you see what we offer and recommend, you will need to load the programs you sell as soon as possible, no matter what processor you use.  We’ll continue striving to improve the Quote Tool, too.
2. Illustrate that the Instant Quote Tool is accurate. We are hearing this over and over since we introduced the new features.  Any business type can be entered, no matter how unique or unusual.  Our algorithm offers enough different criteria – such as percentage of key entered sales, business-to-business transactions, downgrades, etc. – to make better accuracy.

The Main Point Today:  Whether you use our Quote Tool or not (and, of course, I think you should!), PLEASE understand when you see interchange fees, especially for large volume merchants, there is almost always an opportunity for bigger savings by accepting payments in a more cost effective manner.  You should always look at interchange assumptions and look for ways merchants can make changes resulting in savings.  Our Instant Quote Tool allows you to have conversations with merchants to show them benefits of changing their operations.  There is also “Helper Text” available in the Quote Tool to assist you in understanding and define each aspect.  This will help identify big savings you can offer to close the deals!

The more you understand interchange fees, the better opportunities you’ll have.  Next week I will be ready to offer a new training course entitled “Advanced Statement Analysis.”  I will go in depth through the entire interchange table for Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express Opt Blue program, and pin debit transactions.  The course will be high quality screen shot videos and will be free to all our users on instantquote.com.  Go to instantquote.com today to begin your 30 day free trial.  Start putting in your statements and learning how to use the Instant Quote Tool.  We would welcome your feedback, too.  Send an email to support@instantquote.com or simply click on “support” inside the web site.  We’ll be glad to answer any questions, set up your programs, or help with any of your needs.

We are so excited about the Quote Tool!  Every day now we are hearing more and more success stories like the one I just relayed.

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