Leave it to ISOs and agents to turn almost anything into a sales opportunity, even the Payment Card Industry data-security standards.
Merchants often disregard PCI or grudgingly go along with PCI audits, but in the hands of skilled sales reps the standards become a selling tool.
The key to turning drudgery into opportunity is in convincing the prospect that the ISO simply handles PCI better than the competition, says Drew Freeman, president of Miami Beach, Fla.-based Merchant Data Systems Inc.
That sort of pitch has become important in recent years because the days have ended when agents could succeed merely by selling a terminal and signing up a merchant for a processing contract, says Greg Leos, vice president of payment partner programs for Trustwave, a Chicago based data-security and compliance-services provider.
Those basic services no longer sway merchants who receive many offers from sales agents, Leos says. Now agents have to entice merchants with offers of gift cards, prepaid cards, check acceptance and integrated point-of-sale terminals, he notes.
“Part of that expertise has to be security and PCI compliance,” Leos notes. Merchants should look to their agent as their payments expert, he continues.
Besides working as a differentiator with prospective clients, PCI can provide a reason to call on established accounts and reaffirm the relationship, Leos says.
Agents should know how to talk to merchants about the risks of data breaches and the consequences, says Leos. “That a dry cleaner that could $10,000 to $50,000 in fines and costs,” he notes.
Making the client aware of how to avoid such risks can become an opportunity to retain a customer, Leos says.
