When selling merchant services in Canada, you really have only one goal and that goal is to beat the banks. The 5 major banks in Canada have a controlling share of the market. In fact, in the mind of most Canadian business owners, merchant services is part of banking. Because of this, your job is to educate your clients so that they will see the benefits of leaving the bank for merchant services and switching to you. So how do you accomplish this? By doing two things:
#1 – Separate: You must start by educating your client on the possibility of separating merchant services from the bundle of other services their bank currently provides to them. Don’t focus as much on getting them to sign up with you as simply getting them to agree that leaving the bank is a possibility if the value proposition is right.
You can say things like, “Mr. Jones, right now I am not trying to get you to join my processing company today, my true mission is simply to educate small business owners on the fact that the banks have a monopoly on merchant services and that needs to end because it is driving up prices and lowering the level of service they receive. I am a local business owner just like you and I believe that if I can compete with the banks and provide a better value, I should have an equal chance to earn your business, wouldn’t you agree with that?”
#2 – Differentiate: Now that you have their curiosity peaked, you must be able to offer something better, something different in order to entice them into taking a chance on you. On our team, we have chosen to do two things in order to accomplish differentiation.
First of all, we try to minimize risk on the merchant services side by giving them a free loaner terminal and a month to month agreement. This really makes it much easier for them to try us out since they don’t have to spend a lot of money on equipment and/or sign a long term agreement in order to make the switch.
Secondly, we offer other services to show that we offer a full suite of business services. We provide web design and online presence programs as well as point of sale systems that will help them better manage their business. The web design in particular is an effective way to get your foot in the door if you can’t get someone to budge on the merchant services and then you can always come back around to merchant services later.
I hope this article was a help to you, please click on “Join Our Team” above to learn more about joining our Canadian sales team or comment below with any thoughts, sales tips or questions you may have.
Have a great day!
James Shepherd