Most commercials bore me, but recently I saw one that caught my interest.
The spokesman gave the usual spiel, selling his brand and talking about how things are run today, but then he finished with something different. He said, “Why do we continue to do things the same way and never try anything different?”
Why did this statement stick with me? It’s simple. For a long time, his statement has been my business philosophy. I believe if your competition is doing something, you need to do something different.
A Copycat Industry
Merchant credit card processing is a business of copycats. There isn’t much to differentiate the various players. And there’s an entire group of players selling merchant card services that have been dubbed “me too” companies because they offer the exact same services. Often, the only thing that they differ on is cost.
Start With The Sales Call
Don’t be a “me too” company. Differentiate yourself from the copycats, starting with your sales calls. When you introduce yourself to potential clients, don’t lead with the standard line, “Show me your statement, and I’ll show you how much money I can save you.”
Instead, take a softer approach. Say something like, “I heard about your business, and I just thought I’d stop by and see if we’re a good fit for each other. Maybe we could be partners.”
If the merchant hands you his statement automatically out of habit, fend it off and take control of the situation.
Say something like: “Don’t show me that just yet. We don’t really know each other, and I’m not sure we should even do business together yet.”
Do you see how that approach is different? You’re doing something unexpected, and this puts you in complete control of the sales call. And because you’re doing something that your competition doesn’t do, you’ll be memorable, too.
Few sales managers teach this approach, mostly because we’re creatures of habit. We do things the same way over and over, and eventually we forget that another way even exists.
Because you’ve been approaching sales calls the same way for a long time, it may be hard to adopt this new approach. The easiest way is to keep in mind that no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to sign every merchant. You can only explain your services and take them through the sales process step by step.
If you can do that, you’ll see that it stops many merchants short–but not in a bad way. They’ll see that you’re not the same old merchant card services salesperson that they always deal with, so they’ll open up to you. This will make everything easier.
Do you have other ways of separating yourself from the pack in the merchant credit card processing business?