One of the core principles we should use to sell in this business is a simple premise that says, “Accepting credit cards will earn you
money not cost you money”. You can usually get most people to
understand this by asking a few simple questions that you can answer yourself. First, do you believe that consumers buy from merchants that give them the products and services that they want? Not many people will say no to that. Of course we all buy from the business that gives us what we want, at the price we want with the service we want. So the answer here is surely yes.
Second, ask that when you’re going out to buy something do you normally know how you wish to pay for it?
Again almost everyone says yes. When I’m going to make most purchases
I know how I “prefer” to pay for that product and service. Whether
it is by Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, Check, ATM Card, Prepaid Gift Card, Cash or trading 3 goats for a bushel of apples.
So Mr. or Mrs. Merchant what you’re saying is, #1 People will gravitate to merchants who offer them what they want and #2 Most people “prefer” to pay for things a certain way.
So what we’re really saying is that people will gravitate to
merchants that offer them the payment choices that they prefer!
That’s tough to argue with. If you don’t accept goats then your
bushel of apples may begin to rot before someone comes along and buys
it. So as a merchant, unless accepting goats cost far more or is
much riskier than accepting other forms of payment, it would make sense to accept the 3 goats for your bushel of apples.
A good way to drive this point home with most people at this point is to ask the following, Right now if I wanted to make a $50 purchase at your store and all I had was $48 would you let me leave or would we do business? Again the vast majority of merchants have more than
2% margin in whatever it is they do and would gladly take the deal.
Because remember, if the product cost them
$35 and they sold it for $48 instead of $50, it didn’t cost them $2
it really earned them $13. In business that’s what it’s all about.
When you do a transaction are you better off for it?
Now most of the forms of payment that we offer in the end come out to be some low fixed monthly fees, coupled with a transaction fee, a percentage rate or both. In reality the equipment or software to process most of these transactions is not a big investment. So let’s say that for $10 or $25 per month in equipment and $10 to $20 per month in fixed fees a merchant can accept just about any form of payment. So all credit cards, checks or gift cards can easily be achieved for $30 to $75 per month and then the only investment is when someone buys something from them. Meaning they earn money. The downside of giving the customer as many choices as possible is very
low for the merchant and the upside cannot be measured. Because as
we all know “you seldom get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression.
Although those customers that “preferred” to pay a certain way may be forced to pay the way the merchant wanted, you can be assured that many of them will not be back. Going with the initial premise of this article they will surely find someone that accepts the form of payment they want to use and spend their money there.
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