Welcome to the newest member of the Transaction World family!
"Acquiring Minds" is a new monthly feature dedicated to issues that
registered ISO/MSPs deal with every day.
I volunteered to host this
column because I believe that we can help each other build better
businesses and secure our place as the most valuable, innovative,
influential, and profitable group in the acquiring business. I'm a big
believer in "co-opetition" � in cooperating and collaborating with
people that we compete with every day. One of the funny things that
people find out about me is that some of my best friends in the world
are also some of my most fierce competitors.
Every day, I have
conversations with people that run businesses just like my company,
Total Merchant Services. What's so interesting to me is that we
quickly realize we're all living the same lives and face the same
day-to-day issues. There's a lot of common ground. Whether it's
conversations with leasing providers, equipment providers or credit
card processing partners, the discussions always focus on similar
areas of challenge and opportunity.
Responding to those discussions,
"Acquiring Minds" will talk about those areas of common ground. In
this introductory article, I've set forth some of the issues that are
in the forefront of our industry. Subsequent monthly articles will
look at them in depth. However, in order to effectively achieve the
goal of delivering timely and relevant information to everyone, I ask
for your feedback on each issue as well as topic suggestions. Let's
share opinions.
One area that immediately comes to mind is merchant losses. We all can
easily agree there's nothing more important in the acquiring business
than controlling merchant credit losses and combating fraud. The
criminals do not think we're smart enough to get together and share
information to stop them...and that will be their undoing. They do not
realize that risk management groups are communicating with each other
every day via telephone and email, that they formed the MAC Users
Group as a central exchange of information and that one of the
initiatives adopted is credit inquiries that identify the inquiry as a
bankcard acquirer with "ACQ" at the end of the name.
Hand in hand with
merchant losses is the common ground of bad sales reps. Although we
all realize that it's not a great idea to share information on good
sales reps, we do know how much damage one bad sales rep can do to one
company � let alone to our entire industry. In the same way that risk
management groups have gotten together, the people responsible for
recruiting and training new sales reps for ISO/MSPs need to get
together as well to create their own "negative" list. I suggest that a
group similar to the MAC Users Group be created to prevent bad sales
reps from jumping from acquirer to acquirer. To do so, we'll need a
good group of ISO/MSPs as well as a good group of point- of-sale
leasing company providers.
Another area that we all are involved with
is vendors. We all need to establish the same set of vendor partner
relationships. This includes agreements with credit card processing
companies, sponsor banks, point of sale equipment providers, software
providers, Internet Gateway providers, wireless service providers,
check conversion and guarantee providers, gift card and loyalty
providers, leasing companies, employee placement companies, business
financing pro-viders and such. Effective vendor selection involves
everyone engaging in due diligence, an issue that will be discussed in
depth in a future column.
Perhaps the most common ground is staffing
and hiring. We're all looking for a few good men and women. Potential
employees are more specific on what they are looking for as well. Some
people are looking to live in certain areas of the country while
others are looking for certain areas of administration. Staffing and
hiring is a common ground area where sharing of information could help
us all fill positions. We've referred people to our competitors who
didn't perfectly meet our needs and we've received many referrals in
return that have worked out for our staffing requirements. Making it a
point of letting colleagues know what positions are available is good
business practice and one I strongly recommend.
But, by far, one of
the most compelling common ground issues is compliance with Visa,
MasterCard and the Federal Trade Commission. We all have the same
concerns with regard to making sure we stay in compliance with Visa
and MasterCard's rules. What are Visa and MasterCard concerned about
right now? What are the areas they are trying to fix? Is it sales reps
using d/b/a names that are not registered or using wrong SIC codes to
avoid paying the correct interchange for hotels, motels and other
lodging establishments. What's happening with the Federal Trade
Commission? What do we need to do to make sure we avoid any problems
with the FTC as well as Visa and MasterCard? Perhaps some of the
answers can be found with our premier association, ETA. They have
recently published a "best of practices" guide. It's something
everyone should review. However, let's dive a little deeper into this
issue. Let's get some feedback from you on problems you've experienced
so we can all get a heads up on what's happening right now.
In summary, the bottom line common ground is maximizing the value of
the businesses we're building. "Acquiring Minds'" purpose is to help
us get together on these issues and build more profitable, better
managed businesses in an industry that can only benefit from
cooperation, support and solid business practices. I am very proud to
be part of this industry. I am proud to be part of an extraordinary
world of entrepreneurs. I look forward to hearing from you as to what
you'd like to receive. Share your thoughts with us for what you would
like to read in our future columns by e-mailing the Transaction World
editor, [email protected]
"It is a fact that in the right formation, the lifting power of many
wings can achieve twice the distance of any bird flying alone." - Anonymous.
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