Existing Clientele: An Overlooked Revenue Opportunity
By Matt Taylor, CEO, Mercury Payment Systems
I was most impressed at RSPA RetailNOW 2009 to discover that POS businesses are focusing on growth during challenging economic times, rather than being overly concerned about their bottom line. The POS community is fully engaged in finding new ways to innovate in order to succeed.
For example, some resellers and developers, sensitive to decreased availability of spending capital, have restructured payment plans to lower merchants’ upfront costs. Others are selling service plans to improve customer satisfaction and retention. Still others are successfully expanding or adding services and product lines, such as recommending payment processing during a new system sale or upgrade.
What resellers seem to overlook is their existing base of clients who don’t want to upgrade or buy a new system, but may still need a product or service such as electronic card payments. I call this strategy “installed base conversion.” Perhaps a merchant has yet to offer a plastic payment option to their customers, or are unsatisfied with their current processor. Either situation presents a perfect opportunity for a POS reseller to recommend a vendor of choice. They position themselves as a value-added technology expert with their customer. The feel-good result for both resellers and merchants is customer satisfaction and loyalty; the financial perk is increased income.
Many of Mercury’s top partners are successful because they have made endorsing integrated payment processing to their current clientele as part of their primary sales strategy.
Explore the revenue potential of your existing clientele base. Focus on converting merchants to your vendor of choice, independent of selling POS systems. You might find that it helps offset lower revenue in other areas of your business.
About Mercury Payment Systems
Mercury Payment Systems is an integrated transaction processing company created to enhance point-of-sale systems by offering credit, debit, check, gift card and loyalty processing. Mercury’s integrated Internet protocol (IP) or dial-up processing solutions are fast, reliable and affordable. Retailers can leverage the reliability and enhanced efficiency of integrated payment processing to increase productivity and customer satisfaction. Mercury Payment Systems helps resellers increase their opportunities with reseller support and superior technology. For more information call 800-846-4472, ext. 1820 or go to www.MercuryPay.com.