Today I want to talk to you about the opening pitch that always works when you are selling
merchant services.
When you are out in the field and you are selling merchant services, probably the most
difficult thing for sales people to figure out and to implement is the right opening
pitch.
There is a lot of time, effort, and strategy, even in my cases unfortunately dishonesty
and lying and things that go into the opening pitch because it really is a challenge to
grab the attention of the prospect that you want to talk to.
I want to talk to you today about the three elements of an opening pitch that just always
works every single time.
#1.
Honest information about your business.
I want to break these three words down: honest, information, and your business.
The first thing is honesty.
Be honest about who you are and about your business.
One of the questions I get all the time from people that are just getting into the merchant
services sales.
They are like, “James, I’m brand new to the industry.
What do I say to people?”
You say, “You are brand new to the industry.”
They are like, “No, no, if I do that, it’s not going to sound like I am legitimate.”
You are not going to sound like you know what you are talking about anyway.
Do you know why?
Because you don’t know what you are talking about.
That’s just the way it goes.
Instead of trying to trick them into thinking you are an expert at something you are not,
just tell them that you are just starting a business.
Because you know what?
At one time, they started a business.
They actually can relate to somebody who is being honest about that.
So I always tell people who are brand new to the industry, you walk into businesses.
Make it your goal the first few days to walk into 20 or 30 businesses a day.
Walk in.
“Hi, my name is James Shepherd.
I just started a business here in town.
I got my office over in whatever, or my office is over in this spot.
The reason I’m stopping by today is because I’m just doing some market research.
I’ve got a lot of products and services I’m looking to offer in the payment space,
but I am just kind of curious who are you currently using for your credit card processing?
I would just like to know a little more about the market I’m getting into as you know
when you started your business.
I’m sure it was that kind of struggle of figuring out what to do first and everything.
I’m in that research stage right now.
I just would really like to know a little bit more about payment processing and what
you are doing right now, if you don’t mind.”
That’s a great pitch.
They are going to share information with you.
Why?
Because they understand that.
That’s an honest pitch.
Honest information about your business.
Maybe you are like me.
You’ve been in payment processing forever.
I walk in and say, “Hi, my name is James Shepherd.
I’ve got a business here in town.
I’m closing in on ten years I’ve been doing credit card processing in this area
of Blair County, Altoona, Holidaysburg and Duncansville area.
I’m really excited to meet you.
I know I’ve never been in here before and I really appreciate the time to meet with
me.
Tell me about your processing.
Who are you using today?”
So honesty about your business and about yourself.
That’s the first thing is that honesty.
#2.
Honest information.
What information do you share?
A couple things, first of all, share information about how long you’ve been in business.
Share information about who else you take care of in the area.
Those are really good things to share.
“Hey, I wanted to stop by today.
I do the credit card processing for so and so.”
That’s one other reason by the way that it is so important to get those keystone accounts
in your area.
If I can give you a little tip to help jumpstart your business, if there is like two or three
businesses in your area that everybody knows that business, maybe they are not like a mega
national company, but like a local business that everybody kind of knows that restaurant
or whatever, again go in and be totally honest with them.
There are several businesses I went to early on and I said, “Hey, look.
I’m going to be really honest with you.
I just got into this business.
I do have a processor that is really experienced and all that, so I’m leaning on them heavily
to make sure I’m doing everything correctly, but here is the bottom line.
If you’ve ever looked at like take advantage of somebody to save you money, this is your
opportunity.
I will literally do your processing at almost cost because I want to be able to tell everybody
in the area that you process with me.”
That’s a great pitch.
You are like, “They will never go for that.”
Yes, they will.
They will be like, “Um, tell me more.”
“The key thing is you can’t tell anybody else what you pay.
I’ll do a proposal for you.
I guarantee you it is going to save you tons of money because I literally am not trying
to make money on this account.
I need the reputation.
I know what it is like to start a business and it is all about reputation.
I need the reputation of saying, “I process with you guys.
Like I said, I’m not putting you in a bad spot or giving you any risk.
There is a huge processor behind me,” and give them your processors name and probably
a contact there.
“I’m a little newer, so they are going to be helping me every step of the way to
make sure this is a smooth process, but what you are going to get out of it is basically
an amazing deal in the credit card processing because I just want to tell everybody I process
for you.”
That’s a great pitch.
That will get you a huge sale, and you might even make $50 or $100 bucks a month off of
it, even if you give them a really good price.
That’s an honest pitch.
It’s true.
Honest information about who else you service, about how long you’ve been in business,
about maybe what business you were in before, if that had some relevance to it.
Honest information.
#3.
Your business.
You have to treat your business like a business.
When you talk about your business, don’t talk about you.
You are not the business.
You are building a business.
When you talk to somebody that has a pizza shop, they don’t say, “Hey, great to meet
you.
My name is James Shepherd.
I’m a pizza shop company.”
No, they say, “I have a pizza shop company called Tony’s Pizza.
It’s over on 5th Avenue, or whatever.”
Right?
You have a business.
“Yes, I just started a business.
My office is over here.”
Either get an office, or you have a home office, or whatever it is.
Talk about your business like a business.
You have a vision.
You are going to grow.
You are going to hire people.
You are a business.
You’ve got to talk about it like that.
That’s going to connect with other small business owners.
The first thing you have to do, if you want to make this opening pitch that is always
going to work, is present honest information about your business.
In part 2 of this little mini series, I’m going to share with you the second thing you
have to do to create an opening pitch that always works.
My name is James Shepherd.
Thanks for reading!