4 Solutions for Pizza Shop Processing – How to Sell Merchant Services to Pizza Shops

Grab the attention of pizza shop owners by customizing your pitch.  They will love you when you fix these four, big, specific problems.  Be the hero and make the sale.  This episode is very specific.  I’m not targeting quick service restaurants.  I’m targeting just pizza shops!  There are four problems which are universal for ALL pizza shops.  Understanding these will help you customize your pitch and know how to sell merchant services to pizza shop owners. 

Read the previous article here:  http://bit.ly/2AjIjDq  How to Target Specific Business Types Selling Merchant Services

This episode is not for you if you want to pitch websites.  Don’t try to sell web design, online ordering, or point of sale system and then add merchant services.  It won’t work!  Selling merchant services will be much harder using that strategy.  You must focus on the end goal.  Focus on what you want to sell.

#1.  The biggest payment processing problem for pizza shops is the per transaction fee. This matters for pin debit and check card/credit card transactions.  Do some basic research on the Durbin Amendment.  You’ll want to discuss it with shop owners.  This Amendment enforced a $0.22 per item fee on all check card transactions.  Businesses such as pizza shops do many $10 to $20 transactions.  Twenty-two cents of $10 is 2.2% right off the bat before any percentages, added processor fees, or monthly fees.  This obviously has a huge impact on pizza shops’ profit margin.  Make sure when looking at statements to notice pin debit transactions.  These may be on a separate statement.  If shops are accepting pin debit, they might be doing 20% or 30% of their transactions that way.  I’ve seen pin debit per item fees as high as $0.50.  That is 5% of their total revenue on a $10 order.

Find out the lowest your processor will allow on the transaction fee.  Here’s an example of your opening pitch.  “The reason I’m coming by today is I have a special program for pizza shops.  Here is our brochure about it.  We believe pizza shops have a unique set of challenges when accepting electronic forms of payment.  We cover those in our special pizza shop payment processing program.  The first challenge every pizza shop owner faces is these per item fees.  Often people less experienced in the industry will talk to you about your percentages or your non-qualified rate.  Those things matter a little bit, but what you are paying per item is the most important thing to consider.  Since you have smaller transaction sizes, the per item fee will kill you.  You need it to be as low as possible.  The good news is our program does that for you!”

#2.  Often pizza shops have long lines.   Two or three times per day there is a surge of customers.  If shops deliver, there are also phone orders coming in surges.  This creates complications in the central location.  A phone order may come in right where another customer is trying to place his order.  While one employee is trying to swipe a card for payment, another one is keying in an order.  Make the simple operational improvement of pulling the phone sales off the terminal and onto a gateway.  Usually the owner will have at least a laptop in the shop where you can set up a gateway.  Using the same one as your processor is fine.  Autorize.net is the most common one.  Owners and workers will love you for this simple fix!

 A gateway set-up may also lower the shop’s total payment processing fees by 10 to 20 basis points.  By separating phone orders, information can be gathered more easily and correctly.  There are more secure transactions and more protection against chargebacks.  A gateway system will save owners a lot of money.

#3.  Some shops still have outdated, dial-up terminals.  Twenty people stand in line while the terminal takes fifteen seconds to dial out and dial back.  You will be the hero if you get them an updated terminal and connect to the internet.  The internet takes about a second to complete a transaction.

#4.  Some shops need technology upgrade.  Smaller pizza shops are great candidates for the Poynt terminal.  They need a basic system which connects to the internet and is wireless.  There are some very good apps on the Poynt terminal.  Check that out for your smaller pizza shop owners.

I hope these tips are helpful.  Making some simple corrections is how to sell merchant services to pizza shops!  Use my information and do additional research yourself to make a program just for pizza shops.  Target them and watch your sales go through the roof!

Read the next article here:  http://bit.ly/2ismwoy  My 3 Tips for Selling Hair and Nail Salons – How to Sell Merchant Services to Hair and Nail Salons.