What to Expect Your First 30 Days Selling Merchant Services

So you are thinking about starting a career selling credit card processing but you just don’t know what to expect.  I have found one major obstacle to success for many sales partners is their unrealistic expectations.

Here are 5 things you should expect your first 30 days:

#1 – Expect to start a business not a job. 

Some sales partners come from a W2 background where they were tightly managed with set hours, stable income and free resources like a cell phone, gas money, company car, etc.  Starting a career in merchant services is like starting a business with excellent long term potential, but with an initial investment of time and money for the basic necessities.  We do not require any up front investment to get started but you do need to have a phone, gas money, etc.

#2 – Expect to Prospect 40 Hours Per Week. 

You have heard the saying that time is money, well money is also time and unless you have some serious savings, the odds are you need to start generating money quickly to buy yourself more time and this means you need to start prospecting right away.  You still have to build your pipeline, conduct follow up visits, close the sale, and get the paperwork done so even if you start prospecting on day one, it could take you 2 to 3 weeks to get paid for your first deal.  If you take two weeks to “Figure things out” you might end up running out of savings before you are even able to give it a shot.

#3 – Expect lots and lots of rejection. 

This is a sales career not an order taking career.  It all starts with a sales partner getting out in the field 8 hours a day, 5 days per week and making real life connections.  If you are willing to put in a lot of effort, walking into businesses and making connections you will succeed in this business and make a very good income, both in up front money and long term residual as long as you partner with a quality processing company.  Keep in mind that this is a competitive industry and so without experience or references, your first 30 days, you will hear about 30 “No’s” for every “Yes.” (Read “How Many Merchants Told You ‘No’ this Week”)

#4 – Expect to Make Long Term, Valuable Connections.

Although you should make 1 to 3 sales your first 30 days in the business, these will most likely be smaller, single location deals and business owners that are either new or unsatisfied with their current provider.  In addition to these quick sales, look for those business owners that are interested in getting to know you better but not necessarily ready to buy from you right now.  Don’t let your desperation to make a quick sale cause you to miss or ignore these important connections with owners or managers of medium size or multiple location businesses.  Over the next 3 to 6 months, these early connections may represent thousands of dollars in income.

#5 – Expect to Build a Solid Pipeline.

This is probably the most important point and the one most often ignored.  Keep in mind that your first few sales will probably not be a result of your incredible sales ability or grasp of your services.  Instead, they be a result of you playing the numbers game.  Use this time to start building your CRM database. You need to make sure that every business you walk into is recorded in real time with the business name, owners name, phone number, notes from the visit and most importantly an email address so you can stay connected.

Make it a great day!
James Shepherd