There’s a good chance you’ve encountered some prospects who are tough sells for integrated payment processing. By pointing out the long list of benefits and the new capabilities a feature-rich integrated payments system can provide, however, you can overcome almost any objection.
Include these three facts in your discussions with reluctant prospects:
1. If you aren’t using integrated payments, you’re wasting time and money.
Integrated payment solutions share payment card data with their accounting system. It eliminates the time the merchant spends manually entering credit card information into their accounting application. Integrated payments streamline workflows — the merchant will no longer have to sort through receipts to reconcile records. Furthermore, they won’t have to spend time correcting errors that can occur when re-entering information.
In addition to increasing back-office efficiency and productivity, integrated payment processing can also help the merchant receive payment faster. Automatically sharing payment data with accounting allows funds to be transferred to the merchant’s account as soon as possible.
2. There are integrated payment processing solutions with all of the features you need.
You may encounter a merchant with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude who has an e-commerce or online ordering website, but uses a different payment company for credit card transactions in the store. Along with providing all of the other benefits of integrated payment processing, consolidating payment processing services through one company provides:
One point of contact: When a merchant is using payment solutions from different vendors, it can take longer to get to the bottom of a problem. They may waste time just trying to figure out who to call to get the answers they need. With one payments provider, the merchant will have one main point of contact to help troubleshoot and solve any payments-related issue.
Streamlined reporting: Using different payment companies means the merchant will have payment data from different sources. By using one provider, all payment data from all channels is in one place. It saves time with end of day reports as well as with other reports and recordkeeping. For example, PCI reporting will be quicker and easier with the need to show compliance for only one vendor rather than multiple vendors.
Omnichannel capabilities: A consolidated payment platform allows for data/token sharing across all channels — in-store, online, mobile, and unattended. Moreover, the data from an omnichannel payment solution can provide merchants with insights that they can use to drive more sales and grow their businesses.
3. Feeling comfortable with a payment processing vendor isn’t worth losing business.
Some merchants hang on to long-time relationships with payment processing companies. They may be comfortable with the people they work with or they may be concerned that making a change will disrupt their business operations. But if they’re using an outdated system, they won’t have the payment processing capabilities they need to provide competitive customer experiences.
An omnichannel payment platform enables merchants to provide loyalty-building customer experiences by recognizing them and making transactions as frictionless as possible. Payment data from all channels also helps merchants build a 360-degree understanding of their customers, which can inform more effective merchandising, marketing and service.
An integrated payment processing platform developed with the newest technology will also offer stronger payment data security through a combination of tokenization, point-to-point encryption (P2PE), EMV, and other measures. It can also give merchants options for secure recurring billing.
Tell the Story
Even after the most elegant sales pitch, some prospects may still be skeptical. Have case studies or testimonials ready to share. They’ll add credibility by showing that real business like your prospect’s saved labor costs, reduced the number of errors, and improved cash flow. If you can, include actual statistics, which can help you build a powerful case.
For some merchants, the benefits of integrated payment processing may seem too good to be true. Proof that they are true, however, leaves little rationale for a merchant to say no.
