More than $1 trillion in payments volume has shifted to vertical software companies over the past 5 years, says Caleb Avery, CEO at Tilled, and that figure continues to grow as software companies discover the value of payments monetization. Learn what ISOs and agents can do to take advantage of this trend. Plus James describes strategies for growing your ISO/agent business.

In today's episode, James interviews the CEO of CCStorage, a property management software company for Self Storage Properties. This is a company James owns and so the two share an insightful and transparent look at what it takes to build your own vertical specific software company with integrated payments. James follows up this interview with his thoughts on partnering with ISV's versus building your own.

First, we had software-as-a-service. Now we’re seeing a similar phenomenon with hardware.

Hardware-as-a-service is a great model that everybody in merchant services should be thinking about.

Lavu, the sponsor of this Merchant Sales Insight, has paired the HaaS model with its restaurant management solutions, to drive significant revenue opportunities for sales reps. One reason why is that HaaS is a better deal for business owners

To learn more about offering hardware-as-a-service and about Lavu’s reseller program, visit ccsalespro.com/lavu. You can read James’s latest blog post on the topic here: https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/hardware-as-a-service-anew-pos-paradigm

Streamlining merchant onboarding can be a challenge, especially with quick service restaurants, which, not surprisingly, put a lot of emphasis on simplicity and speed.

Here are four keys to streamlining POS installations for QSRs..

(1) Seamless merchant account set-ups

(2) Free equipment, or at least no upfront investment required for new hardware

(3) Deployment processes and procedures designed for smooth set-ups

(4) An intuitive user experience for Admin

Snack POS, the sponsor of this Merchant Sales Insight, has really streamlined the POS installation process for QSRs. If you want to see what that looks like, visit ccsalespro.com/snack.

Learn the ins and outs of selling payment processing to card not present merchants who use quickbooks for accounting, and need a reliable invoicing system. James is joined by Garima Shah, President at Biller Genie as they discuss the unique needs of merchants who invoice for payment and how Biller Genie serves these merchants with a processor agnostic system that supports all major gateways while synchronizing data with Quickbooks.

In last week's episode, James discussed the macro trends in the industry. Today, he shares the four biggest opportunities in payments that should be considered as you map out your competitive strategy for the next 5 to 10 years. He talks about card not present, B2B, ISV Partnership, and local W2 teams, with insights and practical steps to explore these opportunities.

In this special, two-part episode of the Merchant Sales Podcast, James shares seven important trends in the payments space of which you should be aware and which should impact your strategy. We talk about the industry as a whole and how software, capital, and alternate payment methods (among other trends) are changing the landscape.

Discover how to optimize day-to-day operations and scale up a white-glove approach to customer service through the marriage of tech and payments in this far-reaching conversation with Sebastian Builes, Co-Founder and CEO at Arcum. Plus, you're not going to want to miss James's demonstration of how ISOs and agents can use Chat GPT to grow their merchant portfolios.

Visa has been on a tear, issuing fines to acquirers that "trickle down" to ISOs and agents, who typically don't know what's going on, explains Industry Attorney Charles Bishota in this week's featured interview. Plus James fields a question about the ban on surcharging in Massachusetts, and Patti reports on trends in consumer payment preferences.

There is no one way to negotiate a compensation package with an ISO. But there are 4 considerations that are essential to the negotiating process.

(1) Residual income

(2) Upfront bonus money

(3) Free hardware

(4) Customer support

PayBright, the sponsor of this Merchant Sales Insight, is really focused on providing free hardware to merchants, and the company has a reputation for superior customer support. Visit gopaybright.com to start a conversation.