By Allison Pouliotte
I sometimes doubt anyone with whom I work or Skype would recognize me without a headset on. Without a headset, I think I would have some serious neck issues. That’s because I am on the phone probably an average of three hours a day.
Conscientiousness and engaging merchants: It’s how I turn leads into merchant accounts. It’s what Instabill is known for – Merchant accounts with the best customer support.
Organization Key With Merchant Account Leads
Each morning at 8:00 a.m., I sign into my computer, check my emails and review my leads and tasks for the day. Some days there can be as many as 120 tasks, not including the new leads that come in overnight. I am one that does not like to have any back tasks or emails from the previous days. Once I have scanned my emails for any important or pressing matters, I get right on the phone to call all my international merchants through Skype.
Once these calls are done, I move on to calls to the United Kingdom and India. Knowing the world clock is very important to me: It’s the end of the workday in India and early-afternoon in the UK. These are all merchants with whom I have spoken in the past, and I am looking for additional documents from them and/or an application package.
‘I’m sending the application and documents tonight’
Two traits needed as a merchant account manager are persistence and patience. Getting accurate information can be difficult, let alone getting prospective merchants on the phone. Sometimes I think they tell us what we want to hear. This doesn’t always happen, but the next day, when there is no application in my email, I call them again. It may take a few more calls, but I will reach them.
And this is all before 10 a.m.
Afterward, I focus on the brand new leads that have come in overnight. For the next hour, I contact these merchants and send them an email. Sometimes these merchants do not answer the first time. When this happens I try at the end of the hour and once or twice in the afternoon.
Making That First Connection
We are persistent for a reason. The first contact with these merchants is very important because most may have contacted competing companies as well. Our goal is to get them on the phone and send them the application, whether it’s a domestic or offshore application. For the merchants that I cannot get in touch with on the first day, I will send them our pre-application with the hope they return it to me.
Instabill just received an ‘A’ from CardPayment Options.com for quality of merchant services. What is unique about Instabill is that helping e-commerce businesses get credit card processing is just the start of our relationship. We stay on as consultants for the life of the merchant account and we’re always live.
You don’t see enough of that nowadays.
Allison Pouliotte joined Instabill as a merchant account manager in 2014. She is enjoying a record month for February 2016. This is her first blog.
