[DTFdowntofund]

This couldn't be farther from the truth. An ISO rep who does his or her job correctly has EVERYTHING to do with the approval that gets put on the table.

I've been an ISO rep for years, and I can tell you that this is partially true. Few years ago I had 407 ISOs and managed them all by myself, until eventually I got a few assistants. They would handle the lower level partners / ones who would sporadically submit etc. and I would handle the better ones personally. Understanding this process is understanding that if you cherry pick a few funding houses in each tier, you'll be better off. Build a relationship with the rep there, and it's true.. in this industry and others "people do business with people they like". & here is no different. If you're signed on with 70 lenders, and send paper infrequently to all of them, you are not prioritized. I hate to say it, but I will give attention and priority 100% of the time to people I've done biz with for years / make money with. We'll do our due dilligence for all, but at the end of the day, having the relationship does afford you an edge.

With that being said.. what I have come to find is having ISOs understand things from a funding aspect, and vice versa. I had a relationship with a shop I signed in 2014, great guys, funny as hell.. they came to visit me numerous times. Long story short, they had a 400k deal with me, and I pulled out all the stops of em'.. but at the time of funding, they were -47k in the bank when I pulled DL. NOTHING I could do, and yet the owner was so furious with me, he got on the phone, started screaming how he "knew we would do this, we are total bull**** /can't be trusted etc". Even threatened to get on a plane and come kill us lol. You eventually he did just that. It was pretty comical when he arrived, he was a good 6" shorter than me in heels, and 8" shorter than my boss and I almost wanted to pat him on the head when we were introduced. He was all bark and no bite. But nevertheless, I was being blamed for being a bad ISO relations manager, which I was not. It's a marriage of understanding what can be done vs things that cannot be manipulated. I have always tried to bridge the gap with understanding, but bottom line is I also get how much it sucks when you're on the retail end and your deal doesn't fund after all the work you put in. & at the end of the day, I respect that, and I let my guys vent as much as they want. It's a frustrating sucky situation. But being able to determine the difference between your rep sucking vs circumstances on the funding company / merchant, are where the real enlightenment comes from.