[Chambo]

C01, what's your secret?

Can you share how you got started, how you market, and how you get 50-60 full packages, and end up funding 25-35 at the end?

If you are submitting 50-60 deals and funding 35 of them, you are WAY ahead of the pack. Depending on the fund you use (they all have slightly different criteria), you can expect 10-25% approval rate...then 50% of those will fund

[CO1]

And also don't forget there's a lot of companies with restrictions on what they will fund. Some don't. Benefits of working with a direct funder.

[mbradford101]

Sounds like good advice from all you guys.

Don't know if anyone can answer this, but I'm wondering what a phone system / software costs that does the calls with the press 1 to connect. Is there a recommended vendor for these systems (and the bulk phone numbers)?

[Scott Williams]

Be careful about focusing too much on press 1. Think about the type of merchant that would respond to a press 1 campaign. 99% of the time its going to be merchants that have been declined ten times in the past for a MCA. These merchants are getting 5-10 calls a week from live agents so press 1 is going to deliver the "low hanging fruit".

[funding pro]

Depending on the fund you use (they all have slightly different criteria), you can expect 10-25% approval rate...then 50% of those will fund

I have to say these numbers are going to vary more by your lead source(s) than they are of the funding companies you use. We have several lead sources that yield 80% approvals but only 30% closure rates while others are in the 50% approval range with 50-70% closure rates.

Based on my experience, 10-25% approval rates based on SUBMISSIONS is really low, i.e. UCC lists which we stopped using years ago. Now if you are getting approvals on 10-25% of your LEADS things are working for you.

[Quickfunder]

I have to say these numbers are going to vary more by your lead source(s) than they are of the funding companies you use. We have several lead sources that yield 80% approvals but only 30% closure rates while others are in the 50% approval range with 50-70% closure rates.

Based on my experience, 10-25% approval rates based on SUBMISSIONS is really low, i.e. UCC lists which we stopped using years ago. Now if you are getting approvals on 10-25% of your LEADS things are working for you.

What are you using aside from UCC's? I've been trying to research alternatives -- the saturated market is not killing me but I'm sick of having to haggle with merchants who are being outright lied to by all the other guys.

[Chambo]

What are you using aside from UCC's? I've been trying to research alternatives -- the saturated market is not killing me but I'm sick of having to haggle with merchants who are being outright lied to by all the other guys.

With every Tom, Dick and Harry becoming a funding company, and anyone and everyone can get into the funding business, this is what you are going to run into...

[MCAVeteran]

that is why funders are racing to offer loans to non cc sale business. the mca space is saturated and new sic's were needed to keep this going strong...by now, most iso's are getting email solicitations about loans/bank only and rebranding/messaging from funders to become a more full suite alternative lending company.....its come along way from the days of, mr merchant, you have to switch your cc processing company to x,y,z to get an advance....

[Duvdevan]

Years ago, I sold printing to businesses, cold-calling, following-up, and repeat-visiting about a thousand businesses until my print and copy sales were over $50,000 per month.

So I'm wondering if I could do the same thing in the MCA industry? Are there any ISOs or salespeople on the forum who built a decent income cold-calling and canvasing businesses? If so, could you share how it worked for you?

-

Mark,

Another person from the print industry once asked me if he can enter the MCA field by simply canvassing and using yellow pages to generate leads and sales. While canvassing and cold calling works great with print, alternative lending is a different type of service. With print, you know you can walk in to any business and it is pretty much a given that they need the service, and more or less likely they already have a vendor or contact that they're working with. So your job is to build a relationship and convince that business to switch vendors.


In this business if you started canvassing and cold calling all day, you would drive yourself crazy. Not every business needs financing and not every business is looking for alternative financing. You wouldn't have enough time in a day to canvass every day and come back to the office make cold calls, and take in to consideration all the operational duties you'll have to deal with.

[mbradford101]

Mark,

Another person from the print industry once asked me if he can enter the MCA field by simply canvassing and using yellow pages to generate leads and sales. While canvassing and cold calling works great with print, alternative lending is a different type of service. With print, you know you can walk in to any business and it is pretty much a given that they need the service, and more or less likely they already have a vendor or contact that they're working with. So your job is to build a relationship and convince that business to switch vendors.


In this business if you started canvassing and cold calling all day, you would drive yourself crazy. Not every business needs financing and not every business is looking for alternative financing. You wouldn't have enough time in a day to canvass every day and come back to the office make cold calls, and take in to consideration all the operational duties you'll have to deal with.

I hear ya'. One lender told me to focus on restaurants, and I assume there's probably a top 10 list of businesses most likely to do these types of loans. So I may try canvassing just those types of businesses. Selling printing, I'd leave a flyer and business card (and sometimes a couple pieces of candy), then follow up with a phone call a couple days later, and just keep repeating the process until they'd try us with a print job or tell me to go away and never come back :)

I was 22 then, so it was alot easier to get away with being annoying. Now I'm 39 :) But I'd imagine that even in this business, there'd be a better response rate if you actually stopped in and left something in person (which you could mention when you called), rather than the hundred+ hang-ups you'd get cold-calling by phone -- never even getting beyond the gate-keeper.

For me, it's worth a shot, even focusing on just 1-3 types of businesses, since I KNOW I'll give up if I get a hundred hang-ups in a row calling by phone, and I don't have the budget to buy leads or do direct mail or anything else expensive.

But now I'm also wondering about what quickfunder said above -- that he's "sick of having to haggle with merchants who are being outright lied to by all the other guys." I had that same experience when I worked for a mortgage company before the crash. Calling leads, I was honest about the actual rate we could get them (even having dozens of lenders), but the deals always went to brokers who quoted rates well below what was possible, which I assume probably "changed" not long before they got to the closing table (or at the closing table, as I've seen happen more than once).

It's hard to win at that game :)

[Ryan Shiroky]

Uhhhhh, not sure what you interpreted as being a dick. In fact, I'm pretty sure both posts I made here are more than generous for a forum where we are all essentially "in competition." What I was implying is that there are a ton of sales reps in this space so I was jokingly trying to tell YOU there is nothing to see here and to just keep on walking, I even said "on a serious note" right after that. But, in all honesty, I welcome the growth of this industry and the competitors I encounter (most days).

On a separate note, I am thrilled I could offer sage advice from my years of experience to someone who seems like they didnt deserve it in the first place. Even if I was trying to be a dick, you are going to have to be more thick skinned to make it in this industry.

Here here!!! 100% if you dont have stone skin, you will either let the express 2 train run you over or cry yourself to sleep at night...

As for boarding with funders, I think its better to have (in the beginning) 2 or 3 for each type of deal (good, bad and ugly) and see who will give you the most favorable pricing/dollar amounts just to weed out those funders that will offer 1.55 factors while the other guys are doing a 1.42 all day for the same ugly file. Funding Pro, I am sure you know of whom I speak... :/

[HollyH]

Hello ya'll...

I'm new to the MCA field. I'm not really in it yet, but am seriously considering it. I get that I can be considered competition and such...

I've read this whole thread, and I'm finding myself baffled by one thing in particular: The head of an ISO (who's been in the business since '07 and has done VERY very well in it on his own), while wanting to recruit me to work for/with him, told me that 90% of the merchants that I will talk to will have never heard of MCAs.

He also told me a story about going to a chamber of commerce meeting RECENTLY (in a pretty big city) and presenting his business to the whole crowd and then having 90% of the people there meet him outside and ask for his services.

Do you think he was outright lying about the climate of the business right now? From your above posts I would think that he's pulling my leg. But until I get into it, I wouldn't know for myself.

Would you say that it's totally impossible that he's still having those kind of experiences?

Thanks so much!

[skideeppow]

He is pulling your leg. Every merchant I talk to has heard of the MCA industry.

[Sean Cash]

personally, the majority of business owners I speak to have never heard of it. most, if not all government officials have never heard of it. banks, hedge funds, and private equity groups are just starting to learn about it. journalists are just starting to hear of it, but even then not really because the industry is being overshadowed in the news by silicon valley darlings like lending club, on deck capital, and kabbage. They distort the message because although ODC and Kabbage are part of the greater MCA industry, they're not the heart and soul of it.

all the mailers, cold calls, and email blasts in the world don't mean the people receiving them have any idea what it is being offered. Sell my future receivables? never heard of that. I hear that more than 90% of the time.

[MCNetwork]

I don't think your typical merchant knows what an MCA is unless he is on the internet searching for short term working capital. Then he can't help but come across a zillion MCA firms that explain what it is.

[Scott Williams]

Depends on the industry type too. Every restaurant owner in America know of MCA since he/she gets tons of calls and mailers. Other industry owners could be in the dark.

[MCNetwork]

I used to own a restaurant and I got mailers from AdvanceMe all the time. But I didn't know what it was at the time and didn't care as long as my cash flow was good.

[HollyH]

Skideeppow, Sean Bash, MCNetwork, Scott W, thanks so much for your quick responses. Helpful.

I'm open to any other posts as well. Thank you!

[Finance1]

I'm having some success with strong companies, good credit, and bigger deals. Definitely moreso than in 2010-12. The evolution of the longer terms/lower rates and expanded industries is really helping.

Back in 10-11 we ran into plenty of quality merchants who wouldn't even consider OD's standard 1.20/6 or if you were lucky, 1.27/9. But the 12-18 month window gets the job done.

I know there is a lot of talk about longer terms being bad because renewals come late and who knows if they perform but the companies I've seen funded lately really benefited from the better deals out their (they deserved it too). Still tough to sell but if your mind is sharp you can get it done.

Setting expectations properly is very important. I have no problem giving a real best case scenario upfront. If you have a strong client, saying the best case scenario would be 30-35 cents on the dollar over 18 months is totally honest and doesn't even look that bad to them. We've gotten 2 100k+ deals funded in the last 2 weeks and have several more in the works. That might be common for some small iso's but not for us.

[HollyH]

Finance1, thanks so much!!!

[vmccapital.com]

My brother is back to stocks, im still here! is this ali ?

[J.Celifarco]

Sean I have to say I agree with you on this.. No matter how many cold calls or mailers a business receives, until they take the time to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about and explains a MCA honestly most business owners don't know what we offer.. Also even after they talk to someone I feel a lot of merchants still don't really understand this type of lending.. With so many sales offices trying different sales tactics in the end the merchants usually don't get the real story on how a MCA works until they agree to a deal and see a contract

[Sean Cash]

Sean I have to say I agree with you on this.. No matter how many cold calls or mailers a business receives, until they take the time to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about and explains a MCA honestly most business owners don't know what we offer.. Also even after they talk to someone I feel a lot of merchants still don't really understand this type of lending.. With so many sales offices trying different sales tactics in the end the merchants usually don't get the real story on how a MCA works until they agree to a deal and see a contract

Back when I was an underwriter, I remember a part of my job was fielding calls from merchants asking why their merchant account deposits were so small. I would tell them that their contracted percentage was being withheld and applied to their balance. It was amazing to see that some merchants didn't fully grasp the concept until they were actually a few weeks into it. You could explain the program frontwards, backwards and upside down but it wasn't until their deposits weren't matching up with their batches that they started paying attention.

[atag40]

Hello ya'll...

I'm new to the MCA field. I'm not really in it yet, but am seriously considering it. I get that I can be considered competition and such...

I've read this whole thread, and I'm finding myself baffled by one thing in particular: The head of an ISO (who's been in the business since '07 and has done VERY very well in it on his own), while wanting to recruit me to work for/with him, told me that 90% of the merchants that I will talk to will have never heard of MCAs.

He also told me a story about going to a chamber of commerce meeting RECENTLY (in a pretty big city) and presenting his business to the whole crowd and then having 90% of the people there meet him outside and ask for his services.

Do you think he was outright lying about the climate of the business right now? From your above posts I would think that he's pulling my leg. But until I get into it, I wouldn't know for myself.

Would you say that it's totally impossible that he's still having those kind of experiences?

Thanks so much!

The greater majority of businesses have not heard of this product. That said, it is possible that market saturation occurs despite many business owners being unaware of this product.

The MCA market is a niche product which is only right for specific business types. These fall into two bins (as I understand it), those who have a way to monetize short term capital but not the credit to go to a bank, and/or time/credit to go for an SBA loan, and those who are in trouble (And either sink or swim with short term funding. If its the unfortunate former case, hopefully axe drops after 6-8 months when the funding is paid back).

Unfortunately this is not a product that is right for every business, just the specific market that we work in. Therefore your future boss is not necessarily lying, but perhaps giving your first lesson about framing the conversation to work for your purposes .

[Wabbitt]

Great thread. I am a noob myself in the industry, and I did go the route of training with an ISO. Unfortunately, the guy I worked for was a crook who was selling every deal at a 1.59 to as high as a 1.99 and tacking on crazy upfront fees. He was hurting merchants and hurting the industry. Not only that, but he was also not paying his agents the way he was supposed to. It was quite a learning experience-and a costly one. I learned quite a bit, but urge you to use caution when starting out and do your homework on the company you go to work for. As far as saturation, well, I've seen a lot of new competition, even in the short time I have been in the industry, but I still talk to plenty of merchants who are very unfamiliar with the product. I had a lot of early success, which could be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.