[MCNetwork]

I agree with John. We are selling a commoditized product. My money looks no different from John's, Karen's or Isaac's money. The typical modern sales techniques (ie. SPIN selling, etc.) don't really apply. If we were all selling CRM software, then Karen's techniques would make sense. There are different bells and whistles between Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Sugar CRM and all the others. There are opportunities for great salespeople to successfully compete in the CRM field. You can't say the same about money.

Money is money no matter how you slice it, and our products are EXPENSIVE to boot. So it all boils down to a customer's need. A rational person wouldn't take a cash advance unless the alternative was much worse or their gross margins are high enough to offset the cost. And let's face it, most industries don't have 40-50% gross margins so the majority of our clients take an advance to alleviate or prevent some type of pain, not to obtain any pleasure. 90% of merchants don't need our product. They have positive cash flow and that's the way businesses should be. And the 10% who are in trouble may avoid a cash advance because it will only turn a bad situation even worse. A cash advance is a stop gap, a quick fix, a distasteful solution. It doesn't add any value to a merchant's business. It's something that is used as an act of desperation and when no better option is available. Let's not kid ourselves; this is not "value added selling." No one likes to go into debt. I certainly don't. (To be fair, I know a handful of healthy businesses who incorporate cash advances to finance inventory purchases that yields a positive ROI but these guys are few and far between.)

It's great to cold call a prospect and ask open ended questions and start a meaningful dialogue blah blah blah but a merchant's need boils down to a binary decision, either yes or no. I want to get to the NO as quickly as possible so I can get to the next YES. I'm not a chat room operator who's paid to keep someone on the phone as long as possible. You can spend a ton of time trying to win over the gatekeeper to get to the decisionmaker, or you can cut your loss and go straight to the next phone number. There is an almost infinite number of prospects to call anyway. It's all about figuring out the best use of your time.

Because we all sell a commoditized product, there are only a few differentiators:

1. Price and term length
2. The Salesperson
3. Ease of funding (number of stips needed)
4. Retrieval method (split%, daily, weekly, monthly ACH)

Price always trumps all the other differentiators. A merchant once told me, "Hey I really like you, but I like my money more." If two programs are fairly similar in price, the Salesperson's personality is the deciding factor. There is a lot of parity in the marketplace for points 3 and 4, so it really boils down to points 1 and 2. That's how we all differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. We can try to say things like, "I add so much more value to the transaction besides price because of my dashing good looks, stellar customer service and tireless work ethic" but that's really mostly lip service. Customers are really just looking for the best deal.

I'm not a lazy guy. I'm not scared to pick up the phone and make 300 dials a day. But I'd much rather buy 20 leads and possibly close 1 or 2, than make 4000 cold calls to close the same amount. My time is far too valuable to be a dialing machine and it's not the life I would choose for myself. It's arduous, it's grueling, and it pretty much sucks. I let others do all the heavy lifting because that's my preference. So for me, it's really all about the LEADS.