When learning how to sell merchant services, for the merchant focused salesperson it’s important to understand what’s behind the decision to buy.

According to a recent article by Professor Robert B. Caildini of the University of Arizona there are six basic tendencies of human behavior that come into play when generating a positive response to a request: reciprocation, consistency, social validation, liking, authority and scarcity. These six traits determine why people purchase and arrive at decisions within our society.

Lets review each.

#1 – Reciprocation. Most societies teach us to repay or give back in direct proportion to what we have received. This technique is used all the time by charities, drug companies, super markets, and health clubs. By giving away a sample or service the individual feels obligated to reciprocate or purchase.

Does this technique work? Ask the Disabled Veterans organization, after sending out free personalized address labels, their donations more than doubled, skyrocketing from 18% to over a 35% donation rate.

#2 – Consistency. People have an inborn desire to appear and be consistent with their word.

A great example used in Mr. Caildini’s article is from a restaurant owner in Chicago who was struggling with patrons that had reserved a table but failed to show up. He had his receptionist change two words when speaking to callers requesting a reservation. The changed dropped the no call, no show rate from 30 to 10 percent immediately. When she asked them “Will you please call if you have to change your plans?” and waited for an answer, this forced the customer to make a public commitment which filled their need to be consistent with their word, therefore the no show rate dropped.

#3 – Social Validation. You can increase your sales ratios by demonstrating or merely implying that others just like them have already used your service and are happy with the results. For example, one study found that fundraisers that showed a list of neighbors that had donated to a local charity increased the amount and frequency of contributions significantly. The bigger the list, the better the results. References and customer letters are great ways to invoke social validation.

#4 – Liking. “Affinity”, “rapport” and “affection” all describe a feeling of connection between seller and buyer. People like to buy from people they like. Look at Tupperware for instance, through in-home demonstration parties, they arrange for customers to buy from a liked friend, the host, rather than from an unknown salesperson. This strategy has worked so well that there is a Tupperware party being given every 2 seconds some place in the world.

#5 – Authority. In 1955 researchers from the University of Texas discovered that a man could increase the number of people that would follow him across the street against the light by over 350 percent, by changing one simple thing. Instead of casual dress, he wore the markers of authority, a suit and tie. Highlight your experience, background and credentials and you can harness the power of authority. What other tools can you use to make yourself more of an authority figure?

#6 – Scarcity. Scarcity is one of the methods used the most in our society. Just turn on the T.V. and you will be bombarded by this form of advertising. Slogans like “These prices won’t last forever”, “Limited quantities on hand”, “Rates won’t stay this low forever”, “Buy now and save thousands”. Buyers want the best deal possible and when faced with a scarcity issue will usually make an affirmative buying decision.

There you have it, the six fundamental tendencies that influences an individual’s buying decision. But don’t forget the two underlining motivators that influence every decision we make and action we take.

· The Need to Avoid Pain or Fear of Loss

OR

· The Need to Gain Pleasure or Benefit

Don’t forget the decision to buy bankcard processing services is emotional. It takes a stronger emotion to overcome a weaker emotion. The only way to overcome the fear of pain is to make the desire for gain, or to be better off more intense.

The majority of people will do more to avoid pain than they will to gain pleasure. In fact studies have shown that pain is a 2.5 times greater motivator than pleasure. These behaviors are genetically and culturally programmed. Think about it, how did your parents motivate you as a child? Usually we are threatened with some type of consequence (spanking, grounding, lost privileges).

When do most people make a major life change or modify their behavior? When the pain gets to great.

This is simple psychology; often the most profound insights are simple. Just make sure you not only show your customer how much your product will benefit them, but how they will also alleviate their pain today by implementing your merchant services solution.

By Marc Beauchamp

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Merchant account is a retailer’s bank account that allows payments from consumers’ credit or debit cards. Payment gateway on the other hand, is not a bank account but it only acts as a terminal for verification and authorization of transactions in credit card processing.

Merchant account and payment gateways are sometimes conjectured as one for the fact that both deals with financial transactions. But actually they are both very different from each other though they are partners in the matters of online business and financial transactions.

What a merchant account is

It is a type of bank account that allows credit or debit card payments for goods or any services offered in any business. It practically manages all the financial transactions in your business such as payments.

Many chose to have a merchant account because it has great benefits to both the retailers and the consumers. To the buyers, it saves them time and the problem of paying cash-only payments. They can buy expensive stuffs too from stores without worrying about bringing large amounts of money on their wallets. To the sellers, it saves them from constantly sorting all the cash and checks in their business because everything would be done electronically.

Getting a merchant account isn’t easy and it is not for free, meaning account providers charge fees to every transactions and services made in the merchant account. That is why there are terms, conditions and policies that retailers should fully understand and certain factors that retailers should consider before a merchant account could be approved by any account providers. These factors are very crucial too to account providers because these factors will give them the assurance that your business would be strong enough against economic instabilities or financial crisis because account providers too are affected when that happens.

What a payment gateway is

Payment gateway is not a banking account but serves as an authorization and verification agent on behalf of the seller. It is the middle line between retailers online store to the financial transactions between the consumers credit or debit card to the retailers merchant account. It acts as a terminal for credit or debit card validation and transaction details encryptions.

Payment gateways are very helpful in online businesses. It is in online business that a payment gateway is connected with a merchant account.

Here’s how payment gateway works in online sales processing to let you understand how it is different from a merchant account:

1. Buyer visits a business site and selects items that he wants to buy.

2. The buyer then receives a copy reviewing all of the items he selected and he then clicks on the “buy me” button when he’s sure with his purchases.

3. All items selected will then be put in the electronic shopping cart meaning that it is being ordered.

4. The consumers are then asked to put some details about their credit or debit card accounts before completing the buying process.

5. When confirmed, the site will then pass the transaction details to the payment gateway. The payment gateway will send transaction information to the bank in which the customer’s card was issued.

6. The issuing bank will then give a response to the payment gateway whether it was approved or not. If approved the buyer’s credit card will be debited and the retailer’s account will be credited.

7. The payment gateway will forward the response to the retailer’s merchant account server.

8. The merchant account server will relay the response to the customer to let him know if the order was successful or not.

9. This process will only take a few seconds and at the end of settlement period, the customer’s issuing bank will deposit the total amount of money in the transaction details to the retailer’s account. Payment gateways usually log all the delicate information in business transactions to ensure that it is securely transferred from consumers to retailers.

By Ryu Calledo

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