Making Money Selling Merchant Cash Advances as a Broker

Monday, January 25 2021

When most sales companies get into selling merchant cash advances, they concentrate on logistical concerns. They study what the market looks like, and try to determine how they're going to supply what it needs. From there, they concentrate on making as much commission as possible from their deals. This isn't a bad place to start, of course, but it's far from the whole story. Since the market is constantly changing, there's more to selling merchant cash advances these days than simply making commissions.

Sales agents and brokers actually have a huge role in these dealings and provide an important service to companies that fund merchant cash advances. Since their role might seem a bit vague to you at first, let's explain how a deal like this works, and then you might see the kind of value that they bring to this process:

1.) A merchant is contacted / a merchant contacts the sales company. This can happen a few different ways. A sales organization may follow through with a lead and call the merchant, or the merchant may contact the company after seeing information about the opportunity.

2.) The merchant will have to fill out an application. In addition to the application that will ask for basic information, the merchant will also have to send in paperwork such as bank statements.

3.) The sales company will continue to contact the merchant until he has filed the paperwork.

4.) The sales company will decide which provider should fund this particular merchant.

5.) The sales company will then send this information to the provider for evaluation.

6.) The provider will send their approval and conditions back to the sales company.

7.) Sales representatives then explain these conditions to the merchants.

8.) The merchant decides to take the offer.

9.) The sales company asks for the contract from the provider.

10.) The sales company gives the merchant the contract to sign and any other relevant paperwork.

11.) The sales company sends all of this paperwork back to the provider.

12.) The provider ties up any loose bureaucratic ends and then sends the money to the merchant electronically.

13.) The sales company is paid for the deal.

Clearly, sales companies play a significant role in most of these transactions. They serve as an important “middleman” that helps the provider and the merchant understand each other. As the market for merchant cash advances increases, more opportunity for both business owners and funders will arise over time.

Let's change gears a bit though, and take a look at what this means for the bigger picture of being a broker.

Supposing that nothing radical changes in this market, more and more brokers will tend to materialize and this will flood the supply side, which will cause most brokers to face a loss in revenue. Indeed, as a market grows and there is more demand, there is more overall money to be spent on brokers, but the “pie” will be divided into much thinner “slices” between them. In other words, being a broker will be less lucrative on an individual level. Brokers will find themselves working longer hours for less reward, and funding companies will continue to make more money.

In a case like this, you might be able to carry on for a time, trying to make as much money as you can in spite of the increasingly saturated broker's market. However, it's getting harder to build a brokerage company if your only source of income is commissions. You are much better off if you invest in the business yourself and partially fund these loans with your own money. Instead of wasting your time chasing more leads, why not make every lead generate more income?

You can try a few different techniques for making money in this business using your own cash, and we'll discuss some of those basic strategies in a moment. First, let's talk about a little bit of history:

In the first decade of the 21st century, providers decided to bring sales companies into their dealings and allow them to partially fund these cash advances. They call this activity “syndication.” It quickly became obvious that syndication was a good move because providers found that having brokers vet their merchants beforehand led to higher quality deals that were less likely to default. The broker is there to make sure the deal goes through properly, and normally he will take care of the customer very well because his own money is on the line. Brokers helped create a long-term relationship between merchants and providers. This helped funders to potentially make more money.

Originally, syndication wasn't as common, and only a few providers allowed it. Nowadays, many companies use sales organizations in this way. When you're new in this business, put your energy into finding a good provider which will allow you to put your own money on the line.

Strategies for Making Good Money Selling Merchant Cash Advances

Let's look at some concrete numbers so that you can get a feel for how you can make money in this industry. Keep these rough stats in mind:

Deals vary in terms of amount, but the average is around 35,000 dollars.
Factor is 1.39 on average.
You can expect the average commission to be around 8 points

So now let's play with some numbers and come to a few conclusions:

From Commissions: If you fund 100 deals, with an average commission of $3,000 per deal, you can expect to earn $300,000.

Rolling Your Commissions Into the Deal: If you fund 100 deals, with an average commission of $3,000, multiplied by a factor of 1.39, then you can expect $417,000.

Co-funding: If you co-fund 100 deals of a total amount of $2,000,000 from your own pocket, multiplied by 1.39, then subtract the original $2,000,000, then you are left with $780,000.

Add to that an average commission of $1,500 for 100 deals, and you also have $150,000 in commission.

Total = $930,000.

You can make substantial money even when you're not taking on all of the risk. In the last example above, you only funded half of the deal with your own money, but you still made some money on both sides—commission for the 50% that you did not fund and a good ROI on the half that you did.

So you don't have to give up the idea of commissions altogether. Providers that allow you to fund part of the deal will also allow you to collect commission. This is the smart way to make money in this business, because as you can clearly see, you stand to make many times more than if you relied on just commission alone. This is a great way to grow your business even if you're not acquiring many new customers.

Posted by: Scott Shaw AT 01:58 pm | Permalink | Email

ISO Agent Partnership

Become a payment service provider today and take your business to the next level. If you are a sales-oriented individual with vast experience in the world of payment processing or you are a driven and motivated professional looking for a new challenge, the SMG ISO agent program might be a great fit for you. With the highest paying commission structure in the industry, superior products, and sales support, our program will see to it that you are rewarded for your efforts.

For anyone with a sales background or a passion for the payments industry, SMG is the ideal partnership. There are dozens of reasons to become a sales partner with Shaw Merchant Group, but don’t just take our word for it. Here are some of the top reasons that we were given when we asked our ISO agent participants why they chose us and why they continue to work with our highly lucrative program.

Sales Partner Portal

With our industry leading partner portal, you’ll have access to online enrollment, training sessions, marketing materials, and you’ll always be ahead of the game with the latest news and promotions.

Alerts

Stay up-to-date on merchant issues and their resolutions via automated emails and text messages that include a detailed ticket number describing what the merchant’s concern was and how it was resolved.

Registered DBA (White Label)

With our program, you’ll be able to market under your own brand, without paying costly fees! Your brand will be seen on the partner portal, marketing communications, merchant statements, and more.

Free Equipment for Your Merchants

Selling businesses on a new processing plan is much easier when you are able to effortlessly jump over the hurdle of the cost of the equipment. With this program, you can offer your clients free equipment that they will need for their processing provider change. This lowers the barrier to switching and creates a higher conversion rate for you.

Lifetime Passive Income

You will recieve 50–70% of residual income based on the pay structure you select. You will share income on every available revenue stream. With SMG, you get a True Interchange Revenue Split. Unlike other ISO agent programs, there is no basis points off the top for BIN sponsorship or for what they call hidden losses. Our sales partners earn more residual income with our 50/50 partner program than you would with our competition who claim to offer a higher percentage because thier interchange cost (buy rate) is higher.

$20K Performance Bonus

We offer a performance-based fast start bonus that is payable for anyone that onboards more than the standard threshold of clients in the first 4 months. This program is designed to reward those experienced sales members that join our team and quickly learn how to sell this product. The bonus can reach up to $20,000, making it one of the most lucrative and competitive in the industry.

Profitability Based Bonuses

We will look at how much profit is generated on the account after they have been processing for one month and you earn 14 times of the total profit. Example: If we retain $100 in residuals in that month, the bonus would be 14 x $100 or $1,400. You would have already been paid $600, so we would pay you an additional $800 on that account. This bonus is capped at a max of $10,000 per merchant per location. With our dual pricing program it is easier than ever to earn huge bonuses with a 14x profitability bonus. This dual pricing model enables you to maximize your bonus at $10,000 on almost every merchant processing over $90k.

Dual Pricing Program

When you are selling merchant services, one of the best assets of any partner program is more rewards and incentive programs that save your client money. The Edge dual pricing program is one of the hottest new commodities in credit card processing, as it is designed to save the client thousands of dollars in credit card processing cost, instead passing on the fee to the consumer in a way that isn’t damaging to their own conversion rate and revenue. We offer this program to our clients and make it easy to understand and present for our sales partners.

Medical Benefits

With some sales jobs, you don’t even have the option for medical coverage. With the SMG ISO agent program, you’ll have the resources that you need to provide healthcare coverage to you and your family at an affordable rate. We take care of our own, and when you are in our program you will have access to these benefits.

White Label ISO Program

Grow Your Merchant Services ISO with White-Label Payment Solutions

As an independent sales organization (ISO), you can upgrade your business by providing merchant processing services under your own brand. You may dismiss the idea at first, probably thinking that you don’t have the infrastructure or expertise to set up your own payment processing company. However, with white label payment processing, all you really need is a good ISO partner.

How a White Label ISO Program Works

To offer payment processing services under your own brand, your ISO partner will provide you with an online application page that doesn’t identify their company. This “white label” solution is ready for your brand and includes your logo, colors, and contact information, so your merchants only identify the payment solutions with your company. It eliminates any confusion among your merchant customers about who their service provider and primary contact should be. Your brand is the only thing the merchant will see on your website, merchant portal, and marketing materials.

Your payments ISO partner becomes a silent partner, providing technology, payments functionality, and services. This puts you in more control, allowing you to deliver seamless, consistent customer experiences in all interactions – and enhance your brand’s reputation. With this white label payment solution, you won’t need to overcome negative perceptions a prospect may have about the company your working with. This is because you are creating a unique customer experience. Better still, you don't have to fall in line with another company's existing customer experience.

Once you start providing white label payment services, you will also find that you build stronger, longer lasting relationships with your merchants. They'll begin to view you as a payments expert and an expert in the other solutions you provide. You may even find you are able to grow your customer base, as merchants in every vertical or niche can benefit from accepting payments, enabling you to market to more types of businesses.

Remember: white label payment processing enables you to earn huge residual income.

Our White Label Program Will Save You Thousands in Fees

Put your brand on merchant statements and applications — build your brand with your sub-agents and merchants. Full white label payment solution with your logo and branding on applications, statements, online enrollment, merchant and partner portals.

We at Shaw Merchant Group have an awesome white label solution. There is no huge package of documents for you to fill out, no approval process by Visa and Mastercard and the sponsor banks, and best of all no annual dues. Here are some details on the “White Label ISO” program:

Roughly 4–5 weeks to fully set up once we get the signed license document back.
Executed addendum from you saying it’s OK for us to use your brand too.
This program can run on our standard schedule A’s with bonus and free equipment and has no other obligations. from you other than the standard agent agreement.
When we set up the DBA you will have access to EPX/BMO Harris for submitting merchants under your brand.

What do we brand?

Paper Applications
Online Applications (Simplified Enrollment)
Partner.PaymentsHub for your back office.
PaymentsHub for your merchants — It’s generic when your merchant logs in and then show your brand once inside.
Merchant Support Email — TMS (ticket management system) which emails you and your merchant each time we speak with your merchant and shows the proper brand in the notice and as the from address on the email.
Merchant Support Phone — Our call centers answer with a generic “merchant services” then once they have the MID identified, they represent your brand.
Deployment Packages — Generic boxes and welcome docs inside with proper brand.

What we need:

A letter authorizing EPX to register your DBA on your company letterhead.
A high resolution image of your company logo.
A certificate of good standing from the state you are registered in. It may not be called a certificate of 'good standing' in some states.
The ISO Branding request form.