Learnings from SouthEast Acquirers Association 2019

by Adam Kaplan

What did you miss (at the SouthEast Acquirers Association Annual Conference)?

If I saw you at the SEAA show in Atlanta last week, well it was great to see you.

If you were not there, well these are the topics you would have heard in the breakout sessions:

Gift Cards still create stickiness – you knew this, but it is nice to hear again.
It takes money to make money – okay nothing new here.
Software solutions are still the way into small businesses – Longer sales process, but more stickiness.
Cash Discounts and Surcharging are Hot, Hot, Hot – but very contentious.
Hemp and CBD workarounds are available.
If you use Social Media, and get just one new account a month, isn’t it worth it?

Okay, so those are the big takeaways from the breakout sessions, but when you go to these shows the bulk of your learning and takeaways come from the mixers, the exhibit hall, and the breaks. Here are big brush strokes I gleaned:

Attendees still love giveaways and door prizes –the hot item this year were pens.
Leasing is back, back, back, back – mostly for cash discount and surcharging
The latest new terminals coming out are Bluetooth, WIFI, NFC, touchscreen and PCI 5.0 ready, but they still give you the starter options without these features.
The POS Systems are opening up to all processors.
It is still hard to get more than 10 accounts per month for one Sales Rep.
Residual streams for just processing is so old-school. There are so many other opportunities to build other streams that may make your sales call more interesting and reinvigorate your approach.
Working with Discount Credit Card Supply is a super cool and hip activity.

If you live near a regional conference, I highly recommend that you or a representative attend the show, and commit yourself to learning more and digging deeper about the industry and all of the other residual streams available to you as a Sales Rep or ISO. Upcoming shows in 2019 are in Las Vegas, Chicago, and Phoenix. I will be at all three.

And congratulations to the winner of the AirPods we gave away. Jennifer something. I picked the card and gave it to the announcer, but I never received the card back. So if you are Jennifer and you won the AirPods, contact me please.