Top Strategies to Sell to Local & Government Services
Now, more than ever, government and public sector service businesses are attempting to meet shifting consumer preferences. How?
By modernizing their systems and processes to become more flexible, efficient, and secure. In many cases, this includes upgrading to digital payment processing.
While this development could be very good news for your portfolio, selling to governmental agencies, of course, comes with its challenges. For starters, there are a lot of regulations to deal with as far as the processing, storage, and transmission of payment data.
This includes PCI-DSS requirements, as well as laws at the state and local levels. There is also red tape to cut through during the procurement process, which can be lengthy and competitive. You could also have multiple stakeholders to satisfy, and changing budgets to deal with.
Having said all that, once you successfully become a trusted government vendor for reliable, affordable, and secure payment technology, you can expect to populate your portfolio with lucrative, long-lasting merchants that will keep coming back for more.
To help you get started with selling payment technologies in the public sector, we’ve put together a few tips. After you familiarize yourself with them, we think you’ll agree that selling payment processing for government service businesses is a great way to take your earnings to the next level.
Government payment processing and local services payment solutions.
Today’s tech-forward government payment solutions, including digital payment processing, make it easier for citizens throughout the world to pay things like fees, taxes, and fines.
These modern payment solutions can help governments simplify and update their payment collections while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden on their employees. This means a savings in both time and money.
Ready to get started selling credit card processing for government agencies?
Check out the tips below to start closing more public sector deals. Once you do, your partners will be able to provide a better customer experience through compliant, tech-forward payment technologies and you’ll build a more powerful portfolio.
12 strategies to sell payment services to local & government services.
There are several strategies you can employ to increase your chances for success when selling payment technologies to businesses in the public sector.
These strategies include the following.
1. Get registered.
To sell merchant services (or anything for that matter) to the government, you first need to register with the right entities. We suggest getting started by contacting credit referencing agency Dun & Bradstreet to secure your DUNS (Data Universal Number System) number.
Once you have that you’ll want to get added to the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) system, a prerequisite to getting contracts with and paid by government entities.
You’ll also want to secure a Systems for Award Management (SAM) registration at SAM.gov so you can work as a federal contractor.
2. Get certified.
SAM.gov also allows you to self-certify your business. You can add a certification for a small business, or, as female-, minority-, or veteran-owned.
As a fixed number of government contracts are set aside for these types of businesses, getting certified in any of these areas can help you grow your portfolio.
Keep in mind: You may have to comply with different requirements for different government agencies.
3. Start local.
While it would be great to land Uncle Sam as a merchant, the federal government isn’t the only game in town. Local or state governments are a great way to get started with government payment processing.
There are plenty to choose from and many would benefit from an upgrade to affordable and reliable electronic payments.
That way they can diversify and simplify their payment acceptance for things like property taxes, estate and inheritance taxes, building permit fees, application fees for permits and licenses, parking meter fees, fines for code violations, and more.
4. Focus on problem-solving.
Position yourself as having payment technology-driven solutions to help streamline code enforcement, simplify online permit & licensing applications, and automate invoice collection, just to name a few.
Plus tools and technologies to help governments and agencies further modernize their payments and websites, optimize their workflows, and increase their revenue streams.
At North, we even offer many solutions beyond payment collection that can help simplify customer, employee, and dispute management.
5. Market yourself.
To spread the word about the streamlined government payment solutions you have to offer, make sure you take advantage of networking opportunities, social media sites, and referral partnerships.
You’ll also want to meet face-to-face with government agency employees at sponsored events whenever possible. Any opportunity to market yourself is another chance to demonstrate the value your payment technology and business management solutions can bring to budget-conscious government entities.
6. Offer omnichannel solutions.
Make sure the payment technology provider you partner with offers omnichannel government payment processing solutions. That way you can sell government agencies and service businesses all-in-one solutions for in-person payments, phone-based payments, digital payments, digital wallet payments, and payment integrations.
Plus, support for split payments, invoicing with recurring billing, and more. All while helping them offer a fast and frictionless payment experience at the counter, online, and on the go. Government agencies want an an-in-one solution and you can position yourself as exactly that.
7. Focus on security.
Promote yourself as the way to get secure, compliant credit card processing for government agencies. Electronic payments especially can attract unsavory cybercriminals. Make sure you’re partnered with a payment technology provider that can safeguard sensitive cardholder data no matter what payment option is being used.
You’ll want to be able to offer simplified PCI compliance, support for 3D-Secure, certified point-to-point encryption, military-grade tokenization, advanced fraud detection, and more.
8. Offer more ways to pay.
Digital payment methods. Mobile device card payments. Automated clearing house (ACH payments). Wire transfers. Purchasing card payments. Electronic accounts payable. Stored value cards. ACH debits. Solutions for recurring payments. Auto Account Updater.
The more payment methods you and your payment technology partner can offer, the better your chance of securing that valuable government contract.
9. Show how you can save them on Interchange fees.
Government payment processing solutions usually require support for Level-3 transaction data like product codes, quantities purchased, and ship-to and ship-from ZIP codes.
By partnering with a payment technology company with support for Level-3 payment processing, you can help agencies and governments control their costs by securing the lowest possible Interchange rates.
10. Offer seamless integration with existing systems.
If you partner with a true end-to-end payment processor like North, you’ll be able to offer flexible solutions that play nicely with a government entity’s other existing systems, like their accounting software.
It’s even likely that we can integrate with their current payment hardware if necessary.
11. Make sure you frequent public procurement portals.
For transparency’s sake, government contracts are typically posted in public portals for contractors to bid on. You’d do well to regularly monitor sites like SAM.gov, USASPending.gov, and FPDS.gov for bidding opportunities related to payment acceptance.
12. Be persistent.
Whether you’re selling widgets or electronic payments, when the government is your potential customer, you’ll need a little patience and persistence.
Again, the government doesn’t move as fast as any of us would like it to. However, if you hang in there, you could open up a powerful sales pipeline for your portfolio. So don’t give up!
North knows government payment processing.
North is committed to being the easiest payment technology company to work with. Partner with us today and offer government merchants an all-in-one payment platform boasting powerful payment hardware and software, industry-best network uptimes, and solutions customized for government agencies.
Plus, access to a wide array of business management tools in our secure, online merchant portal. Not to mention, award-winning customer care and technical support behind every credit card transaction. All from a payment technology pioneer that has been around since 1992.