Square Doubles Down on Its Renewed Interest in ISOs as a Sales Channel – Digital Transactions

Square is making a big play for independent sales organizations, a merchant-sales model it shunned 16 years ago in favor of direct acquiring.

Square, the point-of-sale and acquiring unit of Block Inc., is one of the sponsors of the Western States Acquirers Association conference this week in Palm Desert, Calif. Mike Collins, Square’s global head of resellers, also contributed to a panel on how merchant sales is evolving.

Collins says the human aspect of merchant sales is foundational, but technology can lead the way. Square has been mostly known for its direct-sales approach to acquire merchants since its 2009 start. But in 2024 Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Square and head of its parent company Block Inc., said Square might enlist independent sales organizations to reach more merchants, a move it tried at its founding but determined it didn’t produce expected results. After a subsequent launch of an ISO reseller program, Block said in May it had more than 140 participants.

The human aspect may be important, but Collins says technology can help differentiate processors. “You have to lead with technology,” Collins told the WSAA attendees. Those organizations leading with technology are not just pitching a way to save a prospect a few dollars, he says, but they are actually bringing a solution that can help a business.

Coming to a merchant with a benefit instead of a sole price message is indicative of a consultative sales approach, said Shawn Dalton, a panelist and senior vice president of Exectras. Exectras announced its Exectras Payments venture this week. “People do business with people they like and that human aspect of it,” Dalton told attendees.

Still, the rise of integrated point-of-sale platforms, such as those from Toast Inc., can be a force narrowing the window in which a sales agent controls the merchant relationship.

A merchant using an integrated POS system may be a tougher sell because that system provides more business functions than payment processing. Any competitive system must produce what the merchant already gets and be different enough to warrant the switch.

Some may turn to artificial intelligence as a way to stand out, but it may not do that in a way many may anticipate. It can be used for statement analysis, generate sales presentations, and provide 24/7 support in multiple languages, effectively stripping out administrative friction and freeing up personnel to work on more complex issues.

As AI adoption accelerates within payments, the human element of the sale becomes more important, said Justin Vollrath, founder and chief executive of PayCompass, one part of the Exectras Payments venture.

“On the sales side, we’re looking at how we can use [AI] to just provide faster access to information,” Vollrath says. “Our goal is not to go away from that human interaction, but how can we make the human interaction faster, more efficient, and more effective.”