Merchant Sales Podcast

What does it take to build a successful payments business in today’s market? James Shepherd sits down with Chris Sandifer, CEO and founder of Peak Pay, to discuss why ISOs need to evolve beyond simply selling payment processing and start thinking like fintech companies. They cover building merchant stickiness through technology and service, adding business financing and consumer finance, processor-agnostic POS solutions, the future of dual pricing, finding profitable verticals, and recruiting the next generation of agents. Plus, Patti Murphy joins James for Today in Payments to break down the latest developments in retail spending, stablecoins and the $30 trillion B2B payments opportunity, AI-driven payments and fraud, and Europe’s push toward a new payments network.

James Shepherd sits down with Mike Collins, Head of the Reseller Channel at Square, for an in-depth conversation about the rapidly evolving role of technology in the agent and ISO channel. They discuss the Square Reseller Program, the build-vs-buy decision for ISOs, how agents can expand their sales opportunities, what successful Square resellers are doing differently, and the importance of technology and customer experience in building a strong portfolio. The episode also features Patti Murphy’s “Today in Payments” segment, covering Illinois’ interchange legislation, Visa’s response to cryptocurrency transaction classification, the rise of agentic commerce, increasing ACH fraud concerns, and what recent consumer data may, and may not, tell us about surcharging and differential pricing.

In Part 2 of this two-part series, James Shepherd and Lane Gordon of 733Park take a deeper look at what happens when an agent or ISO decides to sell their payments portfolio. They break down right of first refusal, why approaching a single buyer may leave money on the table, how competing buyers and market conditions can affect an offer, and what buyers look for during due diligence. They also discuss agent and ISO agreement terms that can impact a sale, how revenue redirects work, and what the final closing process looks like. The episode wraps up with Patti Murphy's Today in Payments report covering regulatory action, card network litigation, retail spending, and the continued shift from checks toward electronic B2B payments.

What makes a payments portfolio valuable—and what should agents and ISOs understand before selling? In this episode of the Merchant Sales Podcast, James Shepherd sits down with Lane Gordon, CEO of 733Park, to break down the process of selling a portfolio of merchant accounts and residual income. They discuss the key factors that influence valuation, including revenue attrition, merchant concentration, vertical mix, portability, software integrations, and the strength of long-term agreements. They also explain right of first refusal, how buyers structure offers, and why the difference between upfront cash and an earnout can significantly affect the final deal. In the Today in Payments segment, James and Patti Murphy explore recent FTC enforcement actions involving payment processors, growing expectations around industry compliance, consumer trust in AI-powered payments, digital wallet developments, Mastercard’s legal challenges, and the ongoing debate over the Credit Card Competition Act. Together, these conversations offer insight into both the opportunities and risks shaping the payments industry.

In this episode of the Merchant Sales Podcast, James Shepherd sits down with Roman Vanegas from The POS Cloud to explore how agents and ISOs can overcome two major point-of-sale challenges: managing installations and support, and securing processing business when merchants want to keep their existing system. They discuss processor-agnostic integrations, outsourced hardware deployment, implementation strategies, and how having the right POS expertise can help agents close more deals without taking on every technical headache themselves.