Optimal Payment Setup For Sellers at Gun Shows & Tradeshows

About This Episode

In today’s episode of Tactical Business, host Wade Skalsky sits down with Kyle King from TacticalPay. Discover the ultimate merchant solutions for tactical businesses! From mobile payment apps to sleek countertop units, TacticalPay offers tools designed to optimize trade shows and retail sales. Learn about the versatile P5 device, cash discount programs, and integrating Cordova for flexible payment options. Plus, get pro tips for seamless trade show experiences, ensuring your devices are charged and ready. TacticalPay empowers you to grow and succeed effortlessly. Watch now to learn more!

Insights In This Episode

• Merchants are offered multiple device options, including countertop units, mobile devices, and app-based solutions, to suit different preferences and use cases.
• The mobile app option provides a low-cost, user-friendly way to process payments, using only a smartphone for tap-to-pay functionality.
• The countertop units offer a touch screen and versatile payment methods, including tap, slide, and chip-based card transactions.
• QR codes simplify Cordova integration, enabling customers to scan, apply for credit, and use a virtual card number for purchases.

About Tactical Business

Tactical Business is the weekly business show for the firearms industry. The podcast features in-depth interviews with the entrepreneurs, professionals and technologists who are enabling the next generation of firearms businesses to innovate and grow.

Episode Transcript

Wade: Welcome to the Tactical Business Show. I’m your host, Virginia Beach based firearms entrepreneur and copywriter Wade Skalsky. Each episode will be exploring what it takes to thrive as a business owner in the firearms industry. We’ll speak with successful firearms industry entrepreneurs about their experiences building their companies, leaders and legislators who are shaping the industry, and tech executives whose innovations will reshape the future of the firearms industry. Let’s get after it. Welcome to the Tactical Business Podcast. I am your host, Wade Skalsky, and today I am speaking with Kyle King, who is the Customer Success manager at our friends over at TacticalPay. Kyle, how are you doing today, sir?

Kyle: Pretty good. Wade. Thanks for having me on.

Wade: Excited to talk to you. So I always love it when we get to go into the inner workings of the business. It really is something I think is so interesting, since a lot of two way businesses have challenges that no other business in the United States has. So I love kind of chatting about it. So before we get going, why don’t you run me through a little bit how you came to be the customer service manager over there? What was your path? Have you always been in the firearms industry or how did you get into this industry?

Kyle: Before I got in this industry, I was actually a retail manager for 18 years. I did everything from nuts and bolts all the way to bullets I ran a firearm store for about two years. Before then, I was an academy at their firearms locations. I’ve always had a passion for firearms. It was always something I wanted to help. The smaller companies become like the bigger companies and they off. I spoke with Billy. He got me on.

Wade: Great. So how is working at where you are now different from working in retail before?

Kyle: I’m still in customer service or in this case, merchant service. It’s just knowing how to talk to people, help, wanting to help regardless whether it was picking help them pick out a Christmas gift or in this case, helping them succeed and help their business grow. It’s all still dealing with people, and just the goal is to help. And that’s what I actually enjoy doing.

Wade: One of the things, too, is that on the retail side of buying a firearm, there are lots of different options. And I have this belief where everyone has a firearm that’s perfect for them. There’s no one size fits all firearm for if you’re a handgun. A Glock is not great for everybody, even though that’s my gun of choice. And so there’s so many different pieces of information that you need to get to find the right fit. And basically that’s what you’re doing now, except for you’re doing it on the merchant side with regards on the financing and the merchant services.

Kyle: Correct. It’s just pretty much like you just said. There’s not that many choices, though, in the merchant services that can take care of the tactical merchant themselves because of the negative connotation that’s been placed on them.

Wade: And by that you mean there’s not a lot, a lot of options for them in terms of for the different types of like credit card processing or whatever, because so many companies don’t want to do it. And we’re going to talk a little bit about that today, and we’re going to niche down specifically into trade shows and gun shows and some of those things. But before I get there is do you find that that people that are in that you talk to in the firearms industry that they feel like things are going to loosen up coming forward now with the political change? Or do they feel, given the fact that we’ve got a new president, the Senate and the House are going more Republican? I know it’s more state, definitely more state specific. But what’s the mood out there right now?

Kyle: A lot of them, it does seem that more relaxed, more relieved, calmer just now. They’re just worried about day to day business rather than thinking, oh, what’s going to happen to us in January, so to speak? A lot of it has been more relaxed, more calmed down. Now they’re just focused on doing business and growing.

Wade: And that’s hard enough by itself. Just going any business, I don’t care if it’s a firearms business or whatever, is that it? Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is a micron, right. And so if you have all these extra concerns about regulation or having your credit card processor shut off your account at the last one, you don’t know when it’s going to happen or losing your merchant services that can sometimes make or break a business. So I think what you’re doing and what TacticalPay is doing is so important to allow two way businesses to flourish and to thrive. So what I want to do is I want to drill down a little bit today and talk about gun shows and trade shows. As the attitude of everyone is expanding and getting more excited, these shows will continue to grow. We know we’ve got Shot show that’s coming up in January, which is obviously a huge thing. Let’s talk about the optimal payment setup for sellers at these places. Now, what kind of credit card options do sellers have for equipment? How do they what’s the best way to pick between them? Basically.

Kyle: We try to have multitude of choices in order for merchants can pick any type. Some prefer a countertop unit, some would prefer say a mobile unit, and some don’t want to take any equipment with them. And we have an app that you can download. It’s the most economical way to do it. One of their cheaper variations and all. It is pulling out your phone. They tap their card and you’re good to go. And then for some of the other ones we have countertop units that will spit out a receipt because some buyers do love their receipts. Less people still love having that piece of paper in their hand, knowing that they got that. And then some people just love having the quick tap and go. On our, I’d say our P5, for instance, it’s shaped just like a cell phone. Same size. It’s got tap to pay on the back. Got a camera, everything. And then our unit that’s for countertop is getting a little blurred out. But yeah it’s simple easy. You can tap. It’s got a touch screen. You can slide your credit cards on them. It’s a multitude of ways that we can assist with the merchant for trade shows and helping them get ready. Just make them have the best trade show they can to grow.

Wade: And I think there’s been a big change in terms of the consumer. And they’re being comfortable and paying to something like a phone. I think with the advent of Venmo and PayPal and all those types of things people are so used to now doing transactions on a phone is the P5. Is that the reader that’s shaped like a phone? Yes. I’m pretty sure they did that on purpose to make people think, oh, it’s just like a phone, right? So it makes it more comfortable.

Kyle: Yeah. It’s something that you can put in your pocket at a show while you’re doing your setup. You don’t have to worry about having a whole countertop unit, and there’s no added weight, because it’s like having a second cell phone in your pocket. Everyone’s used to having a cell phone in their pocket, and it’s just mobile more size wise for the quick and easy. Okay, here, put your card right here. Good to go.

Wade: And one nice thing about that too, is that there’s an obvious difference between the P5 and your personal cell phone. Because even though if it’s my business and I’m running it and I pull out my personal phone, some people there may that may create friction in the buying process just because in their mind they’re like, it’s a personal phone versus a business phone or whatever. And so the P5 solves that problem. And then but also too is that I think anecdotally, are you seeing people having any hesitation by paying on a phone? I haven’t heard anything like that.

Kyle: Not really. We have several merchants that actually do well with having the app on their phone, rather than another piece of equipment. Like you said, we’ve gotten to the point where everyone’s just used to saying pulling their cell phones out, tapping to paying and everything is good. But there are the ones that prefer to see a separate unit from someone’s phone. It just makes them feel more secure. Absolutely.

Wade: And one thing that I’ve learned through my write for the firearms industry, and obviously I have this podcast and one thing that I’ve learned through talking to firearms people through all different verticals is that they’re not quick to trust necessarily. So there is a little bit of a trust bridge that needs to be built if you’re dealing with the consumer or if you’re dealing with another business. And that’s why TacticalPay is so great, because you guys, communication is so, you know, so good. And walking everyone through I can see how the different options would be appropriate for different businesses. Right. Either for a comfort level, I know all my people personally, so the phone is going to be fine or I have a strong relationship with them, or like we’re more of a traditional retail. So let’s go with something that’s more of like the P5.

Kyle: Yeah, there’s also merchants that have retail shops. And I tell them, don’t bring your P1 to the show. I said, we can always get you another device to add on to keep the P1 at the shop. That way you can still do sales at the shop while you’re at the show. And that’s when the P5 comes into play, because the best trade show or show period little device that we have, because it’s mobile, doesn’t have a big footprint, and it can do everything that the P1 does minus the receipt option, but we can still send it to your email or text message to you. So and the P1 is, is the more traditional countertop that you’re thinking in terms of being able to, like.

Wade: You would say go into any store basically, right?

Kyle: Yes. No. It’s more traditional countertop unit. It looks more like a unit you would see at a register in a shop rather than at the show, but we have some that just love it. For that receipt option, they can print it, put it on a piece of paper, and that way they know they keep a record of that at the end of the shows.

Wade: Yeah. And I think that’s it’s important that the options are not just for the consumer as well. For me personally, I’m not the most organized human being in the world, so I wouldn’t want to do it on my own phone. I would want to have a dedicated. Okay, this is my P5, this is what it does. And so I know that is the only thing that happens on that device has to do with my business, but then also then for the consumer as well. So that’s great for having a lot of different options. So no trade shows there at all various different locations. Obviously some of them are very high level. Some of them are like not production value a little lower. Do you need like a hard line of power to be able to run these and accept credit cards? How does that work?

Kyle: The best practices, what I tell all my merchants is the best thing to do is the night before the show, fully charge it, hook it up to the charger. It’s a C type charger, so pretty much almost any charger works with it. Charge it 100% and then throughout the day, they normally will last a day easy without being hooked back up. I’ve seen merchants use it a lot, so that way it obviously drains battery quicker. The best thing I can tell them is bring a power bank. So that way you’re not having to worry about where’s a where’s the charging outlet? All it is is a little block that hooks up just like we would our cell phones, and they would give them an extra 20 hours of power, which obviously you don’t need that long for a show, but you have that option.

Wade: Yeah. Because you don’t want to go through all that work in terms of registering for the show, traveling there, setting everything up and then not being able to take payments. That’s a bummer, obviously. Yeah, and that makes sense. But at the same time too, is you don’t have to be hardwired into a phone line or hardwired into the electrical outlet to be able to run your business.

Kyle: For electrical knowing and honestly hard line for internet, 95% of the time it shows you aren’t going to be because you’re in booths. The best thing to do is either hook up to their Wi-Fi. But what we found best being in going to shows and everything is do a hotspot from your phone to the device. A no one else can tap into that internet signal but you. It will be the strongest signal given, and you’re not using it every all the time, so it can be turned off and turned back on whenever you’re ready to charge the use to process a payment.

Wade: Yeah, my iPhone. I have a hotspot on there and it works great. Just connect to my my laptop to it is so seamless I never worry about it. I don’t even know what I pay for it. Like maybe five extra bucks a month or something like that, or ten bucks a month. It’s so cheap now. And yeah, and then obviously because you anytime you have financial information, you want to try to be as secure as possible and not rely upon the encryption or something in a public Wi-Fi. But I think it’s great advice. This episode is brought to you by TacticalPay.com. Every few years, it seems large banks and national credit card processors suddenly decide that they no longer want to process payments for firearms and firearms related businesses, and so they drop these businesses with almost no notice, freezing tens of thousands of dollars in payments for months on end. If you want to ensure your partner with a payments provider that is dedicated to supporting the firearms industry, or you just want to find out if you could be paying less for your ACH, debit and credit card processing, visit TacticalPay.com. Again, that’s TacticalPay.com. Let’s say that I’m not a huge retail shop. I have a retail component that’s small. I do trade shows. Can I just use the P5 in my shop as well? Is there anything that prevents me from doing that for retail? So get a kind of I have a one solution fits all situation.

Kyle: Yes, you do have a small shops. Yes. If you’re not, if you know you’re going to be closed while you’re at the show, you don’t have other employees. Yes, the P5 is a great one stop as well. It’s it looks more sleek and modern. So it’s draws attention to it. So people are like, hey look. Yeah. So it’s been a more popular devices of late, but people still love the tried and true P1. They love the fact, hey, I see it on my counter. It ain’t moving. It’s there.

Wade: Yeah. And that’s what’s so great is I think what like TacticalPay gives the options for people to grow. You know, with the business, you know, it doesn’t make sense for you to come in as a brand new business and get, you know, six different readers and, you know, just start with one, which we need. And that satisfies both where you’re at and then when you travel. Now you said something really funny. As you said, I love guns. I have a lot of guns. And there’s like the subtext is I have too many guns. And so when you go to when you go to a show, you may have a plan. And so that plan is I have this budget and I’m going to buy I’m not going to go over that budget. But then you see something at the show and you’re like, all right, I really want this for whatever reason. Are you seeing more sort of finance options coming in right now for guns? How does that work in terms of for two way businesses to do payment options? What how does that work exactly?

Kyle: Yeah, actually we have a relationship with Cordova. And if merchant comes to us and says, hey, expresses interest in having Cordova implemented either on their site or in for in-person in their retail shop, we can do that. And it’s for payments over six weeks. You can do up to $10,000 in basically pending on how much they allow it, by up to $10,000 to buy something with. And I’m one of those. When I’ve been in a firearm shop, I’m like, that gun is two grand. I look to my left, my wife, I already know I can get 500, but I can’t get two grand. But if I did the Cordova with that merchant, I will get my two grand gun for the 500. Right. Then the options, it just. It increases the growth and the profitability of the merchants just by offering something that maybe a customer who had 500 right then would have bought if they had that option to do Cordova.

Wade: And it allows you to take advantage of perhaps maybe a sale or take advantage of a situation to where. Yes. Okay, I have to wait to budget the two grand, maybe wait another couple of months and then it’s not going to be there and it’s not going to be there anymore because some of.

Kyle: These 500 bucks. Right.

Wade: Exactly. Yeah. Because it’s one thing that we’ve noticed obviously with inflation is prices are going up, not down and everything. And then walk me through a little bit. So actually walk me through a little bit about how that works then. So how does a consumer, if you’re not familiar with Cordova, how does that work as the consumer? Then you would say, okay, I’d like to put this on a plan. Is it do you do it through an app on the phone? What is the buying process of that like.

Kyle: Through the phone that they will they’re most of the time our merchants will have QR codes, say in their shop and also online. There’ll be the link that they click to do the application for Cordova and see how much they’re approved for it. Same thing would be for in-store. There’d be a little QR code. They just scan it, they run their app, it’ll tell them how much they’re good for, and then they go to the merchant and they can type in that virtual credit card number that they give, and that’s how they use to pay for it.

Wade: Then they just work out the payment. Does the seller have to do anything in that situation, meaning for follow up, or is that all handled by Cordova?

Kyle: No. The seller gets their money. The seller gets their money. Cordova is the one who has to go and get the other 1500, so to speak, from the consumer. The seller gets his money right then and there. Yeah.

Wade: So it’s almost a no brainer for the seller. Why? Because it increases the ability of your consumer to purchase. It increases the number of people that can purchase at that time at the show. And then you just get paid right there. So you don’t have to let Cordova worry about that. I think that’s genius. Walk me through a little bit about I’ve heard some people use a little bit of like a cash discount model for two way businesses. What is that exactly? And can two way businesses use that?

Kyle: Honestly, it’s the cash discount program benefits the seller more so than they can, more so than they really know. We’re all used to a traditional fee structure where we know when the consumer swipes their card. You’re getting that 3% or the 3 to 4% taken out of you and fees. What cash discount does is flip that around. So on a $100 transaction, instead of you only getting $97 from it because of the 3%, you actually get the full 100 and the consumer pays that 3%. So you are eliminating so many fees, the interchange fees on your monthly statement. You’re only paying your merchant fees. And it also helps quite a bit with getting to know where your profitability is. It makes it easier to figure out your statements. It’s it does help the merchant out quite a bit. Now I will say there are the merchants have been in business 15 years trying to explain cash discounts that way. They are not having it because they’re used to interchange and their customers are used to not seeing a 3% added on to them. I don’t even know where the 3% comes from. Right. They don’t know what it is, but if they start seeing it on their purchases, it makes Jimmy start asking questions about why is the raise in price. And it’s not really raising price. It’s just the card brands getting their money from the consumer rather than the merchant.

Wade: And I guess then is the argument that the merchant will sell the gun or the whatever they’re selling a little lower price with the that would give the discount idea or to fold that in, or how do they sell that to the consumer really.

Kyle: For the most part they it’s I always tell them to just do the 3% on top of the gun. So that way it’s there. But mostly the cash discount is only in cash and checks, or they pay with cash or check. They don’t have to deal with the fees like they do with the debit credit card processing? Yeah. Most time if you tell them, hey, you want to pay cash or check, you get the cash discount. That’s what it is.

Wade: So yeah. So basically what you would do is it’s almost like when you go to a restaurant at the bottom of the menu, it says parties of five or more gratuities automatically included or something like that. It’s you have a standard of business that you do and you say, hey, listen, if you’re going to use a credit card, this is a fee that you’re going to incur. But if you use cash, you don’t incur that fee. And then you let the consumer decide, okay, I want to do cash or I want to do the this fee. And you leave the choice up to the consumer as the competition increases and as the margins decrease in some of these businesses, I think you can give yourself a 3%, get rid of that 3% vig and do it in a way that is acceptable to your customers. I can see as a business why that there’s no reason why you wouldn’t want to do that. Yeah. Do you have any other kind of tips for people? Maybe. I’ve never gone to a gun show before, right? So I’ve never gone to a gun show or a trade show. I’m a merchant. Okay, so I’m ready to go. Traditional firearms. Whatever. What are some like three things that you would tell me as advice to me for my first time that maybe that from your experience that you’ve seen before.

Kyle: I’ve heard you speak about tactical firearms. So you’re aware of what a bug out bag is, right. Mhm. I would do a trade show bug out bag. Pretty much make sure you have an extra chargers. You have the power banks I mentioned before. Um make sure that you have the emails and stuff of the people you need to reach for merchant services. Just those types of things. That way, if there is an issue when running, you can email us or call us and we can help you right then on the spot. Because if you wait, there’s always those oh shit moments in trade shows that happens everywhere. And we get those calls and we’re able to assist right them there because they took time to get our number or email for it. And also or they I get calls about issues, hey, this died. What am I supposed to do? Did you bring your charger? Did you bring a power bank? I suggested to you before. No. Run down to the convenience store. Go buy a charger for it. Those are the main things we get asked about is. Oh, this died. Is it dead forever? No, it just needs to be charged. It will be fine. Forward thinking.

Wade: So I think if I hear what you’re saying correctly, is have a dedicated bag that your trade show bag so that you just, you know, it’s almost like having, you know, a med kit. You’ve got your chargers, you’ve got your power bank, you’ve got all of your important papers and troubleshooting addresses and emails. Maybe you have your backup of your user printer. You’re going to have a full stock of printer paper, backup printer paper in there for the receipts. And then that way as you just and then at the end of the trade show, you just make sure to restock that. So it’s always just you don’t mix it. You don’t cross the streams. Right. You don’t. You’re not like the day before or trying to pull stuff from your office and realizing you’re out of printer paper or whatever. So I think that’s really smart. Is there anything else other than that that you think is working for people in terms of what’s the mindset I should have when I go into one of these shows? Should I just be in terms of with regards to my equipment? It’s just just not worry about it. It’s going to be taken care of or what’s a good mindset going into here when I’m dealing with a trade show, if I’ve never been to one before.

Kyle: I’ve never been to one. Always test your equipment the night before. Run a quick dollar test transaction through it. It’ll say whether it’s processor decline, it’s declined. You give us a call, I can fix it right then and there. I. And the best thing to do is just go into the trade show with that. Good. Hey, TacticalPay’s got us. They’ve taken care of us through, got our equipment sorted out. I know when I need it, it’s going to work every time. It’s just the mindset of positivity actually has helped a lot of these merchants through their first trade shows.

Wade: And that’s the whole purpose of getting a strategic partner like TacticalPay is that look, you’ve seen it all. You’ve done it all. When someone calls you this is it’s very unlikely that they’re going to call you with a problem that you haven’t dealt with previously. That’s the whole point of partnering with TacticalPay. And one kind of last question is to run up against time here is that when you do what I do, all these transactions at the trade show, are they treated differently than if I’m doing them at my retail store? Do you know what I’m saying? Do they all go to the same place? It’s the same software. Whatever software I’m using, is there a difference between the two platforms or is everything put together? How does that work?

Kyle: Everything that you say do from your retail shop and then your separate device at the trade show, they all talk to each other and they all go to the same place. Your TacticalPay dashboard. You can view all your transactions, all the batches, the payouts, everything from there. There is no separate bin where it ships to it all. We keep a free flow in one flow.

Wade: Yeah, and I think that’s important too, because especially newer merchants too, is that you can get overwhelmed with all of the things that you have to be concerned about in your business, especially when you’re dealing with such a highly regulated business as the firearms business is that you want to make sure that you can keep your books as clean as humanly possible so that you know what’s going on, both in your business but also on the regulation side as well. And then I guess one last question in terms of the ability of what I’m selling a firearm, for example, is there a robust ability with the software and the dashboard to be able to include a lot of descriptions of the firearm, or in terms of being able to identify it? Do we have that capability or is it something that’s more like that’s a different type of record keeping.

Kyle: That I if you’re talking about per, say, the SIG Sauer P320 and then serial number, that’s more or less like a bound book, which is the software you have to have anyway in order to have your right to be able to sell it. Ours does not include a description as of now, but I’m not going to say that’s not coming soon, but you never know. Something we have looked at, just the description, whether it be firearm, rifle or there’s always at least a description or a little decipher for it.

Wade: I guess what I want to say, though, is that because you don’t want to be running two different sets of books is that you don’t really need to have that on the receipt or on the transaction, because the transaction has a unique identifier itself. So if you wanted to be able to link it to a firearm, you just have to use that one unique identifier. Exactly. Because Inartfully saying is you don’t need to keep two separate books, right? You just need to have your financial financials. And if you want, you can link them to the actual transaction number.

Kyle: Yeah, you can hook them up like invoices. And on the back end, you can always print up every individual transaction and put that receipt, so to speak, to it. And that’s all can be done from the TacticalPay dashboard as well.

Wade: And the TacticalPay dashboard. Can you access that on your phone too.

Kyle: If you go through the website. Yes. Right.

Wade: I’m a simple person. I don’t want to have an app and a website and a two different sets of books because I want this, this, this is where I go. And so that’s great. It’s been really great to talk. I know that TacticalPay is always making strides and advances in terms of technology and outreach and customer service. What’s on the horizon for the next 3 to 6 months? The next 2 to 3 years? What’s the plan? Is there anything in the hopper you can tell me about? Or is everything kind of secret right now?

Kyle: Everything’s a little on the hush at the moment. We’ll see your brains.

Wade: All right. Awesome. That’s good to know that we’ve got good stuff coming. So I’d love to bring you back onto the podcast, maybe in 3 to 6 months and see what’s cooking and get some more of these stories that help get people to know that they can go to these trade shows or gun shows and have these capabilities pretty easily, and not to be discouraged by that. So I really would love to have you back on the show again.

Kyle: Hey, it was awesome being here. I do appreciate.

Wade: It. Of course, of course. All right, Kyle, have a great day and thanks again.

Kyle: You have a good one.

Wade: You’ve been listening to the Tactical Business Show by TacticalPay.com. Join us again next episode as we explore what it takes to be a business success in the firearms industry.