Special Series: Focus. Build. Win. with Andie Hill and John Barrett at Payroc | Episode 443 Artwork

Leaders In Payments

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Leaders In Payments

Special Series: Focus. Build. Win. with Andie Hill and John Barrett at Payroc | Episode 443

November 10, 2025 • Greg Myers • Season 6 • Episode 443

The fastest way to win more ISO and agent deals isn’t adding more vendors; it’s sharpening the story. We sit down with John Barrett and Andie Hill from Payroc to unpack how a focused core product strategy transformed recruiting conversations, accelerated close rates, and unlocked real wins in the SMB space. This is the third and final episode in our three-part series titled: Focus. Build. Win.

John breaks down the four-part recruiting pitch that sets expectations and gets to fit fast: who Payroc is as a full-service acquirer, what the core solutions do, how infrastructure and culture support partners as customer number one, and where international expansion opens future lanes. Andie takes us into the field results: near sellouts of their terminal twice in a year, a step-change in win rates, and tangible gains when SMBs finally get pay by text, lightweight invoicing, and a polished countertop experience without enterprise POS cost or complexity. Service verticals like auto repair and landscaping benefit from simple scheduling, mobile-friendly payments, and fewer keyed transactions -practical improvements that agents can demo and merchants adopt quickly.

We also walk through a vertical ISO case study that shifted to sending 95 percent of its business to Payroc after repeatable onboarding, underwriting alignment, and responsive support outperformed legacy processors. Throughout the conversation, feedback loops drive the roadmap: trade show questions, CRM win-loss data, and partner demos surfaced the need for features like scheduling, which moved from request to release. The core message is clear; focus doesn’t mean fixed. The stack evolves, but the promise stays consistent: fewer products, better execution, stronger support, and a go-to-market that respects the time of the people closest to the merchant.

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Focus Build Win, a special three-part series that dives into how Payrock turned a focused core product strategy into a growth engine. Across three conversations, we'll explore how the company is leveraging acquisitions, building products that scale, and aligning sales, recruiting, and partner teams to win.

SPEAKER_03: 0:21

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Leaders in Payments Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Myers. This episode is part of our three-part series titled Focus Build Win, and is being brought to you by Payrock. Today I'm honored to have as our two special guests, John Barrett, the EVP ISO Agent Recruitment, and Andy Hill, EVP Agent Sales. John and Andy are going to be sharing how Clarity Sells and how PayRock's core products lift recruiting and close rates in the ISO and agent space. So, John, Andy, thank you both for being here and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01: 0:53

Thanks, Greg.

SPEAKER_03: 0:54

Thanks for having us. Absolutely. So before we dive into the topic, let's talk a little bit about you and Payrock. So Andy, we'll start with you. Tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your professional journey and your role at Payrock.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07

Absolutely. So Andy Hill, as you said, EDP of Agent Sales here at Payrock, primarily responsible for organic growth and our agent sales and ISO and agent channel. I have been in payments for about 20 years. I've held positions at some of the larger processors, most recently at Visa before I joined Payrock. Agent and ISO is my passion. I love them. They're not always great for my health, but I love them. And I've focused on that for the last 20 years. I live outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the LSU fan, as we were discussing prior to starting the recording. I have four children and I am married to my husband, Jason.

SPEAKER_03: 1:49

So awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that. So, John, same question for you. So tell our audience a little bit about yourself, your professional journey, and your role at Payrock.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56

Sure. So I've been in the payments business now for T two years. I started out working at First Data. Actually, Andy and I worked together for a while there. I started out running their agent program, the old card service international business. And then eventually it became the ISO and agent program for First Data at the time. I left to become president of a company called Nextgen, which was a large ISO MSP of Ellabon. That gave me a little bit of a perspective from being on the large processor side and then running an ISO. And I saw the pros and cons of both. And then Nextgen was one of the first four original companies that came together in 2019 to form what is now PayRock. And then obviously we've done a lot since then in terms of our acquisitions and where we are today versus back in 2019. But that was one of the original companies then. My role today is primarily to recruit, sign up new ISO partners, new agent partners, and really just promote PayRock in terms of what we do in the space and what we do for ISOs and agents. And as a result, we sign up quite a few. So okay.

SPEAKER_03: 3:01

So sticking with you, John, so for those that may not be familiar, can you give us a quick overview of what Payrock does and sort of the role it plays in the payments ecosystem?

SPEAKER_02: 3:09

Sure. So Payrock is a full service acquirer. And I make a point of highlighting that because a lot of folks think that we're another ISO. And PayRock was just an ISO several years ago, but they have since morphed into a full service acquirer. We have our own platform for processing. We have our own bank. In the ecosystem, we really do it all with the exception of issuing cards. We handle everything, you know, we bring on from boarding the merchant, you know, bringing on a merchant, deploying the equipment, obviously processing the transaction, settling to the merchant, managing all the risk, underwriting, chargeback management, and providing all the support that both the merchant requires as well as the sales partner requires. So it really encompasses a lot of different things. And we've we've enhanced what we do as an acquirer, obviously, through all the acquisitions that we've done. So today, like we have our own ACH company. You know, we have different, we have our own technology for compliant surcharging and dual pricing. So we've done enhancements to the technology to enhance what we do in the acquiring space in terms of all the products and solutions and things like that.

SPEAKER_03: 4:14

Okay. Well, John, we're gonna stick with you and we're gonna talk a little bit and focus on the recruiting side. And this series has really been about how PayRock made the transition through acquisitions and your own internal building out products that are owned by Payrock, sort of getting away from the kind of that vendor crazy, you know, having all these 30, 50 products that James Derby talked about in the last episode to really focusing on some core products. So I want to talk to you guys about sort of how do we look at that from that lens from the recruiting perspective. So, John, with you and then Andy with you as well. So, John, when you lead with that core product stack and the recruiting conversations, what changes do you see right away and reactions with this ISO and agent engagement or close rates? Kind of what do you see there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 5:04

So we like the focus and the variety, the simplicity. And it really changes the conversation because the conversation goes from not just a general conversation about being a partner, Rev shares and Schedule A's and things of that nature. And it really changes it into a more focused discussion about opportunities and vertical markets. And these are things that these folks may not have thought about when they started talking to us. They may just be trying to figure out what they want to do out there. They haven't even figured out in a lot of cases their business plan, or they need to look at changing their business plan. So when we talk about our core products and the technology that we bring, we're opening up not only opportunities, but we're giving them ideas on how to go at the market and maybe think about ways that they want to change. So it sort of speeds up the conversation and it gets us to the point a lot sooner. And then, you know, as far as what they're looking for and what we can provide. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 5:57

Well, what's the 60-second, you know, recruiting pitch that you found that works best when you're introducing a new ISO or agent office to this model?

SPEAKER_02: 6:06

Well, actually, I I have four things that we kind of focus on in that sort of 60-second elevator pitch. You know, the first one is obviously, like we talked about earlier, who we are and what we do. And so they understand the size and scale that PayRock brings to the party. The second part is really then focusing in the solutions that we provide. So this gets into where we talk about the core products and the technology that we bring to them that they may or may not have today and the focus that we can bring into that. The third element would be our infrastructure and our culture. This gets into the point that I think Jim made in his conversation, where our sales partner is considered our number one customer. And we really highlight that. We talk about the ease of doing business with Payrock, the access that we provide them in terms of resources, tools, materials, the portal that we have. We talk about that because support is a big, obviously a relatively big issue. I also highlight when I get into those core products, it talks, it really kind of brings up the technology side of Payrock that people don't really may or may not know about who we are and what we do there, and that we're constantly innovating and enhancing those core products. So that's part of the pitch. And then I may or may, you know, sometimes I'll also touch on our international capabilities. I mean, we do provide merchant services in different countries today, and with the recent acquisition of Boost Snap, that's going to expand. So we talk about that. And even though an ISORN agent may not be doing that today, they're all thinking about it and they're all trying to figure out a way to do it. So I may bring that up as well. So those four points are probably the primary thing, you know, if I'm doing my 60-second pitch. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 7:40

So how has clarity around your core products or core offering helped simplify or speed up this recruiting process?

SPEAKER_02: 7:48

Well, I mean, like I kind of mentioned earlier, it gets right to the point. You know, I mean, I don't spend a lot of time talking about just an agent relationship. And if a prospect is just wanting to talk about the agreement and the rev shares and the buy rates and things like that, and they're not willing to take a look at the value proposition that we bring, it helps me vet it out. So I'm not wasting time either. So that we may not be a fit for them and they may not be a fit for us. But what it does do is it allows us to kind of focus in on what we bring to the party that they may not have today. And that speeds up the process because I'm not going through having to go through a lot of kind of here's everything we do, and here's all the different partners we have, and this is all the products that we have. We could focus in on the ones that we do and the markets that we cover and how effectively we do that and how well we support that. So Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 8:45

So what objections or hesitations do you most often hear from these potential partners and how do you address those?

SPEAKER_02: 8:52

I think the main one is in, I believe this was touched on in either James or Jim's, but the main one is that they're a lot of them are just comfortable and knowledgeable on their existing relationships. They like selling a particular vendor terminal. They have a hesitancy to want to change that. You know, and so what I try to do with them is I try to basically say, first of all, if you want to continue that, you can. I mean, if you want to have a relationship with a vendor and work with them on the deployment and the support of that and just use us to process with a var sheet, we could do that. But here's why we need to take a look at these products. And then we kind of go through the product overview. I'll oftentimes I'll schedule a uh follow-up call with them with our product sales team to kind of get into the products a little bit more detailed. Um, I try not to be the product, I'm not the product expert, so I don't try to get into, you know, the specific product capabilities versus a competitor and all that kind of stuff. But I do highlight the areas of focus that our products are on and the markets that they cover and the opportunities it brings to them. That usually, I mean, I don't really have much of a problem overcoming that objection.

SPEAKER_03: 9:55

Right. Gotcha. Makes sense. So, Andy, let's turn to you and let's focus on the ISO and agent sales side. So, what tangible impact have you seen since centering your strategy on the sort of core stack and you know, whether that's in win rate, speed to close, or deal size?

SPEAKER_01: 10:11

I think it's all of the above, right? So I think what the core stack and the strategy has brought to us is growth in general. I believe Jim spoke to it on his podcast that our core platform has grown over 30%. And it is a direct result of the strategy and this core technology stack. What we brought was that to a channel where traditionally in other competitor markets, they are somewhat forgetting about. We are building these core stacks of maybe not the most sophisticated software program because those are out there for lots of different verticals, but something that is tangible, something that these smaller guys that don't want to invest a lot of dollars out of their cash flow because they don't need all these extras, right? But they want to feel important, they want to feel like they are getting some of the technology pieces of 2025 outside of just a standalone terminal. And I think we've seen that in terms of win rates. So when we first announced our strategy as it related to core products in our sales summit last January, in February, we almost sold out of our rock terminal. So, you know, it's a good problem to have. And it basically enforces to us that the strategy is right. You know, if they're taking it to market, merchants are purchasing it, they're buying into this strategy and wanting it because not only did we almost sell out in February, but then again, about six months later, we almost sold out again. So, you know, it does prove to us that the adoption of this strategy and the core product shift was something that the market needed. It was filling a gap and a void there, and especially for our agent ISO channel of what they were selling.

SPEAKER_03: 11:56

Okay. So which verticals responded first or the strongest to this core kind of solution strategy? And what pain points did you solve for them?

SPEAKER_01: 12:05

I know this is gonna sound just kind of generic, but I do believe for us, the SMB retail vertical was probably the first to respond, primarily because a lot of our agent and ISO channel, that is what they were selling into, right? That was kind of their bread and butter. But what now they had was they were able to walk into some of these SMBs where historically they only had something that was very traditional hardware. The merchant might have already said, no, you know, these big software guys are not for me, but now they're coming in with something that's somewhat of a hybrid. So they're giving them that technology feel with the look and the cost of a piece of hardware that they were used to. So we saw a great response from that. And I think that's what they were solving. I think SMBs, especially smaller ones, they are looking at it and they're going, hey, I want to have this cool stuff, but I don't want to pay a fortune for it. I don't want to be priced out of the market for it. But I want to have some, you know, be able to look and feel at my countertop where I'm not some dinosaur. Like, yes, I've got cool technology here. I want to be able to do some pay by text. I want to do some invoicing if I need to, but not pay$200 a month to get that. I can't afford those pieces. So I think that was a big piece for us where we saw that shift when we saw a lot of these SMB retailers that were willing to move away from what they were using before for something, you know, and they may not have wanted that top-end POS, but here's like a middle piece that they could go after. The second one I would say would be in the service in the services field. So we saw a lot in like the auto repair space. We saw a lot from like landscapers, kind of those guys that historically, if they needed to take a payment, either they had to have just a standalone terminal at their auto repair counter, but it didn't do the things they needed. They may have, you know, inventory. They may need to send a proposal to someone or an invoice to show them how much it's gonna cost to have these two tires changed. In the landscaping, they're redoing your flower beds, that they have to go buy new plants and they've got to send you something to show that. That wasn't really in place before. So they would have to call you, they would tell you how much it's gonna be. Then either you're gonna give them a credit card on the telephone, which we all know your rates go up when you do that, or they've got to call it back into the girl at their home office and then she's gonna type it in for you. So being able to provide them with all of the features and functionalities, whether you're at, you know, standing in someone's front yard doing your work, or you're standing in an auto repair shop where you want to know how much of the inventory you have on hand, what you need to order, sending text, I think really changed the game for us. It really showed a lot of our ISO and agents that we are building the right technology for you to take. And we understand the pain points, right? Being able to walk in to that auto repair guy and speak his speak and say, hey, I know this is what you're struggling with. Let me show you what I've got to help you. And let me show you how you can do this and the pieces that you can use. We don't have to buy the whole big software solution that includes things you may not need, but I've got something that can get you further than where you are today. So I think that's been really beneficial for us that we know those pain points, we have the right people. I mean, you met James Derby, he's been out there, he knows what these guys are experiencing and how to build these products and these strategies to support that.

SPEAKER_03: 15:41

Okay. So when an ISO and agent is transitioning from maybe a legacy vendor to payrock, how do you guide that conversation to ensure there's a successful transition?

SPEAKER_01: 15:52

Well, usually John has already done a great job of sharing the dream and delivering on that dream. So now it's our job to really put it in into play and put it into action. So we give our new partners a phenomenal onboarding experience. We have an onboarding team for support that's just dedicated to them. We have a go-to-market executive that comes to them and makes sure from a proactive approach that they are getting all the things that they need. We're not just waiting for them to call us. We're calling them to make sure that they do understand what our core product strategy is. They understand how to sell it. They understand what the cost is, they understand the pricing programs that come along with it, which, you know, I will put our pricing programs, the things that we do, up against any competitor out there in terms of, you know, funding options and the different abilities as you look at all the new surcharging rules and making sure that we're up to date on all of those. So we do a great job there. But I think it's really taking that core group that I just shared and they're listening, they're understanding what are the goals of these partners, what are their pain points as a partner? You know, why did they choose payrock? And because it's likely something that happened previously. And how do we overcome those things? And making sure that to John's point, they are our customer and that we are hearing them. We are taking our strengths and we are sharing those with them so that they have the best possible experience and we can deliver on all the promises that we've made.

SPEAKER_03: 17:25

Okay. So can you talk through a specific use case of maybe an ISO or an agent office that's transitioned and what are some of the results that they're seeing?

SPEAKER_01: 17:33

So I would say last year we had a large ISO that came to us. And listen, they had relationships across the planet, let's say. And so we were just another one that they were kind of trying to. You could certainly tell in conversation that they had not found a home, but they were just, you know, they were putting a little business here, a little business there. And so when they came to K-Rock, we and we started uncovering these things about them, knowing that we weren't the only home, that they had a lot of options. So we decided, how do we get, you know, and this was a verticalized ISO, which is something as we've all spoken about, is very important to the strategy. And how do we get the best from them? So we worked really closely to kind of create, you know, how do they board on us? Create a very rent and repeatable experience and being able, when it comes to MPAs, making sure that they're providing the right documents from upfront, making sure that our underwriters knew exactly like their DNA of a merchant was not going to change. It's always probably going to look like this. And so being able to cultivate something and collaborate with them that is very specific to their needs was super important. And then next thing that you found, we started servicing and picking up the phone and, you know, providing that extra support capability that I don't think they were getting previously from some of the competitors. And then what we found was they had some projects. And so then we were first on the list. And so as we uncovered these things, and that was, you know, we asked the questions, we would listen to their problems. And every little bit, we would kind of take little notes and say, oh, this is why they don't like this competitor and this. How do we solve for that and stay ahead of it? So by doing that, we have now, you know, almost it's probably been over a year now. We are getting, I would say, 95, 97% of their business. And this is large, their merchants come, yeah, or very large opportunities. And we've created this really unique experience for them that allowed us to shut out what they were getting from the competitors.

SPEAKER_03: 19:38

Okay. So we've discussed the recruiting impact and the sales impact of moving into this new product focused strategy. So now let's talk about how you take feedback from the field and leverage it to help build new products and services. So, John, question for you how do you capture field feedback, whatever that might be, win-loss, ticket tags, whatever they are, and turn those into maybe roadmap changes working with product?

SPEAKER_02: 20:03

A lot of that comes from the direct interaction that I have with the prospects, whether that's on the phone or we attend acquirer shows, and we have a chance to interact with a lot of different people. So I talk to a lot of different partners, and they'll ask, do you have this capability? Do you have that? And I take that and I'll take it back to our product team through. We have a sales-facing product team that also works with James Derby's group, who does the commercialization. And we'll provide that feedback. And we'll say, hey, they're looking for this. And a good example of that is on the services product, right? We kept getting inquiries about scheduling, and we didn't have scheduling as a capability. And we brought that to the table several months ago, a year ago, really, and now we've rolled that out. So it's a good example of how we've enhanced our solutions by basically getting a lot of that feedback. And then the other part of that is also, you know, like I said earlier, I do try to encourage them to get on a call with our product team and get get an overview of our products. And so they get a lot of feedback directly in that form or fashion. And then we have a CRM that we use. I will take in, I mean, I manage all the leads that come in, all the opportunities. We identify if we won them or we lost them. If we lost them, we identify the reason we lost them. So that provides us a bit of a database within our CRM to also go back and look at that data.

SPEAKER_03: 21:22

Okay, great. So, Andy, over to you. How do you ensure your field teams and agents are using consistent messaging and demos that reflect the payrock brand? And I think it's an important question because although the name PayRock hasn't changed, this new strategy has changed and you want to continue to build that payrock brand. So curious how you make sure that that consistent messaging and those demos are being used.

SPEAKER_01: 21:47

It comes down to a few things training. It comes down to the tools, feedback from our partners, making sure that they realize that we are open to that feedback, whether it's positive or concerning. We want to hear it because we can't change it if we don't know about it. And then framework, you know, how are we going to deliver these things? Whether that be through we're delivering information through webinars, we're delivering it through our portals, we are hosting things like podcasts, we're doing marketing with other partners like digital transactions or in LinkedIn. So I think all of those things are important. Also, our marketing team is best in class. They are constantly, constantly making sure that the information that we are putting out there is the most relevant and the most up-to-date information as it relates to payrock, to our brand, to our core solutions, the changing, as John said, like the scheduling piece, the changing of those solutions, making sure that folks are aware that we are updating those core products. And when we are enhancing them, we're going to show that from a marketing campaign that we made that enhancement. Because if we don't tell the market, someone may have looked at that product six months ago. And if it was missing this piece, they're likely not going to come back and look at it again. But when we start to share and market that information, then maybe it's like, oh, well, I was missing that scheduling piece. Let me go look at this product again. Maybe this is something you know that might be useful for my merchants that I walked away from previously. So I think it's really important we provide pitched up battle cards, speaking on the pain points, making sure that our agents and our ISOs do know those pain points when they're walking in to sell our core products so that they can have that really in-depth conversation with the merchants. And then selling that dream to the specific merchant to say that here's a product that's tailored for you, that's meant for you to have all of the things that you're looking for without the absorbent price. So that's, you know, strong for us is marketing. We kind of live and breathe for it. And I think that is how we keep the payrock name out there and we keep it strong.

SPEAKER_03: 23:56

Okay. So, Andy, John, this has been an amazing conversation. And this is, as I mentioned, the third part in our three-part series. And I think this episode really kind of brought everything to life, right? We talked, we talked to Jim in the first one about kind of the vision, why it was done, how it was executed. We talked to James about sort of the products and some of the verticals. And then you guys are out there kind of feet on the street every day talking to your partners who end up being the ones who sell to the end customer, but you guys are kind of where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. So I just wanted to close out the show today, see if there's anything else that you guys wanted to touch on or any closing thoughts you had for the audience. So, Andy, any closing comments?

SPEAKER_01: 24:37

Yeah, I would just say, listen, technology is something that we are absolutely keeping a pulse on. We're watching it every day. You know, what we did yesterday is not going to get us there tomorrow. So I think Payrock has a good sense of that in terms of how we look at the market and being able to deliver products and solutions to the traditional agent and ISO's channels that they can go and win with. Because I think that sometimes is the challenge, is that if you're not investing in that channel and not bringing them things they can win with, they're not going to be able, if they can't go and sell a gun set software program to the merchant. So being able to deliver those things has been a game changer for us at Payrock. And, you know, I just would encourage folks to if you're looking for something to fill that gap, you know, certainly, yeah, give us a call. Give John a call. We would love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02: 25:27

Okay. John, any closing thoughts? Yeah, just one. I think it's important for us to note that when we talk about core products, that it's a concept and it's a strategy. It's not stagnant. And I think with that, you know, when we look at our core product solution, those products could change, they could get enhanced, they could, we could add a product to that solution. It's really important to understand the concept is basically make sure that we're meeting the needs of the merchant, the way they want to sell products and get payments, um, whether it's today or tomorrow, that it's easy to understand and sell by our partners, and then we can provide unparalleled support in doing that. So it's that concept that I think is important for us to get across.

SPEAKER_03: 26:05

Okay. Well, I think that's a great way to wrap up the show today. So, John, Andy, thank you both. I know your time's very valuable. So, again, thank you both for being on the show today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 26:14

Thank you for having us, Greg.

SPEAKER_03: 26:15

And to all your listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well. And until the next story.

SPEAKER_00: 26:20

Thanks for tuning in to Focus Build Win, a special series exploring how Payrock's focus on core products drives alignment, growth, and lasting partner success. To explore more resources and insights, visit www.payrock.com slash agent opportunity.