Every business needs to justify its existence by consistently providing value to its customers.  At FeeFighters our business is connecting business owners looking for financial services with financial services companies that meet their needs.

We talk a lot on this blog about how we create value for business owners:

• apples to apples comparison of pricing
• participating financial services providers must follow a set of merchant-friendly rules (no cancel fee, only interchange-plus pricing, etc)
• streamlined collection of documents for underwriting
• no unsolicited calls from salespeople
• pricing set in a competitive auction which usually results in a much lower rate with less shopping time

But we don’t talk too much about how we create value for the financial services companies, so for a moment now I will:  we dramatically lower their sales costs.

For example, in credit card processing, the First Annapolis Group, a consulting firm focused on the payments industry, estimates that for a credit card processing company to acquire a new customer it costs them about $1000 on average.  Their estimate includes all direct sales costs, such as the commissions and salaries paid to salespeople.  For more detail on the research, see First Annapolis Group Navigator January 2009.

At FeeFighters we charge less, more like $300 per customer, and we only get paid when we actually deliver a customer, so unlike hiring a new salesperson or doing advertising, there is no risk.  Delivering such a great value to the financial services company also helps our small business customers, because a big part of that cost savings is passed along to them.