The Story of Avant-Garde Marketing Solutions
Your business deserves more than just credit card processing…
Avant-Garde Marketing Solutions is a company founded on the principle of integrity, and dedicated to providing the best possible service, pricing, and support to our clients. While selecting a credit card processor can certainly be a confusing undertaking; your decision will become much simpler once you know a little history of the industry, and the impact of AGMS!
Consumer credit cards were first issued by the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn New York in 1946, with Diners Club, American Express, and Bank AmeriCard, now called Visa, issuing credit cards in the 1950’s. With the exception of two significant events; the credit card industry has remained relatively unchanged for more than 50 years, despite processing almost 3-trillion dollars annually in the U.S. alone! The first significant event occurred when the slide machine was replaced electronic terminal in 1979; allowing thousands of companies, known as merchant service providers, or MSP’s, to market processing services. The second significant event occurred when AGMS burst on the scene with a new perspective and revolutionary ideas in 2004.
Unlike so many other MSP’s, AGMS is not simply a sales company hiring unskilled sales people and relying on third party vendors to supply services and support to clients. AGMS is a fully functional operation with professionally trained business consultants; built from the ground up to control all aspects of our business; including customer service, product fulfillment, downloading, technical support, and trouble shooting. AGMS can also help your business excel by offering exclusive, patent-pending products that drive customers to your business, generate referrals, boost sales, and increase profits!
If you are a legitimate business owner interested in a long-term relationship, based on trust and integrity, with an outstanding merchant service provider that puts you first, look no further. AGMS; designed from its inception to be the undisputed leader in the merchant service industry.
Teresa Madrigal: Founder, President, & CEO
After building a successful international marketing business, Teresa Madrigal sold her shares and retired before her 30th birthday. After enjoying a life of peace and tranquility for several years, a friend and former business associate asked Teresa to consult with her regarding a career in the merchant services industry. She agreed to help and quickly discovered that most business owners were not only unhappy with their services, many even disliked their processor! She soon discovered the industry was overrun with MSPs that care more about their commissions than their clients. She was shocked MSPs were not offering products, services, marketing support, or training to help business owners build their businesses, promote their products, or increase their profits; making complaints and contract cancellations commonplace!
Contrary to antiquated industry doctrine, Teresa understood the value of developing long-term relationships with business owners and realized a new approach in the industry was needed. Following the “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” philosophy, she
began negotiating with banks on behalf of her clients to ensure the best possible rates, providing the finest customer service available, and offering exclusive products, services, and marketing ideas to grow their businesses and their profits!
As a result, AGMS was awarded the fastest growing new company only months after it began. One year later, Teresa received the “Business Woman of the Year” award and was invited to Washington, D.C. to receive her award and have dinner with President George W. Bush. The following year, Teresa was selected as “Honorary Chairman” of the United States Congressional Business Advisory Council, and invited to speak before Congress to share her views regarding current business affairs in America.
She was inducted as an elite member of the “Who’s Who” Registry of Executive Professionals a year later, and also received the Congressional Business Advisory Council “Order of Merit” award for her success with AGMS. Teresa has been recognized, along with AGMS, for excellence in the merchant service industry, and she was honored by Cambridge “Who’s Who” as “Business Woman of the Year! She was selected by the board of directors of the National Association of Professional Women as “Professional Woman of the Year” for 2010/2011; for demonstrating excellence & dedication within the merchant service industry!
Teresa and the professional staff at AGMS are personally committed to providing unprecedented products, services, and opportunities for our clients, setting the standard in the merchant service industry!
Innovative Business Strategy
After more than 30 years of questionable sales tactics, misleading proposals, and taking profits from businesses without offering any help, assistance, or benefits, it’s not difficult to figure out why so many business owners have little appreciation for their credit card processor. This negative point-of-view has been permeating a large portion of the credit card industry for many years.
Short-sightedness prevents many business owners from realizing purchases made using credit cards total close to 3-trillion dollars a year nationwide, with over 50% of all purchases being made using them! Once we take into account that more than half of all customers don’t actually have money on hand to make their purchase, and couldn’t make their purchases, without credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, financing their spending, we quickly realize those sales would simply not exist without them.
Realizing 1 out of 2 customers simply would not exist without credit cards, most business owners discover a new-found appreciation for the sales and profits credit card companies make possible, and the relatively low cost of credit card processing compared to not having those sales! In return for their services, credit card companies receive a small percentage of sales made using them, which is necessary considering the tremendous amount of accountability, responsibility, and liability they face. While the credit card companies get a small percentage of the sales made using their cards, MSP’s receive a mere fraction of that small percentage. The infinitesimal percentage received by MSP’s is calculated in tenths, if not hundredths, of a penny on credit card purchases!
These minute earnings leave MSP’s with two basic marketing strategies.
The first, which seems to have become the industry standard, is based on constantly hustling business owners and saying just about anything necessary to get the contract signed, then abandoning them to third party vendors for support, so they can continue signing more accounts, hoping to create a wave of new accounts that will compensate for the dissatisfied business owners they know will eventually cancel their agreements.
The second strategy, and the inspiration behind AGMS, is the understanding that the minute percentages MSP’s receive equate to success only if they continue being paid long-term; the result of sound relationships developed with our clients. The stellar success of AGMS will continue to be the result of constantly earning your businesses each and every day, by providing the best pricing, most innovative products, and uncompromising services available; not by relying on irresponsible third party support to do it for us! Since the inception of AGMS, we ascended to the top of the industry by demanding the best for our company, and the best for our clients, negotiating the best contracts, cutting out the intermediary companies and the “middlemen,” and taking full responsibility for the needs of our clients by controlling all aspects of our business “in house.” Our professional staff of conscientious employees and sales representatives endure extensive screening and unprecedented training, ensuring their professional conduct, and your eternal satisfaction; always!