Rule One of Business: Get Paid

May 25th, 2010

To get paid, you would realise is fundamentally crucial to your business because if you are not getting paid, what’s the point in business?

You would be surprised at the amount of business people who permit their clients to pay up when and if they feel like it. I know such a tradesman who persistently holds bad debts like accolades. For what reason? Just because he won’t bring himself to demand the money and lets people take advantage of him.

If you give somebody credit, do so only because they have proved their worth to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for some period of time. Secondly, you can find whether they have the cash to pay you - otherwise you shouldn’t do business with them. Don’t fool yourself into the line of “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s ultimately when you do the job or providing the goods for zip if you do not get paid.

If you are the type of person who can’t ask for the fee even when the service has been completed, try these ideas:
Tell your client that when the service is done with, you require cash or cheque. They should be likely to have it ready at at the finish date and you will not have to demand your fee.

When you hand out the quote, be sure your payment terms are clear.

Create an invoice with the terms of payment plainly printed and hand the customer the invoice when the work is completed. They will look at the invoice and reactively realise they will pay you the money now without you having to say a word. Invent an “evil boss” who may flay you alive if you do not bring back the fee for the work.

Set up your branch to have you running with Merchant facilities so you can accept credit cards such as Mastercard and Visa. The majority of people utilize credit cards and it would prevent the difficulty of the customer not having a cheque book or not having enough cash at the time.

Likewise, don’t be afraid to hold the promised goods until they have been paid for. Understand, until they’re paid for, they still remain yours.

If you choose to allow someone credit, be sure you have taken the following contact details about them at a time PREVIOUSLY you let them credit.

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Bank name and address
  • Account no.
  • 3 trade references with their names, addresses and phone numbers

Once you have all this information, call the bank and make certain that they use an account at there. Then, telephone each trade reference and find out if they pay their bills punctually or if they have any problems with them.

Most people will be willing to tell you if the person is troublesome. If everything is OK, allow them a moderate level of debt, say no more than $500 (depending on your business). Monitor the operation of the account for a few months before allowing this amount to be exceeded.

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Relationship Marketing Fundamentals

January 2nd, 2010

As a customer service concept, relationship marketing is not new. For decades, business-to-business marketers have employed account managers who have the responsibility to dedicate themselves to key clients. In the financial world, `relationship banking’, whereby high-yield customers are assigned a personal manager, has been practised for many years.

When direct marketing is embraced to establish connections or relations between the marketer and the consumer, it is too easy to suggest that all forms of direct marketing communications achieve a closer relationship, a closer bond between the two parties. Such a conclusion exaggerates what generally happens in the marketplace.

Direct marketing is all about generating a direct response from the consumer and about direct communications to the consumer. A direct response is needed to generate better understanding of the advertising message or to motivate transactions. Direct communication is simply about media reach efficiency. Relationship marketing is a concept that transcends these pragmatic direct marketing objectives.

Kotler appropriately positions the concept of relationship marketing as one which applies principally to business-to-business situations:

Smart marketers try to build up long-term, trusting, `win—win’ relationships with customers, distributors, dealers and suppliers. That is accomplished by promising and delivering high quality, good service, and fair prices to the other party over time.

It is accomplished by strengthening the economic, technical, and social ties between members of the two organizations. The two parties grow more trusting, more knowledgeable, and more interested in helping each other. Relationship marketing cuts down on transaction costs and time; in the best cases, transactions move from being negotiated each time to being routinized.

Outside of `membership’ or `continuity’ programs, there are two basic ways to approach consumers. The first is with a product and price combination considered to be `the standard’. That is, the proposition is essentially of long standing and relies on the features and benefits being competitive. The second way, normally of short-term duration, is a `special offer’. Direct marketing textbooks are full of the theory, practice and case histories relating to `the offer’.

The choice of basic propositions or selection of special offers depends on the circumstances of the individual firm and its competitive environment. The right proposition or offer can make a world of difference to response cost-effectiveness.

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