Rule One of Business: Get Paid

May 25th, 2010

Getting paid, as you would imagine is vitally important to your business because if you aren’t paid, what are you doing in business?

You will be shocked at the loads of business people who permit their customers to pay them when and if they get around to it. I am acquainted with such a trader who habitually makes bad debts like trophies. Why, do you think? Probably because he doesn’t bring himself to take the cash and lets people take advantage of him.

If you permit a customer credit, only do it after they have cleared their worth to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for a time. Also, you need to see whether they have the money to pay you – if they don’t then do not do business with them. Don’t push yourself into thinking “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s ultimately in doing the work or providing the goods for zip if you aren’t getting paid.

If you are the kind of person who can’t ask for the money when the job has been finished, try these ideas:
Tell your client that when all the work is done with, you will require cash or cheque. They should likely have it ready at the transacation and you won’t have to request your payment.

When handing out a quote, be sure your payment terms are evident.

Create an invoice including the terms of payment plainly printed and hand the client the invoice when the task is finished. They can look at the invoice and simply assume they should pay you the money now without you needing to say a thing. Manufacture an “evil boss” who would torture you alive if you can’t leave with the payment for the work.

Organise your banking institution to set you up with Merchant facilities so you can accept credit cards for example Mastercard and Visa. The large part of people have credit cards and it should fix the difficulty of the client not operating a cheque account or not having enough cash in their pocket.

Otherwise, don’t be afraid to hold the promised goods until you have been paid. Know, until the goods are paid for, the goods still remain yours.

If you decide to let someone credit, be sure you have got the following contact information of them at a point BEFORE you allow them credit.

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

When you possess all this information, call the banking institution and make for sure that they do use an account there. Then, call all of the trade reference and inquire if they pay their bills on time or if they have any dilemmas 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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