One of my clients has developed four steps to speed the payments he is due:

Watch your customers’ accounts

You must be able to distinguish between your customers who are struggling with overwhelming workloads, and those who choose to default on your payment as they spiral into insolvency.

• The first sort will respond to help and encouragement so that their late payments can be softened with the addition of interest when they get round to paying you.
• The second sort are cynically withholding your rightful payment to delay their own day of reckoning with bankruptcy. Your best response will be to seize whatever you can before their cash runs out.

So keep an eye on your customers, be interested in their business health and listen for trade gossip about them. By monitoring the size of your customer's debt against their current credit rating, you can decide whether to encourage them to clear their debts before accepting further orders from them.

Help your customers to pay

You must ensure that your invoices are effective: state your business name and contact details, note the quantity of each product or service supplied, state the price charged (with tax if charged) and show any non-standard settlement terms.

Presenting your invoice just before your customer's monthly accounting date will enable them pay the invoice immediately and not lose it in their in-tray.

Chase overdue accounts promptly

On the due date, send a polite letter or e-mail to remind your customer about their overdue payments. You can show your commitment to being paid by telephoning directly to the buyer, the managing director and the business owner.

Do record every letter, e-mail and phone call you make – both to track overdue accounts and in case you need evidence for later use in court.

In England, the Late Payments Directive allows interest to be charged at current bank rates on overdue accounts. Sometimes your polite hint to your customer will trigger them to pay up at the invoiced price rather than wait to incur interest too.

Discuss differences and negotiate outcomes

The UK Better Payment Practice Group have a range of helpful suggestions about the techniques you can use to trace debtors who might be difficult to contact. The shock of finding that they are still accessible can convince such customers to settle your bill.

Where debtors have a habit of contesting invoices, you might benefit from hiring an authorised mediator or professional arbitrator to judge the claim you want to assert. This approach can extract a fair payment from your customer without incurring court costs.

Debt collection agencies will purchase bad debts (at a realistic discount) saving you the time and aggravation involved in obtaining settlement. Often the agency will pursue their purchased debt vigorously so you should restrict this approach to one-time sales or where you have no interest in future sales from that customer.

When you choose to pursue legal action, you might ask the Insolvency Service whether your customer is already out of business. Then you will need to brief a solicitor or attorney and get them to help you approach the court for a Small Claims settlement and an insolvency order.

Using a payment proce

nts can be softened with the addition of interest when they get round to paying you.

The second sort are cynically withholding your rightful payment to delay their own day of reckoning with bankruptcy. Your best response will be to seize whatever you can before their cash runs out.

So keep an eye on your customers, be interested in their business health and listen for trade gossip about them. By monitoring the size of your customer's debt against their current credit rating, you can decide whether to encourage them to clear their debts before accepting further orders from them.

Help your customers to pay

You must ensure that your invoices are effective: state your business name and contact details, note the quantity of each product or service supplied, state the price charged (with tax if charged) and show any non-standard settlement terms.

Presenting your invoice just before your customer's monthly accounting date will enable them pay the invoice immediately and not lose it in their in-tray.

Chase overdue accounts promptly

On the due date, send a polite letter or e-mail to remind your customer about their overdue payments. You can show your commitment to being paid by telephoning directly to the buyer, the managing director and the business owner.

Do record every letter, e-mail and phone call you make – both to track overdue accounts and in case you need evidence for later use in court.

In England, the Late Payments Directive allows interest to be charged at current bank rates on overdue accounts. Sometimes your polite hint to your customer will trigger them to pay up at the invoiced price rather than wait to incur interest too.

Discuss differences and negotiate outcomes

The UK Better Payment Practice Group have a range of helpful suggestions about the techniques you can use to trace debtors who might be difficult to contact. The shock of finding that they are still accessible can convince such customers to settle your bill.

Where debtors have a habit of contesting invoices, you might benefit from hiring an authorised mediator or professional arbitrator to judge the claim you want to assert. This approach can extract a fair payment from your customer without incurring court costs.

Debt collection agencies will purchase bad debts (at a realistic discount) saving you the time and aggravation involved in obtaining settlement. Often the agency will pursue their purchased debt vigorously so you should restrict this approach to one-time sales or where you have no interest in future sales from that customer.

When you choose to pursue legal action, you might ask the Insolvency Service whether your customer is already out of business. Then you will need to brief a solicitor or attorney and get them to help you approach the court for a Small Claims settlement and an insolvency order.

Using a payment proc

The Marketing / Sales Disconnect & Its Impact On Lead Generation
Let’s talk about how companies can work to improve the seamless connectedness between their lead generation activities and their sales activities. A lot of companies have many, many disconnects between the parts of the organization that actually generates qualified leads for the company, i.e. usually marketing, and those who actually convert those qualified leads into sales opportunities and close new business for the company - in other words, the sales team. Typically, there is a large disconnect between several functi

ntact details, note the quantity of each product or service supplied, state the price charged (with tax if charged) and show any non-standard settlement terms.

Presenting your invoice just before your customer's monthly accounting date will enable them pay the invoice immediately and not lose it in their in-tray.

Chase overdue accounts promptly

On the due date, send a polite letter or e-mail to remind your customer about their overdue payments. You can show your commitment to being paid by telephoning directly to the buyer, the managing director and the business owner.

Do record every letter, e-mail and phone call you make – both to track overdue accounts and in case you need evidence for later use in court.

In England, the Late Payments Directive allows interest to be charged at current bank rates on overdue accounts. Sometimes your polite hint to your customer will trigger them to pay up at the invoiced price rather than wait to incur interest too.

Discuss differences and negotiate outcomes

The UK Better Payment Practice Group have a range of helpful suggestions about the techniques you can use to trace debtors who might be difficult to contact. The shock of finding that they are still accessible can convince such customers to settle your bill.

Where debtors have a habit of contesting invoices, you might benefit from hiring an authorised mediator or professional arbitrator to judge the claim you want to assert. This approach can extract a fair payment from your customer without incurring court costs.

Debt collection agencies will purchase bad debts (at a realistic discount) saving you the time and aggravation involved in obtaining settlement. Often the agency will pursue their purchased debt vigorously so you should restrict this approach to one-time sales or where you have no interest in future sales from that customer.

When you choose to pursue legal action, you might ask the Insolvency Service whether your customer is already out of business. Then you will need to brief a solicitor or attorney and get them to help you approach the court for a Small Claims settlement and an insolvency order.

Using a payment proc

What Are The Four Parts of the Sales Process? Part 1
If you are a salesperson or small business owner or are responsible for marketing a product than your most important job is to find new prospects who are willing to buy what you have to offer. Without a prospect there is no sale and without any sale there is no revenue. Whether you are given leads and prospects to follow up with or you are solely responsible for finding these prospects there are typically four stages of the sales process.Out of these four stages there can be many sub stages to the selling proce

t.

In England, the Late Payments Directive allows interest to be charged at current bank rates on overdue accounts. Sometimes your polite hint to your customer will trigger them to pay up at the invoiced price rather than wait to incur interest too.

Discuss differences and negotiate outcomes

The UK Better Payment Practice Group have a range of helpful suggestions about the techniques you can use to trace debtors who might be difficult to contact. The shock of finding that they are still accessible can convince such customers to settle your bill.

Where debtors have a habit of contesting invoices, you might benefit from hiring an authorised mediator or professional arbitrator to judge the claim you want to assert. This approach can extract a fair payment from your customer without incurring court costs.

Debt collection agencies will purchase bad debts (at a realistic discount) saving you the time and aggravation involved in obtaining settlement. Often the agency will pursue their purchased debt vigorously so you should restrict this approach to one-time sales or where you have no interest in future sales from that customer.

When you choose to pursue legal action, you might ask the Insolvency Service whether your customer is already out of business. Then you will need to brief a solicitor or attorney and get them to help you approach the court for a Small Claims settlement and an insolvency order.

Using a payment proc

Using Your Whine Factor
Brian's work was exceptional. Still, as his boss, I rarely offered him additional responsibilities, never thought of promoting him or selecting him for a critical project. Why? His whine factor got in the way.  

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