Rule One of Business: Get Paid
To be paid, just like you would understand is fundamentally fundamental to your business because if you are not getting paid, what’s the point in business?
You would be laughing at the heaps of business people who only get their customers to simply pay when and if they remember it. I know one trader who continuously holds bad debts like awards. How is that? Most likely because he doesn’t bring himself to take the payment and people just intimidate him.
If you give a client credit, only do so if they have proven their integrity to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for some time. Also, you should gauge whether they have the cash to pay you - if they don’t then you shouldn’t do business with them. Don’t trick yourself into saying “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s fruitless to do the job or providing the goods for free if you are not getting paid.
If you are the kind of person who can’t request the fee when the work has been done, try these hints:
Tell your customer that when the service is finished up, you need cash or cheque. They should likely have it ready at at the finish date and you won’t have to request your fee.
When you send out an initial quote, make sure your payment terms are visible.
Complete an invoice with the terms of payment evidently stated and give the client the invoice when the service is finished. They should see the invoice and simply know they will pay it off now without you being required to say anything. Make up an “evil boss” who will flay you alive if you can not leave with the cash for the job.
Arrange with your bank branch to set you up with Merchant facilities so you can have credit cards like Mastercard and Visa. Many people have credit cards and it should stop the issue of the client not having a cheque book or not having the right cash in their wallet.
Otherwise, don’t be afraid to hand over your goods till payment is paid. Understand, until the goods have been paid for, they remain yours.
If you plan to let someone credit, make sure you take the following information off them at a time BEFORE you permit them credit.
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Bank name and address
- Account no.
- 3 trade references with their names, addresses and phone numbers
Once you take all this detail, ring the banking institution and make for certain that they operate an account there. Then, call each trade reference and request if they pay their invoices on time or if they have any issues 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
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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