Rule One of Business: Get Paid

Being paid, as you would realise is vitally the point to your business because if you aren’t getting paid, what are you doing in business?

You would be astounded at the amount of business people who only have their customers to make payment when and if they remember it. I know of such a businessman who habitually gets bad debts like awards. Why, do you think? Simply because he won’t bring himself to take the cash and lets people overpower him.

If you give someone credit, do it only because they have proven consistency to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for some time. Furthermore, you must find whether they have the funds to pay you - otherwise do not do business with them. Don’t push yourself into saying “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s damaging doing the job or providing the goods for free if you are not paid.

If you are the sort of person who can’t demand the cash when the work has been completed, try these cheats:
Tell your customer that when all the work is finished up, you will require cash or cheque. They will more than likely have it to hand over at the point of sale and you don’t need to ask for your fee.

When you send out an initial quote, be sure your payment terms are evident.

Form an invoice including your terms of payment clearly listed and hand the client the invoice when the task is done. They can look at the invoice and reactively assume they will pay you the money now without you being required to say a word. Create a “vicious boss” who may flay you alive if you don’t return with the cash for the work.

Set up your bank to provide you with Merchant facilities so you can accept credit cards including Mastercard and Visa. Most people have credit cards and it can solve the difficulty of the client not owning a cheque book or not having enough cash in their pocket.

Moreover, don’t be persuaded against to hold onto your goods til after payment has been made. Understand, until they have been paid for, the goods still remain yours.

If you decide to let someone credit, be sure you have the following details off them some time BEFORE you give them credit.

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

When you take all this information, telephone the bank branch and make for certain that they operate an account with them. Then, contact each of the trade reference and inquire if they pay their fees on time or if there have been 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

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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