![]() Your company might also require credit checks before bringing new customers on board.Ī credit check can give you information on the customer’s existing business accounts with banks, utilities, suppliers and other creditors. When your sales team is qualifying leads, make sure they quickly scan for any reputational red flags.Īre there any complaints floating around about the prospective customer? Bankruptcy rumours? Have other vendors and customers left positive reviews? What can organizations like the Better Business Bureau tell your reps about how the client company conducts their business dealings? Have your sales reps do their own risk assessment as part of their lead qualification and customer research. Here are 6 ways your sales rep can help prevent delinquent accounts during the sales process: 1. How can your sales team prevent overdue receivables?Ĭhasing after customers for payment can put your entire company in a difficult situation. Plus, if you start annoying the customer or resort to threatening them, it might lead to negative comments and reviews, which could negatively influence prospective customers. The best long-term plan would be to cut your losses and write it off. ![]() If you’ve done everything you can to recoup the payment, but to no avail, it might not be worth the effort to continue. For example, you could take down the website you built that you have yet to be compensated for, cancel future shipments, or suspend their software account so they can’t access your online services until their account is settled. Or it might go into the void unanswered as well.ĭepending on your business model, you could also try withholding something to prompt a payment. A business lawyer could explain your options for legal action and offer their advice on how to proceed.įor example, in some cases, a letter from the lawyer on their firm’s letterhead might be enough to move the payment process along. If your company has given a client ample opportunity and they still haven’t squared up their account, litigious-minded folks might say, “Just sue them!”Ī small outstanding amount might not be worth the time and effort to pursue through the courts, though. What else can you do about delinquent accounts? This could resolve the situation without any more intervention from your sales or accounting teams. The client relies on your solution, so a heads-up like this could motivate them to find out on their end why payments aren’t going out. Your sales rep could gently let them know that their account is in danger of going into delinquency. The sales contact might be the end user, who has no idea that their own accounts payable department is not paying in a timely manner. ![]() For example, maybe the invoices are going to the wrong person or department. Your sales rep might be able to provide insight into why the account is overdue or why there are issues in collecting payment. Getting set straight by the sales rep, who has first-hand knowledge of the sale, might go over better with the client than having it come from accounting. ![]() Your sales rep is also responsible to weigh in if there’s a dispute about the invoiced amount or a misunderstanding related to the sale. For example, the sales rep could call to make sure that the client is satisfied and give them a nudge about the overdue payment situation. The salesperson will have to find a way to not burn any client bridges while still conveying the urgency of paying up. This will usually only occur after accounting has sent invoices, payment reminders, and late notices. If commission clawbacks are part of your sales process, sales reps will be responsible for playing a role in getting overdue accounts to pay up. When the sale closes, it’s expected that the sales rep is confident they have selected a customer who will follow through with payment. Your sales reps were in charge of vetting and qualifying the lead during the sales process. No payment means no sale, which means no commission or recognition for the salesperson’s effort that went into closing the deal. On the other side is the belief that the sale hasn’t really been made until payment is received. Plus, every time one of your reps gets pulled away from their sales activities to make collections calls, that’s taking time they could have spent more productively, bringing in new accounts that pay their bills promptly. Your marketing team spent a lot of effort to bring in the lead, as did your sales rep to turn them into a customer, so you might not want to throw that relationship away if it’s simply a late payment or two. ![]()
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