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Be a Great Entrepreneur: Cash is king

by Alex MacMillan

Whatever it is that you do, stop giving credit right now. If Lehman, Ford, MFI, Woolworths, Iceland, etc can default on their bills so can anyone, even the public sector.

Take a retainer, discount for cash up front, whatever it takes, but don't give credit. Anyone who wants it is using you to finance their business. Once you have delivered you can double your costs with all the time it takes chasing. You just cannot afford credit control! If your current clients have a problem paying up front, find new ones.

The days of credit are gone; you have to find customers with cash to spend and a need that you can satisfy. To get their cash you have to offer something special compared to their other choices. If you have to give credit, do not count it as a sale until it is received.

If your business model is geared towards giving credit, then change the business model. You need at least something up front. By paying something they prove they have cash. If they don’t have cash, they should not be shopping.


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Be A Great Entrepreneur: Teach Yourself

Be A Great Entrepreneur: Teach Yourself
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Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Cash flow Cash flow is often described as the blood of business, due to its importance in ensuring commercial survival.
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Close More Sales: Keep price breakdown information to yourself In a selling situation, a professional buyer will ALWAYS push you for price breakdown information, and the more you give them, the more they’ll use it against you! That’s why you should always keep price breakdown information to yourself.
Get to Grips With Book Keeping: Ask for a referral with every customer you meet After every sales visit, regardless of the outcome, if you can acquire the habit of asking a simple question just before you leave, you will be able to maintain a constant flow of high quality sales leads.
Close More Sales: Confirm every sales appointment with a PS letter or email Have you ever gone to an appointment that you had originally made by telephone, only to find that when you get there, the prospect is unavailable because they had forgotten about it? If so, then you’ll already know how frustrating it is - not to mention a complete waste of your valuable time! That’s why it’s always a good idea to make a point of confirming every sales appointment by letter or email, straight away.
Close More Sales: Make good use of the customer’s name People enjoy hearing the sound of their own name because it is distinctly personal. Indeed, in an increasingly impersonal world, perhaps it’s true to say that, in business these days, using someone’s name, remembering it and getting it right is more important than ever before.
Close More Sales: Use the ‘try before you buy’ close In a face-to-face selling situation, it usually proves to be an irresistible offer to let your prospects ‘try before they buy’ and enjoy the benefits of your product during a free trial period. Providing your product lends itself to his idea, it’s a great way to reduce sales resistance, and give your product the chance to sell itself.
Close More Sales: Exercise your expertise power As an experienced professional salesperson, the chances are you know more about your industry, your market, your competitors and your products and services than just about any other person alive – and don’t forget, that includes your buyers! The fact is, you are an expert, and let’s make no mistake about it, during the course of a sale that expertise is a powerful persuasive force.
Close More Sales: Harness print power The fact that something is printed tends to enhance its believability. It has a kind of built-in authority that the spoken word or handwritten materials just cannot match.
Close More Sales: Pay unexpected attentions Giving ‘unexpected attentions’ is the simple idea of delighting your customers by sending them a little something from time to time – something that’s totally unexpected.
Close More Sales: Use pre-printed telephone inquiry pads There are a number of benefits to using telephone inquiry pads. Quite apart from ensuring that you always come across as highly professional whenever answering the telephone to a new prospective customer, over time it provides a source of information that is crucial to your ability to evaluate the effectiveness of your promotional activities.
Close More Sales: Explore the buyer’s personal interests Always go beyond just finding out what buyers need and want and try to uncover any underlying personal motivations too. In effect, the personal interests of the buyer often represent a ‘hidden agenda’ which is potentially the most powerful of all information for the salesperson.
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