Follow up on your sale to make your money, preserve your customer

By Jeffrey Gitomer
Sales Moves

The object of the game is to make the sale, right? Wrong. The object of the game is to make the sale and collect the money.

It never ceases to amaze me how incomplete salespeople are. Not their sales skill level, not their communication capability, not their attitude, and not even their persistence to get the sale.

Salespeople fall short in collecting the money.

“Jeffrey,” you say. “I’m not in collections; I’m in sales!”

You do not know how incorrect you are. You may have a collections department, but it serves as a function of billing and accounting. Your main job as a salesperson is not just making the sale, but making sure you get paid after the sale. Otherwise, why bother?

How many sales can you make, not collect the money and remain in business?

Also, the majority of salespeople are paid after monies are received. You are not paid on booked sales. You are not paid on delivered sales. You are not paid on invoiced sales. You are paid after the customer pays.

Then why make half a sale and rely on someone else to collect the money? By the way, it is not just the money; it is your money.

You are paid based on collections, not sales. And like fools, you leave collecting your money to accounting.

Who is that someone you rely on to collect your money? “Sparky” in the accounting department, the single worst customer relations department known to mankind.

An accounting department’s job is to collect money at all costs, including the cost of the relationship.

Salespeople want to keep customers because customers generate more orders, and more orders create more commissions.

Accounting people do not care about sales. They do not like salespeople. They think salespeople are pushy. But it is those pushy salespeople who give accountants something to count.

If there is no sales department, there is no accounting department.

The short story: make the sale and collect the money. The long story: the steps you take as a salesperson to ensure you are paid for the sales you make.

First you must communicate with the customer after the sale, all the way to the payment. It is easy to make a sale. It is delicate to talk about the money. This is important if you have never done it before, more important if you do not know the procedures, and most important if you do not think it is your job.

And it is not your job unless you want to get paid. It is not your job unless you want to keep the customer. It is not your job unless you want to get the reorder. It is not your job unless you want to keep your job.

To solidify the payment after purchase, do the following:

1. Find out who pays. Not a department, but a name. You want the name of the person in charge and a name of the person who actually does the processing.

2. Find out how payments are made. What are the normal terms of payment? Can you get a deposit? Do they usually pay on time? Do they take any form of discount? What kind of proof of delivery do they need? How do they process papers? Who approves invoices? From the time the invoice is approved, how long does it take to cut a check? Who signs the check?

Note: I will bet any amount of money that 99.9% of the salespeople reading this column have never asked those questions of a buyer. These questions are the fulcrum of the collection process. If the salesperson is the collector, or makes the arrangements for collection, it is most likely that the account will be preserved, and there will be a reorder. It is also most likely that the salesperson will build a solid relationship based on upfront communication, especially one key phrase, “No surprises.”

3. Agree on payment dates. Agree that if goods are received by the 15th, then payment will be made on or before the 15th of the following month. The key phrase: “on or before.”

4. Agree on what happens if payment is late. Get the names and numbers of people you call, if these promises are not kept.

5. Keep it friendly and keep it light. The object here is to create open dialogue and communication, not push the customer up against the wall before you have made a delivery or delivered on a promise.

Here is a thought: 50% of collection calls would be eliminated, if the salesperson would sell the payment at the same time he or she sells the product or service. This upfront communication means no balls are dropped, and commissions are paid on time.

If you make arrangements to collect the money when you make the sale, it saves face, saves dollars, saves embarrassment and saves the customer.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling, is the president of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or e-mail salesman@gitomer.com.

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