Hi everyone, hope you are all having a great week.
I was speaking with a client today, a coffee bean supplier to cafes etc, and he has a customer who owes him $6000. Ok, I thought, pretty standard, nothing to see here. However when the client told me that this particular customer continues to buy from them COD, I thought to myself, surely the client can leverage this to get his $6000 arrears paid. When questioned about the arrears, the customer told the client that things were very tough and he couldn’t afford to pay, yet here he was standing face to face with the guy buying another $500 worth of beans with cash. I thought to myself, I wonder how often this happens- is the client too scared to ask for the arrears because he runs the risk of losing the customer’s COD revenue? It is an interesting dilemma I think you will agree. Anyway, I explained to him that given the customer continues to buy from him, his product must be excellent and I suggested he tell the customer he will no longer supply him, COD or not, until the arrears are brought up to date. Surely enough, he phoned me back an hour later to tell me he had done exactly what I suggested and the customer miraculously found $6000 and paid the arrears. Guys the moral of the story is this- to get paid what you are owed, you must use leverage. Leverage comes in all shapes and sizes, but you must use it to your advantage. Repeat customers are that for a reason- you repeatedly provide a quality service or product, and suddenly when you threaten to take that away, look what happens. Classic human psychology at work. Cheers everyone