Getting Payment during the Holiday Season

29 Oct

paid stampThe holiday season is quickly approaching and that means it will soon be the busiest season of the year for your clients. Most businesses are preparing for the influx of sales from Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the end of Q4 leading up to major gift-giving holidays like Christmas and Hanukah.

While this may not apply to the service-side of business clients, your retail clients are most likely investing a significant amount of money right now in the months leading up to the holiday season. By growing their product stock for the holiday rush, they will be looking to negotiate more flexible payment terms or delay their payment to account for the pre-season costs.

For the vast majority of retail businesses the holiday season is the best time for cash flow.

While these businesses may be strapped for cash leading up to November and December, it won’t last long. You need to make sure that you are first on their list to get paid when the cash does come in. A common tactic of businesses is to push off payment until after the start of the New Year. We say, do not wait that long for payment!

Remember, you are not the only business waiting for payment.

The goal is to get on your delinquent customer’s payment schedule. Make your business a priority so that you receive payment between November 15 and December 15. Chasing the debt after December 15 will be unsuccessful because many employees will be away for the holidays and it will be significantly easier to push payment off until the beginning of the year.

If you are in the middle of a debt collection campaign, emphasize the importance of paying the debt when there is an influx of cash flow. Check with your sales team to see when they last visited the delinquent client. They most likely will have an insider insight to their stock levels and current order quantity. Always do your research first before getting on a call with a customer so that you get paid first!

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