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Winning Business
and Loyal Financial Services Clients in Invoice Factoring - #
VI, Part 1
Advice Desk
This is the next in a
series of articles to assist you in winning business and loyal
clients. I will try to make my observations from the nearly 30
years of hands on experience in the accounts receivable
factoring and invoice factoring industry. |
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Toll Free Phone
877.894.UCFC (8232)
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 As
a quick recap, in the last article, I discussed how we to
undertake and complete a SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats] analysis in our accounts receivable
factoring and financing firm. I presented an Audit Checklist
[with 187 questions] to use for this important task. I
concluded the article mentioning that the next step in the
process [this article, and subsequent ones] would outline how
you can take the results of the SWOT and develop an effective
model for your enterprise.
The Strategic Planning Process for Financial Services
Companies
After you have completed the self assessment process relative
to invoice factoring, it is important to identify the
functional areas that your business excels in, and areas that
you need to improve. For each area, it is very important to
outline a strategy to either take advantage of your identified
strength(s) [proactive movement forward] and to correct your
identified weaknesses [corrective actions that need to be
completed before advancing] in funding working capital and
cash flow clients.
When you think about it, the completion of an effective SWOT
is simply the first step in the strategic planning process.
Your strategic plan determines where your financial services
organization is going over the next years or more, how it is
going to get there, and how you will know if it got there or
not.
It is no understatement that your strategic plan [or lack of
same] will help identify your path to success. The way you
develop your plan depends on an entire series of variables,
each unique to your organization: your size, expertise in
planning, your leadership, your finance culture, complexity of
the commercial funding environment that you are operating in,
and attitude towards have a clearly defined game plan to judge
your success within the accounts receivable factoring
industry.
I am a strong advocate of goals based planning, vs. issues
based strategic planning as it applies to the factoring
segment of the financial services industry. What are the
differences between the two? Goals based planning starts with
your mission statement [do you have one?], vision and values,
goals to work on to achieve the mission, detailed strategies
to achieve the goals, and action planning [who will do what,
why, how, costs, and benchmarks for success.]
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Issues based
planning usually is more focused on generating strategies to
deal with a specific issue facing the firm. I favor the first
approach because it requires both a global review of the
capacity of the organization, and then outlining specific
steps required to accomplish the mission of the receivables
funding firm.
I work under the assumption that a Mission Statement has been
discussed and generated for your invoice factoring firm. In
addition, a vision or value statement has also been worked on
and agreed to by all parts of the organization, which strives
to improve business cash flow and working capital of funding
clients. If you have not completed these steps, I will present
some examples in this article that might help you in this
effort.
Your Mission Statement should in 10 words or less, describe
why your business exists. Keep it simple! For example, our
invoice factoring and working capital firm’s Mission Statement
is simple and straightforward: To provide the highest quality
financial services to clients nationwide.
As a commercial factor, we communicate this Mission Statement
to all business partners who we deal with, whenever possible.
Where might be areas where you could do so? I will give you a
simple example where I have found this to be very effective.
When a new factoring client enters into to a working capital
and cash flow relationship with us, we always present a “New
Client” packet of information that includes among other items,
our Important Policies and Procedures, Corporate Disclosure
Notice, Holiday Schedule and Important Contact Telephone
Numbers, Email addresses, etc. I always review these with the
new client in person. This eliminates confusion, and more
importantly, provides the new client with a clear
understanding of what they can expect from us and what we
expect from them as part of our accounts receivables factoring
and working capital services.
The cover letter to the New Client information is a great spot
to educate your client about your Mission, Vision and Values.
I have copied below the cover letter we use in our invoice
factoring and accounts receivable factoring practice to show
you how you can present this information to you clients in a
professional manner.
“Welcome to United Capital Funding Corp. We are delighted
you have selected us to serve your financial services needs.
We look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship.
Enclosed with letter, please find some important information
we would like to bring to your attention. By having a clear
understanding of our Policies and Procedures, we believe we
can make our relationship easier to manage, allowing us to
achieve our firm’s Mission Statement: To provide the highest
quality financial services to clients nationwide.
At your leisure, we invite you to look at our website,
www.ucfunding.com. Our website includes information on our
firm, including background data on our Board of Directors and
Management team. This is also the portal for accessing our
state of the art online information on your relationship with
our firm. These online reports contain a wealth of financial
information on your Accounts Receivables, including Aging,
Collection Status and Reserve Account information.
We are committed to serving your needs in the most
professional and proactive manner possible. Our standard as
your commercial factor is simple: to get things right the
first time. Please contact us in the event there is an error
or a problem via telephone or email. For your convenience, we
have included a reference guide that lists contact information
for our firm. We pride ourselves on our open communication
between our clients and our team of professionals. Please feel
free to contact us at any time with any questions you may have
on our relationship.
As a professional financial services business, we are
dependent on referrals from satisfied factoring clients and we
are equally committed to providing your referrals with the
same professional care and enthusiasm that we provide you. We
always welcome the opportunity to meet and talk with
prospective clients about their needs. If you know anyone who
might benefit from our services, please feel free to have them
call our office and speak with any member of our team of
professionals.
Each of us at United Capital Funding is dedicated to providing
prompt and courteous service of the highest standards. Thank
you again for selecting us to meet your needs."
This article
continued (#IV, part 2):
Winning Business and Loyal Clients in Invoice
Factoring
View and Print this Article (pdf version):
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part VI)
In this
series of articles to assist you in winning business and loyal
clients, Mark Mandula offers his guidance from the viewpoint
of an experienced business finance professional based in the
US.
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part I)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part II)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part III)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part IV)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part V)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part VI)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part VII)
Winning Business and
Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part VIII)
Other Invoice Factoring Articles of Interest
Trust Based Financial Services
in Factoring of Accounts
Receivables:
How to build a sustainable
trust based financial services firm
Winning Business
and Loyal Clients in Accounts Receivable Factoring "How to Sell More to Your Existing Clients"
Winning Business
and Loyal Clients in Accounts Receivable Factoring "Work
Smarter, Not Harder"
Factoring: Fact vs.
Myth: What types of companies use factoring?
Factoring: Fact vs.
Myth: Will factoring negatively affect your
customers perception of your company?
Factoring Company
Corporate Overview
Apply for Factoring Online
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