Winning Business and Loyal Clients in Invoice Factoring - # I
Advice Desk
In the first in a series of articles aimed at assisting you in winning business and loyal clients, Mark Mandula, Principal, Vice President, United Capital Funding, offers his guidance from the viewpoint of an experienced business finance professional based in the US..

Tampa Bay Office:
United Capital Funding Corporation
146 Second Street N.
Suite #200
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
727-894-8232

I will try to make my observations from around thirty years of hands-on experience in the invoice factoring and business financial services industry. Much of this experience has been from the “school of hard knocks!”. My comments are geared to any professional in the financial services industry, and this could be an asset based lender, factor, a broker looking for a funding source, or a professional who may be considering this as a career.

My goal in these series of articles is to challenge you to think about how best market your financial services to your invoice factoring clients, and to encourage to step back a moment from the “day to day” grind and think outside the box. I believe I will have succeeded if you are able to use one idea or more in your business that allows you to better serve your clients.

Is your firm a “service” focused business finance firm?

The above sentence is perhaps the most important question you need to ask yourself and also where I should start my observations. It is my belief that the more we focus on serving, the more successful we will be. This is true, not only in our business life, but in all aspects of life. I am convinced that if we are serving well, it requires that we treat people, regardless of where they are on the “food chain” with respect and integrity.

I am reminded quickly of a story that best illustrates this. I lectured in college for about four years, and to be honest, learned more in that time than in the 17 years of grade school, high school, college and Master’s program of higher education combined. One of the most important lessons I ever learned was a story that was told by one of my better teachers while in the MBA program.

A professor gave a pop quiz one afternoon. Having studied the materials on the exam thoroughly, the students were cruising along until they came to the last question on the exam. The question was: What is the first name of the cleaning lady who cleans this room?

The students thought, “This has to be a joke”. They had seen the cleaning lady several times, tall, maybe in her 50s. But how would they know her name? Most, if not all handed in the quiz, leaving the last question blank, as they had no idea what her name was. Just before the class ended, a student raised his hand and asked the professor if the last question would count toward the grade on the quiz.
Most were surprised at his response. “Absolutely”, he replied. An odd silence fell over the classroom, and soon mumbling and grumbling started from the 40 or so students. The teacher then began:

“In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say, “hello.” [If you are curious, her name was Elizabeth.]

It is the same with our business. How many Elizabeth's do we see everyday, but never even acknowledge? What we often fail to realize is that the “Elizabeths” of the world are the key to our success. The professional who is truly trying to serve understands this point. The “Elizabeth” who answers the telephone could be the difference between getting in to see the owner of the firm, or the CFO, or financial controller. In other words the decision maker of the business.

But you may complain, “be honest, I am too busy, I can not acknowledge each person I come across”. My response is “nonsense”. What better way to differentiate yourself, or standout from your competition than to be polite, professional, and courteous? I would suggest that this “servant” attitude is more important today than ever before. We live in a world that is, for the sake of cost savings, un-user friendly.

Practical applications for the real world in commercial factoring

Let me challenge you to do a couple of things when you finish reading this article.

Have you recently called your office from the road? When you get an answer, what does it sound like? Do you have an energetic, happy, motivated voice on the other end of the telephone? Does that person sound eager, interested to help? Or do you get an indifferent, hurry up I am too busy to deal with you, you are an inconvenience voice? Or worse, a robot that requires you to go through a menu of number options and different prompts, only to promise, “This is Mark, I am sorry that you missed me. Your call is very important to me/us. Leave me a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible [or whenever I feel like it]. Or worse, push zero to go back into the loop and perhaps never get out.

This is exactly why we have a true professional [Judy is her name] as our receptionist in our invoice factoring company. She is, in my opinion, the most important person in our office. For many reasons, but the most important is this: We only get one chance to make a first impression. If you have a small office, this is your opportunity to make a great impression on the first call from a potential business finance client.

It is no understatement that how we respond, each and every day to an inquiry for our commercial funding services sets the tone on how we serve. How we treat and respect our employees and partners is, in nearly every respect, how they turn around and treat our clients.

Again, ask yourself, if I were potential new business, after looking at my website, the return email, the voicemail chain, would I want to do business with me? If, after navigating the initial inquiry process, do I talk to someone who is knowledgeable, positive, someone who can answer my questions, make a decision. Or, do I get an indifferent, slow response, automated and impersonal? How many of us have taken the call after the potential client calls our competitor, or the “bank”. Does the client form this opinion about us, just like the last one they talked to?

In order to be successful, each of our business units must revolve around helping clients consummate a transaction for funding their working capital and cash flow needs. As a traditional factor, our firm purchases accounts receivables for cash at a discount for the purpose of making a profit. But we do not believe in making a profit at any cost or in taking advantage of clients or potential clients. We value more than just economic profit. When we serve our clients with honor, both the company and the client, succeed.

We recognize that taking care of our clients and potential clients is, in the long run, a good business practice. Unfortunately, there are firms in our industry that do not hold these values, and their reputation negatively impacts the entire industry. This is, of course, the weak link theory.

A quick recap: Ask these questions:

Question 1: Are all your funding clients treated with respect, even the ones you may not like? What picture does the client/prospect form in his or her mind of you?

Question 2: Do we constantly fret, gripe, and complain about our accounts receivables client turnover? Don’t we realize that the most profitable client is the one that we already serve? Providing quality service is also critical. Our clients judge our competence based on how we treat them. This is their primary, and in many cases their only, measurement of our capabilities.

Question 3: Have you ever asked what your clients think of you, your financial services, and level of professionalism? When all is said and done, the only important perspective is not what you think; but was does your client think.

Question 4: Here are some ways to objectively assess your performance in enhancing the cash flow needs of companies you serve. Ask these questions about yourself, and all levels of your organization. Do we always act in a professional manner? Again, what picture does the client/prospect form in their mind? Does our client/prospect know who I am or we are? Do we treat them as special, unique? Do they remember my name? Are we genuinely concerned about their best interest?

We must have each of our clients answer positively to these questions. It is with this perspective that we will start the next article in this series: “Carpe Diem!”. Feel free to contact me with questions, observations, comments or if you need any additional information on the discussed topics. I can be reached via email at mark@ucfunding.com.

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Winning Business and Loyal Clients in Invoice Finance (part I)

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

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