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Winning Business and Loyal Clients
in Invoice Factoring
Part I |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Is your firm a “service” focused
business finance firm? |
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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. |
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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: |
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“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. |
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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. |
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Practical applications for the real
world in commercial factoring |
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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. |
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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? |
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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. |
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A quick recap: Ask these questions: |
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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.
View and Print this Article (pdf
version):
Winning Business and Loyal Clients in Invoice
Finance (part I) |
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In this
series of articles to assist you in winning business and loyal
clients, Mark Mandula, Vice President, Principal, United
Capital Funding Corp., 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) |
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Other Invoice Factoring Articles of Interest
Commercial Finance
Perspective:
How to survive the current economic malaise
(part I)
Commercial Finance
Perspective: How to survive the current economic malaise
(part II)
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? |
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