It can be tough getting a large customer to pay you on time
And large companies can be a particular problem. They have quite rigid processes to go through just to get you set up as a supplier, and very often will put you on 60 or 90 days as standard.
But there are some very simple things you can do. Things that most businesses just don’t do.
1) Insist on a purchase order number and put it on the invoice.
2) Make sure your terms are agreed. Larger companies will usually say their terms supersede yours, so you need to be clear and firm, unless you want to wait months to get paid.
3) Get the name of the person who placed the order and put it on the invoice – it will help the accounts department get the invoice authorised.
4) Find out the name of the person in accounts who’ll be dealing with your account – get their full name, phone number and email address. If you just send an invoice into a large company with no name on, odds are it’s going to get lost.
5) Phone them within a couple of days of sending the invoice to make sure they received it, and that there aren’t any problems with it.
6) Be ready for the fob offs: didn’t receive the invoice, haven’t got a delivery note. Give them what they need, by email, and call to check they now have everything to get your invoice paid.
7) Find out when they expect to pay your invoice. They’ll need to get it authorised so make sure they have all the information they’re likely to need. You need to understand their authorisation process.
8) Make notes of your conversations – who you spoke, when, and what they agreed.
9) Call the week before the invoice is due for payment to make sure it’s been authorised and on the payment run as expected. It can take weeks if not longer to get an invoice through a large company and you don’t want to find out you just missed the payment run and there isn’t another one for a month!
10) If you don’t get your payment when it was promised, then call straight away and don’t get fobbed off with next month’s run, ask them to do a BACS.
It’s SO worth the time and effort at the start of a new customer relationship, especially a large company. It tells them you’re organised, efficient and professional and not someone they want to bump from the payment run.
Get it wrong and you’ll be chasing them for months. A sale isn’t a sale until it’s paid.