When selling goods or services on credit (paid in full after delivery of product), it is important to ensure you will receive payment.
If you need help getting customers to pay their bills, follow these 4 simple steps below.
These front end steps increase the likelihood of payment on the back end after the terms of your contract with the customer are met.
How to Get a Customer to Pay an Invoice in 4 Simple Steps
1. Pick the right customer. You wouldn’t hire an employee without reading a resume, contacting references, or ensuring their educational degrees had merit. Screening your potential clients or asking for references will give you an opportunity to ensure they align with your company’s values and they are in good financial health.
2. Maintain a relationship. Putting “deposits in the bank” of your relationship with clients can make difficult conversations later more productive and fruitful. This can also apply to conversations on payment.
3. Ensure they are satisfied with the product. An unhappy customer may withhold payment. Keep in contact with your customers, ask them questions about their satisfaction with you, your team, and your product.
4. Make paying easy. Send an invoice immediately, ensure it’s clear, and include various payment options. If making a payment to your company takes more time than others, customers may work on “low hanging fruit” first.
Ensuring you not only have the right goods and services, but the right customer, will increase the likelihood of on-time payments. We hope these steps on how to get a customer to pay an invoice will help you get paid quickly.
Do you already have clients who are not paying? Learn more about steps you can take by reading our post titled “How to Collect Unpaid Invoices.”
