PUMP UP THE ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE – March 2011

Pump Up the AR! aka Bring in the $$

What’s New?

Well here in Mississauga, we are currently offering lease apps to all quotes over $1500. It’s a terrific way for the client to buy new tools and machinery and still have money to pay for upcoming projects. A win-win for all! Our clients maintain cash flow and we get paid.

What can YOU do to improve your collection success?

Okay – what are we doing or changing to BRING THE $$ IN! that we can share??  As we all know, the majority of our ideas shared in PUTAR are born of first hand experience.  Whether we have tried and erred, or tried and succeeded, anyway you look at it you have had to have learned from the experiences.  You have a call, it didn’t go well, you didn’t get what you expected, before you run off blaming the client… is it possible you might have contributed? 

Tone, speed, helpfulness, interest?  They all matter.  Here it is, we’ve all probably heard it a zillion times, the only person you can change is you.  So how about it?  Do you need some tweaking?  Do a quick review after every call.  That call went really well, they really responded to that technique, I will have to remember and try that one again OR that went really badly, what can I learn here.

Every call is an opportunity for you to improve your skills.  Why not try looking at it from that perspective; it’s kind of like playing golf.  You are constantly reviewing your game so that your game constantly improves.  It’s a competition with yourself.  Give it a try, you may just find, the more you improve yourself and your game, the easier it will be to BRING THE $$ in.  And, after all, spring is just around the corner. 

Don’t Forget!!

• You get more bees with honey  than with vinegar
• Follow-up quickly!
• Say what  you are going to do and do what you say
• Mail your invoices daily
• Use a calendar to remind you to call slower paying clients

NOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN BLINDED, DON’T BE BLINDSIDED

Definition of BLINDSIDE  – courtesy of Merriam-Webster

transitive verb
1
: to hit unexpectedly from or as if from the blind side <blindside the quarterback>

2
: to surprise unpleasantly
For our purposes, we are referring to the 2^nd definition, as the 1^st definition would require us to wear protective gear to work, which so far hasn’t been necessary.  Although, I do at times wear my cheesehead hat, mostly on occasions when the clients aren’t around.

Anyhow, the point being don’t get blindsided by your clients failing to pay, because you weren’t paying attention to the signs.  Pay attention, be alert, be aware!  Don’t miss what’s going on!

WANT MORE TIME IN YOU’RE A/R DAY?

You are thinking “Who doesn’t?” right?  Well, the easiest way to have more time in your day is to train your accounts.  It’s known as a “Must Do”, because accounts will pay slower…. if you let them.  And more and more will be doing it as you add new clients to the mix.  It’s like the old Faberge factor…..”I told 2 friends about it and they told 2 friends and so on and so on….” 

This will naturally decrease the amount of time you have to do the many other things you have on your desk.   WHY?  Well, because you will constantly be calling the overdue accounts, of which you’ll have many. 

You are not saving yourselves any time in the end.  Nor, are you helping the branch become more profitable.  The longer it takes to get paid, the less profitable we are.  Remember it is our job to bring the money in, within the time lines set out.  Our job is to help our accounts become profitable ones – for us.

Most accounts will only need you to call 3 or 4 times at most, with you reminding them of the terms, agreement, mutually beneficial relationship and then they will not want to hear from you any longer.  Don’t be offended, it’s a good thing.  In order to not hear from you, they will …..ready……start paying you earlier.  Yeah, saving time already.

The goal is to have the clients buying while paying within an acceptable time frame.  This is not black and white, everything is grey, although accounts may look similar we may have different boundaries for them.  Have they been with us 6 mos or 20 years?  Are they    R W S? Are they consistent? Etc….  Credit is not as simple as having strict guidelines and following them.  You must have a good ear, tact, ability to look at the information presented and that we have available to us.  You must be able to make favourable decisions for the majority of decisions.  Take the risk and follow up earlier, which decreases the risk factor, train early.  We want the sales!

You CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN and SAVE TIME!!

HOT TIPS – Don’t Get Burned by Doing These No-No’s

1)    Keep in mind that you can lose accounts due to overly aggressive AR practices.  It is a fine line, and takes practice.  Learn from each and every call. 

2)    Do NOT call if you are in a particularly foul mood.  Clients can sense it, hear it…don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that they can’t tell….they can and it can negatively affect your desired outcome.  Your mood will pass, do something else until it does.  Just don’t pass it on to your clients.

PUMP UP THE SALES – March, 2011

With our New Company logo; Our New 100% KBC Satisfaction Guaranteed Buttons and Stickers; Our brand New Master Catalog, New Sales Flyer and Our undefeated attitudes; we are all Tooled up to take those orders and make those sales so Sell, Sell, Sell!

GO Team KBC

Special points of interest:

• Being the best ‘YOU’ is all we need you to be.
• Suggesting to up-sell.
• Quick reference chart.
• Create your Up-sell index.
• Check out our Machinery site.

PERSUASION, SUBSTITUTIONS, SOLUTIONS AND SERVICE.

When we answer the phone or help out at the counter we are KBC Tools and Machinery. 

We must always strive to put our best foot forward in how we present not only ourselves on the phone, (pleasant,     polite, and helpful) but in person too and by extension our showrooms.  Take a minute to dust the machinery and shelves each week, it does make a difference.  By fronting and facing the showroom and changing up the displays we keep things interesting and create a pleasant shopping experience. 

In everything we do, we are persuading the clients to choose KBC Tools.  Taking pride in our work from mopping the floors and dusting machines to providing solutions for problems and finding substitutes for items needed now.  Take pride in the service we provide and know that we are all a part of something bigger.  We are all helping to position KBC Tools and Machinery as the go to source for the metal working industry. 

We need to offer drills with that tap, cutting fluid with every order, safety supplies and bandsaw blades, bench brushes and measuring equipment.  Up-selling at every opportunity means up-selling with every order because every order is an opportunity we don’t want to miss.

We can’t all be the best sales associate on our team;

We can be the best sales   associate WE can be.  Be the best ‘YOU’ can be and we will all succeed.

Remember to smile—smiling transcends in everything we do, phone, counter, attitude.

BRILLIANT CUSTOMER SERVICE—be a STAR

Taking pride in what we do   everyday will shine through in our attitudes. 

From taking the order, offering substitutes and finding solutions; increasing orders to save the client freight charges; offering suggestions to increase their order to save them both time and money; to pulling the order, packing the order with care and attention to detail; all of this will spill over and shine brightly on our reputation.

KBC Tools will be known for our Brilliant Customer Service with 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Remember with every communication we make, we each represent KBC Tools.  Be proud and humble;  we are all a part of a fantastic company; let’s do what we can to help it grow and maintain it’s strengths. 

THE TOOLS WE HAVE TO HAMMER OUT A DEAL

Let’s get more from those that DO buy and spend less time chasing those that Do Not buy.  Using the shipping history while you’re on a call with a client is a good way to increase the order you’re currently taking from them. 

If you can offer them something we know they use and sell it by explaining that they will save by buying it now; on a second call, generating another PO, shipping costs,  and they will have it on hand when they need it instead of ordering it when they do. 

We can also utilize our quantity discounts as a tool to increase orders; simply suggesting package quantities with a discount will be enough to entice the customer to buy more. 

I know we can’t always check stock on items we are offering; but if you can it is always a good idea; as backorders cost us in freight, time, packaging, etc.

Remember these lines:  “Hey, have your heard about our weekly in-store Special promo item?”

“I am happy to offer you the ‘SPIFF’ today with your order.”

“Don’t miss out on this week’s special, let me tell you about it.”

And when they say no thank you, you might ask “Is there something special you’ve had your eye on? Maybe waiting for it to go on sale”.  This line might open opportunity to see what we can do to get that sale too.

KNOW OUR CATALOG AND FLYER —KNOW OUR PRODUCTS

You may not have had the time to study our catalog or to review our New products, but I think you should—I think we all should.  Not only will it empower your ability to sell, it will excite you, it will ignite your pride in being a member of an extraordinary team.  KBC has a lot to offer, not only in tooling and machinery but in the man power behind the products, behind the customer service and behind our dedication to quality.

We just received our brand New, hot off the press Sales Flyer for March through April.  Study it, and challenge yourself, make yourself a goal now, find some new items and some sale items, and make your list and sell them. 

Check your list at the end of this flyer and pat yourself on the back for all those YOU sold!

THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
Try posting this list in your workstation for reference when up-selling.

Taking a look at our ‘Bread and Butter’ for ideas for an offer list brings us some of the following:

Abrasives; sand paper, belts, cut-off wheels, cartridge rolls and grinding wheels.

Batteries; Alkaline, Watch & Calculator.

Brushes; Acid, chip and oil, bench, floor, file and wire

Carbide Inserts; Newcomer, Triumph, Iscar.  For Face mills, Tool holders, Indexable tooling.

Chucks; Jacobs, LFA, Drill, Lathe, Milling, Pin.

Clamps; hold-down, “C”, horizontal, universal.

Collets; Emergency, 5C, E/R, R8.

Deburring; Tools, blades, kits.

Drills; Jobber, stub, carbide tipped, cobalt, Precision Twist, taper shank.

Electronic; Calipers, DRO’s, Edge Finders, Micrometers.

Fasteners: Socket Head Cap Screws, Dowel Pins.

Fluids; Layout dye, markers, paints, glue and oil.

Gages; Drill, depth, angle, feeler, tire.

Hand: Knobs, lapper, tools and vises.

Holders; Collet, CNC, Gage, Indicator

And so on.

You might just take some time to study our catalog index to find yourself some specific add on items; call it Your up-sell index. 

Remember to use the rapport you have developed with your customer contacts—when the phones are quiet, take a minute to call on your regular customers, save them the dime, and see if there is anything they currently need. 

We have a number of customers explain that they buy elsewhere because they have a sales rep walk in, take their order, leave, and their order arrives.  We can do the same, just via a phone line. 

Ask them what else they use that they are not currently buying from KBC, Where they are buying it from, and why. 

See if we can simply submit a quote, sometimes this will change their minds when the answer you get about where they are buying is due to loyalty “Oh, I’ve been buying those from them for years.’

Let’s get them to buy it from US.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR MACHINERY SITE?

Reminding customers we sell Machinery too is just as important as selling those tools.  Inquire if they are currently in the market for any machines.   Create opportunity to quote.  Ask if they have purchased any new or used machines recently and offer tooling.

Educate our clients on the   benefits of purchasing their   machinery and tooling from  KBC Tools and Machinery.

Tell them about our warranty policy, our tooling and parts availability, and our lease-to-own option.

Invite them to check out our Machinery websites, with a built in lease-to-own calculator and application process.

FROM: KBC DELTA, BC