Sunday lunch, what a blessing it is. Eating mouths full of the gorgeous chicken, the delectable leg of lamb or the rich and moreish stew that has been prepared to perfection and been served with love. Feeling satisfied with every helping and looking at one another with a sense of… “I will think of this tomorrow and won’t feel so bad about going to work”.
Being an avid cook myself, I have always tried to make sure that the food tastes exactly like I imagined. Carefully adding the spices to make them work together and achieve that perfect taste to satisfy my craving. Perfection is always my main goal but then… hunger takes over. Suddenly time is of the essence and the whole perfect process becomes a rush to finish because the dizzying hunger is taking its toll. I start thinking “Why did I not start planning and preparing sooner?” Suddenly it becomes a contest between feeding the hunger versus creating something special. Sadly, hunger usually comes out the winner.
What can I say… food is a tasty metaphor for all aspects of life and living well. If you have lots of time and better ingredients you can produce something awe inspiring, but sometimes we are limited and inhibited by time and hunger. Most of the time it is others that determine how big our hurry is. They rush and prod you to hurry up no matter what the procedures or challenges are that you face.
Our finances, our collections and our relationships with our customers are mostly determined by time and hunger… in our case, the hunger is for money. Having a healthy, regularly fed cash flow is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business, thus incentivising your credit department is paramount to making sure that all sides of the spectrum stay hungry… and fed for that matter. The amazing part for a manager, or owner of a business, is that you can choose how quickly you want your money to come in, your hunger gets first preference. For example, if you want your invoices paid within 30 days from date of invoice, offer your credit controllers a standard incentive amount and the percentage of invoices that go over the 30 days, at month end, get deducted as a percentage of that amount. Watching what you are paying your credit controllers in incentives will keep you informed about how good your collections are. Suddenly you are creating an environment where decisions are made to achieve a satisfactory end result rather than a mad rush to satisfy the needs of your immediate cash flow. The debtors department will start planning in advance to make sure that all clients are aware of their debt, and also build relationships which encourage payment rather than demand payment. Customers will be in contact with your organisation on a regular basis, which takes care of the after sales service aspect of doing business. The more they hear from you, the more you will hear from them. And that is good for business!
Life is a spice of many tastes, so whatever incentive scheme you choose for your credit department, make sure it satisfies the craving that you have in your mind and ultimately satisfy the cash hunger in your organisation. Oh, and this Sunday, Bon Appetit!
