Purchase Point: Pivot or Pay
“He’s pointing, look he’s pointing with the other paw!” These were words recently spoken by a friend watching The Marquis search for his ball. I was also trying to find the ball I had just thrown but did also see him changing paws to point. It was fun to watch! And, the ball, well, it made its way into the bottom of a potted plant and was eventually uncovered by both of us, one pointing and one getting quite dirty!
This is a great example of how playing Fetch and focused on the ball can bring out natural traits in my dog. But, his singular focus of the prize for him is paramount to anything else. For some reason, this had me thinking about how people focus on a product or service and go after purchasing it. Once in hand or delivered, the chase is over and they reap the benefits of that product or service. But the similarity stops there in this metaphor. People have to buy their products or services. They need to produce cash in some form or another. My dog just waits for me to buy all his toys and has no concept of what it takes to get those balls flying in my yard.
So, why is it that people treat purchases differently? When buying in a traditional retail setting, everyone is expected to pay upon purchase. Whether that is credit card, cash, or check, they cannot walk out of that establishment, for the most part, without paying upon purchase. They cannot tell the proprietor they will send the check in the mail or to invoice them or that they will drop off the cash at a later date or there is a check coming from their bank’s Bill Pay system. If they did and they walked out the door without paying, it literally would be a crime they could get arrested for, plain and simple, a crime. But this is not the case for professionals providing a service not a tangible product.
Often, there may be a relationship between seller and buyer. Seller issues an invoice, buyer waits for invoice to arrive and then pays per its directions – Upon Receipt, Net 30 days, End of Month, 15th of the Month, etc. This usually involves larger dollars or due to volume of clients, the seller prefers to invoice everyone on a certain day of the month to consolidate billing efforts. In this scenario, the seller sets the expectations and the buyer needs to respond respectfully. Upon receipt is not a month from now. It is essentially immediately. A professional services relationship with the use of invoices is a convenience for the buyer for accounting and payment processing while it serves as a record for collection for the issuer, the seller.
On the other hand, if the seller of the services expects payment on or before the date of services rendered, the buyer must come prepared to pay that amount. It is not professionally acceptable to send the check later, drop off cash later, have the bank’s Bill Pay decide when it arrives. Again, it is just not acceptable. Your reputation will be tarnished, people notice these things and do talk. It is quite a burden for a sole proprietor to go to the bank 5 times when people do not pay on time or as expected. Please consider this the next time you have to pay your rehab specialist, your lawyer, your accountant, your architect, your consultant. There should not be a difference in how we pay our service providers versus our retail establishments, period. The only exception is the invoice method above, where the seller has chosen that process.
Let’s respect our professional service providers as much as we respect the pet food store, the grocery store, the restaurant. Pay on their terms if you wish to continue with their services. And, if for some reason you cannot abide by this, talk to your provider and make sure that payment terms are agreed upon for the next visit. We see so many sole proprietors around us dealing with this scenario daily and we experience this payment disrespect ourselves.
Please respect your professional services providers. Change the world one payment at a time and start now.
Be well.
