Over the last few weeks, Zach Ward, sales manager at Insight Data has been discussing marketing, the importance of ‘live data’ and CRM software.
However, what’s the point in spending thousands to attract new customers who don’t pay you?
This week, Zach passes over to Helen Costeloe-Hughes, company accountant and commercial director at Insight Data, to discuss how credit profiling can be part of your sales and marketing processes.
“Many companies will credit check a potential new trade or commercial customer, but this isn’t enough. Monitoring the credit worthiness of your customers on an ongoing basis is good business sense, as over time many factors can affect the financial position of a customer.”
This is particularly acute when the industry is bouncing back after years of recession. Suddenly businesses get busy, win lots of new orders, and can very quickly get in a real pickle with cashflow and over-trading.
“As confidence returns, companies want to invest, take on new people, acquire equipment and expand premises. This all sucks up cash. Add to it a lack of strong financial planning, combined with over-trading from increased sales, and suppliers can be left over-exposed, with a portfolio of high risk, toxic customers.”
Salestracker
Many companies will be familiar with Salestracker, the innovative sales and marketing/CRM platform from Insight Data designed for the glass and glazing industry. In 2012 the company launched another major development – an integrated credit feed, directly from a credit reference agency.
For the first time, companies could view prospects and customers together with financial data, credit score, and details of any adverse credit, all within the one system.
“This is a re-think of how sales and marketing can work”, explains Helen. “For years companies have invested in marketing, sales people follow-up and spend weeks and months negotiating to bring a new customer on board, only to find out that the company had a bad credit history. This is a waste of time and money, and is soul destroying for sales people who have worked hard to bring them on board.”
With Salestracker, companies can instantly see the financial position of a sales lead or prospect. Insight has developed an innovative ‘traffic light’ system, whereby companies are marked as green (good), amber (average) or red (caution), with key financial data such as balance sheet net worth, credit score, type of business (e.g. Limited, Sole Trader, etc.), and even details of adverse credit (County Court Judgements).
The credit reference feed is constantly updated, meaning that Salestracker users can see changes instantly, as they occur. As a result, companies know in advance the financial position of sales leads, and can monitor the ongoing financial status of customers without having to use a separate credit reference agency.
Credit Profile is now a standard feature on Salestracker and is available free of charge to all subscribers. For a free demo and trial of Salestracker, call Zach on 01934 808293 or visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/insight-data-contact.htm
