The American Repossessor

To do profitable, professional and quality business with your clients, we first need to understand them.

Do you really understand them? Do you understand why they ask you to do what you do for them? Do you want to go the extra mile for them? If you don’t, your competitor will!

You have to understand your client, if you are to provide the services they need.

Many of our clients are large multi-national and global corporations and do business all across the United States and internationally too. These conglomerates have many rules and regulations, in particular gaining new suppliers to their business, such as repossession/recovery companies.

Upon meeting many repossession/recovery companies and also, when attending industry related conferences/seminars, I have so often heard complaints about clients, how unreasonable they are, how they want more service for the dollar they pay, how everything is always on their terms, how their expectations far outweigh those that you have etc. etc.

Just like any other company, a large corporation has to have processes, procedures, rules and regulations to manage and control their company and because of their enormous size, they have so many of these, that it is hard for the smaller company to understand why they ask what they ask of them etc.

When you read one of their contracts it is frequently very lengthy, full of legal jargon and can be difficult for the smaller company to understand and digest. Yet they sign it, often without due are and attention to its content, because they are so relieved to gain their business, that they don’t read the small print in understanding what they are legally bound to do.

Signing such a contract means that you have to do what you have just agreed to do and there is no wavering from that. If you don’t deliver, the large corporation will cut you off in a ‘heart beat’, meeting the cancellation clause of course i.e. usually 30 days notice on either side to terminate the contract, and look to give the work to one of your competitors.

Simply put, you are one of many hundreds of thousands of suppliers to the large corporations, and one of thousands repossession/recovery companies that are contracted to them to deliver repossession/recovery services.

Large corporations, in many instances are like dinosaurs – big and bulky and very difficult to move quickly at times due to size and are full of bureaucracy, whereas a small company has more flexibility to move faster due to its size and lack of bureaucracy.

But as the smaller company grows it too moves towards not being as flexible as it once was as growth demands the processes and procedures, rules and regulations to enable the owners to manage and control the business. Without these elements, the company cannot manage and control the business as it needs to ensure efficiency and profitability.

Just because you are small does not mean that you cannot negotiate your services with large corporations. Of course, as we all know that doesn’t mean with all corporations, as so many stipulate their own requirements etc.

Your company should have its own fee schedule, and it should list all your services and your associated fees. That is your starting point in any negotiation for business. Most clients will not pay all your fees, but if you don’t have them listed, how can you negotiate differently?

Some clients pay for closes, some do not. Some pay for resolutions, some do not. Some pay extra mileage, some do not. If you don’t have all YOUR services listed, how can the client negotiate with you or visa versa?

Remember, “if you don’t ask, you don’t get” (famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948 a major political and spiritual leader of India).

Is your company set up to deal with large corporate clients such as Capital One, HSBC etc? Taking on one of these huge companies, means a lot of work, a lot of additional resource, and a lot of additional cashflow. Taking on more than one at the same time, can actually close you down if you cannot resource them eg., having the cashflow to subside their payment terms, which are usually 30 days plus.

The ‘big’ names are great to have as clients as they usually means volume of work at a normally fair price but it also means that they are very demanding of the smaller business. The large corporations are used to getting what they want and if you don’t provide it, you will soon be history!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with aspiring to gain this level of client so long as you know that you and your employees, together with your infrastructure (both internal and external) can handle the business. If not, what comes with the contract, is a price that you don’t exchange within a contract – worry, longer hours, change of lifestyle etc.

So, before you market your services to the large corporate, review your company and its resources to ensure that you can truly manage this new business.

You only get one chance at a first impression – in this instance this normally means, you will only get one chance to service the large corporation – so do it right from the beginning!

Susan Marston – Editor-in-Chief

salmarston@theamericanrepossessor.com

CEO

ConnecTGo, Inc.

…right time…right team…