When CE manufacturers’ products are moving briskly off retailers’ shelves, both vendor and retailer are happy. The sun is out, the birds are singing and all is right with the world.
But entering into any vendor-retailer relationship, regardless of how good the business is doing, some rain must fall. Your payment from a retailer could get hung-up for any number of reasons at either end of the transaction, justified or not, and regardless of where the fault lies.
Resolving retailer issues could become a consistent pursuit that can put a crimp in your cash flow, impede your operation and ruin a perfectly harmonious retailer relationship. And personally pressing for payment is unlikely to improve matters.
So what do you do to preserve and protect that carefully crafted retail relationship and still get paid as quickly as possible?
Enter the CSO
A large and experienced accounts receivable (AR) management company, such as CIT Commercial Services, can offer a multitude of solutions to potential payment problems. Not all companies, however, are equally responsive to your needs. At many firms, it may be tough to even get someone with a sympathetic and solution-oriented ear on the phone, much less have them come up with a speedy and satisfactory resolution.
CIT Commercial Services offers vendors a simpler solution: one dedicated individual, a Client Services Officer (CSO), trained to quickly and smoothly resolve in most cases whatever payment issue that has come between you and your retailer.
Each CIT Commercial Services CSO is a seasoned credit officer who knows not only their vendors, but many vendor’s retail and wholesale buyers as well. The CSO is your retailer relationship point person, someone who is available to help you with prompt credit approvals, appropriate credit line set-up, late payment research, and generally to make sure the payment process moves as smoothly as possible.
AR management companies such as CIT Commercial Services have established relationships with even the largest retailers that enable them to help you get paid faster. Finally, they have deep knowledge of retail creditworthiness, and they stand by that with credit protection services – if the retailer has a financial inability to pay, they will pay you on undisputed invoices.
In other words, they have your back with the means and the methods to effectively support your business, and make sure you get paid.
Click here to see more information on consumer electronics industry operational finance best practices on the CE Financial Strategies Center.
Niraj Lal is a business development officer atCIT Commercial Servicesspecializing in factoring and asset-based lending solutions for consumer product companies including consumer electronics, housewares, and apparel.
