Three Stages of a Customer – A Handy Tool to Identify Your Customer’s Financial Condition

Stage ONE

PARTIAL PAYMENT STAGE

Almost every company in the world has gone through this stage where they were forced to “partially” pay their open invoices on the majority of their accounts payable.  This stage happens because of thousands of reasons, i.e. aggressive growth and funds are tied up in managing the growth, terms dictated by their clients who pay slower than net 30 (the big boys abuse the small guy all of the time), mismanagement, etc.  This stage can be identified on any aging because the customer is either partial paying on specific invoices or only paying the smaller invoices while larger ones age.

Stage TWO

SURVIVAL STAGE

Companies who are in this stage are paying ONLY their main suppliers as well as bills which allow them to survive, i.e. Electric bills, Payroll bills, Phone bills (with the internet this bill has begun to move away from survival mode), Lease, Utilities, etc.  The survival stage tends to be where customers lose their ability to communicate well and they start to avoid all contact from those clients they owe money because they can not pay.  This is common when a dramatic loss occurs, i.e., a major client going bankrupt, lost contracts, novelty products losing their interest, loss of management, mismanagement etc.  This stage can be identified on any aging because the open account ages without communication from the customer and without any partial payments – 90+ column is normal.  Unfortunately for our clients this is the time to PLACE THE ACCOUNT FOR COLLECTIONS.  Waiting now will allow the file to move quickly into stage three- which is bad.

Stage THREE

GIVE UP STAGE

Customers put their lives into their business so when they give up its TOO LATE.  The “GIVE UP” point is the point of no return – where customers realize they can not make IT work.  Classic timing for this is during holiday times when owners look at their families and recognize their stress is spilling over to them – this can not continue and soon the customer decides to close their doors.  Once decided, these companies will liquidate all of their assets (if any exist) and keep those proceeds instead of paying down any of their existing debts.  The customer says things like, “Do what you have to do”, “You can get blood from a stone”, “What do you want me to do when we have no money”, etc.  Unfortunately this stage means nothing can be done to stimulate the customer’s desire to pay and it’s time to write off the debt.  Placing this account for collections with any expectations of payment would be misleading so it is critical to recognize this stage.