Clients Slow in Paying Invoices, Yet Want Quick Turnarounds

Written By Ted Grigg

Why is it that even the "best" clients delay paying freelance or consultant invoices at the last minute?

Bear in mind that many clients pay their bills promptly and on time. But more often than not, they pay the bill well beyond the agreed upon due date.

Since day one, my agreements with clients require payment based on a schedule with 1/3 to 1/2 due upon acceptance of the agreement and follow up payments due upon the completion of certain milestones. But almost all of my clients agree to payment due upon receipt.

In spite of these signed agreements, however, many clients will not pay until 30 or 60 days after receipt.

Unlike most large businesses, freelancers live off of cash flow paying rent, food and other essentials based upon when they receive client payment.

So when clients delay payments, it is equivalent to an employer that decides to pay a given employee's next pay check when they are good and ready. Fortunately, most state laws require that payroll payments be made twice a month for FTEs and weekly for hourly depending upon the situation.

How would our clients feel if their employer decided to delay their next paycheck for two, three or even eight weeks? They would probably quit. Yet those same individuals think nothing of delaying payment to contract workers like freelance copywriters, artists or independent consultants.

This attitude infuriates many of us in this business.

These clients want prompt response, great work under stressful time constraints and full adherence of any agreements. Yet they think nothing of breaking their agreements in paying us on a timely basis.

Why do business people treat their suppliers like this? When is it OK to expect great service without reciprocal treatment when it comes to paying the bill?

Have you experienced this? How do you view this situation? Is there a solution?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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