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I got this problem...

by aceshigh
3 replies
I started a business selling sales leads to professionals. On paper it looked great. Now in practice it's a borderline nightmare.

My biggest problem is that I'm constantly having to chase people to pay for the leads. I send out paypal invoice and people don't want to pay. My fix I'm hoping will be once I get a merchant account in place I'll just take the clients cc info and bill them on the first of each month. But there's still the issue that what if the client calls their cc company and cancels the payment and or what if they don't want to sign up with there cc?

I have another website which is like an online vending machine. I don't have to do a thing with it. In comparison this one I'm constantly having to babysit clients and chase people for money. I'm just wondering if there would be some better way to sell these sales leads without so much difficulty? Or is this just a typical hands on business that I'm use to having to deal with. ;-p
#problem
  • Profile picture of the author SeanSupplee
    Chasing people for their money? WOH! Why in the world would you have to chase your clients to pay you? You give them these leads before they pay? Why not charge them first and then give them the leads? Am I missing something here?
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    Sean Supplee -Expert Insight of an Affiliate Marketer (Blog)
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    • Profile picture of the author letsgetitstarted
      You've already proved you can provide the leads so just charge them up front. You know some clients amaze me. One springs to mind in particular. He didn't want to pay me upfront for a service i was providing even though everybody else was happy to do so. He said that he wouldn't be in business if he paid upfront for everything. We really locked horns for a long time, we argued a while and then i eventually gave in.

      You can guess what happened next. I was constantly chasing the guy for money.

      Now here's the thing. This guy really believed he would pay me on time every month and send me a cheque, but the fact is the reality of running his business got in his way and i was bottom of the list of things he had to deal with.


      If your client argues about paying you monthly via cc or whatever, just present them with the facts of how many times you've already had to contact them about this issue, and hopefully they'll understand it's easier for everybody in the long run to just setup up a payment plan.
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  • Profile picture of the author aceshigh
    The challenge is the leads come in and are sent to the clients in "real time" so there's not much of an opportunity to be billing them prior to sending them. I guess I just have to wait until I get my merchant account, then start billing their cc's and hope they don't raise a fuss. The challenge appears to be that if the client doesn't close any business within the month, then I think they're disappointed that they have to pay for the leads that didn't make them a ROI. Maybe what I could do though is bill their cc's weekly that way it won't appear as such a large amount on the cards, and I'll get paid more frequently.
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