Be a mentor - your customers' business success or failure is your business's success or failure.
A reader contacted me recently asking some advice, and I'm always willing to try and help if I can. His problem is that his company was in the midst of an expansion mode when a couple of key customers went bankrupt, depriving the HVACR distributor of large amounts of owed money at a critical time. Now, regardless what I told him, the first thing any supply-house owner/manager has to do is to try to minimize bankruptcy losses while not alienating and chasing away good customers. How do you do that?
First of all, keep in mind that a certain percentage of HVACR contractors will go bankrupt every year, even in good financial times such as these. The secret is to recognize those who are most likely to fail and cultivate other customers. No, you don't really want to sell to everyone who walks in the door, especially when it comes to offering an extensive credit line. Remember, about two out of three new companies will fail within the first five years.