I need someone to handle this. There is a sales team, the client promises to pay, and the salesperson sends regular reminders. The money has not arrived, and the owner is getting ready to make the call themselves again.
Before making the call, I would ask to see the response to the invoice that was sent. Not another promise to pay, but what happened to the document itself: was it accepted for processing, returned with a correction request, or did it never get past the salesperson’s contact?
Imagine a supplier of office equipment. The equipment has been delivered, the buyer has accepted it, and payment is due after delivery. The salesperson has sent the invoice to a purchasing contact they know and is waiting for the money. The contact says they have passed the matter to the accounts team. A new expected payment date appears in the CRM system.
This is an illustrative example for review. Let us add a fact that changes its meaning: the buyer’s accounts team returned the invoice because it did not include the order number. The buyer had asked for it to be included when the delivery was being arranged. The correction request reached the supplier’s accounts team, who prepared a corrected file. The salesperson did not ask about it. The new document stayed inside the company, while the client received another reminder to pay.
The owner was told the delay was on the client’s side. In this story, the company itself caused part of that delay.
The invoice has been corrected. The buyer still needs to receive it
In our example, both sides can honestly report that they have done their work. The salesperson sent the invoice and contacted the client. The accountant made the correction. But no one was assigned to connect these steps by getting the new file to the buyer and finding out whether it had now been accepted.
So I would put the original email, the buyer’s correction request, the corrected version and confirmation of receipt side by side. Where does the chain break? If the file is ready but only the old version has been sent out, another call about the money repeats the request for payment. We have still not finished the work needed on our side for the buyer to pay.
Sending it to an accountant can also be an intermediate step. They may have received the email but returned the document for clarification. We need a response about the specific invoice: the issue has been fixed and the document has been accepted for further processing. This is no promise of payment, but it resolves one cause of the delay that we can check.
This way of working does not arise because staff are being difficult. When the salesperson prepared the invoice themselves, they could see both when it was sent and when it was returned. Then the documents were handed over to the accounts team and the work was split, but responsibility for checking the handover was never assigned. The salesperson waits for the money. The accountant considers their work finished once the correction is made.
The head of sales must find this unfinished handover. Requiring more calls to the client does not complete it.
The same promise to pay hides different work
One statement from the purchasing contact is not enough to conclude that the buyer is stalling. But blaming every delay on the documents would also be convenient. First, we need to distinguish between situations based on the responses from the people involved.
- The invoice was returned with a specific correction request. The salesperson gets it, passes it to whoever can correct it and checks that it is passed on again. The head of sales sees the reason for the return and who currently has the work.
- The documents have been accepted, but the buyer still needs internal approval. The salesperson finds out exactly what approval is needed, who is handling it and when they can get a result. Contact with that person is agreed through the existing contact, without trying to go behind their back.
- The documents have been accepted, the buyer confirmed a payment date, and that date has passed. Checking the files no longer explains anything. We need an answer about the reason for the postponement and a decision on the next step under the company’s established process for overdue payments.
- The buyer disputes the delivery or the amount. Sending the same invoice again is not enough: the head of sales brings in the person responsible for the matter in dispute. Until the disagreement has been looked into, the salesperson’s promise to collect the money remains an assumption.
If there is no answer, the reason is still unknown. That is what goes in the record, along with the latest attempt to find out the reason. Filling in a field with a guess will only send the next employee in the wrong direction.
The agreed payment deadline should also be kept separate from new promises. Otherwise, every conversation will move the date the head of sales should have used to spot the delay.
A discount for quick payment can pay for our own mistake
The owner is free to decide that they are willing to make a concession to get the money sooner. But in the illustrative example, the invoice was held up by a missing order number. A lower amount will not add that number. The company may give up part of the price and still have to correct the document afterwards.
Before asking for a concession, the head of sales must identify the obstacle and show why a change in terms could affect it. If the buyer has already accepted the documents and is discussing an earlier payment on different terms, there is something to decide. If the sales team does not know where the invoice is, there is no basis for discussing the price yet.
Another understandable objection: our relationship is fine, so why burden a regular client with confirmations? I would not turn every invoice into an investigation. For a repeat delivery, it is enough to have a known recipient, an agreed way of sending the documents and a check for returns. A review is needed when the method is new, a correction request has come back or an expected event has not happened.
Good relationships help you get an answer. You should not use that answer in place of checking the handover itself.
Return to the invoice before the expected payment date
In the situation described, the head of sales first needs to assign someone to handle the invoice after it is returned. This could be a salesperson or a support employee. The salesperson does not necessarily have to correct the documents themselves: whoever is assigned that work is responsible for their content. But one person must keep track of its progress until the buyer accepts it again.
When processing an order, the salesperson finds out only what is needed to pass the documents on: where to send them, what information the buyer asks to have included and how they will find out if a document is returned. If the requirements are new or impossible to meet, the salesperson seeks a decision on them before promising to meet them. They do not decide how someone else’s accounts team should work.
Next, the head of sales checks invoices with correction requests. In our example, the task is not complete when the corrected file appears, but after the right version has been sent and a response confirms it has been accepted. If the buyer has not replied, the task remains open, with an unanswered question and an agreed next action.
Starting this work only after a payment has been missed is too late. If the invoice has already been returned, there is a known obstacle that can be dealt with now. There is no reason to wait until payment day to discover it again.
At the same time, you must not indiscriminately resend different versions to everyone involved. First, find out which document the buyer currently has and who needs the corrected one. Otherwise, the sales team will create a second uncertainty: which amount and which file the two sides are actually still discussing.
At the next review, open the same invoice
Start with several unpaid deliveries for which salespeople have already moved the expected payment date. The head of sales traces what happened to the documents and chooses one point where progress repeatedly stops. For example, corrections stay inside the company, as in our story.
By the next weekly review, there should be verifiable changes for those same invoices:
- the buyer’s correction request has been found, or it has been confirmed that the document has already been accepted;
- the assigned employee has delivered the correction to the right recipient;
- a response confirming acceptance has been received, or a specific unresolved question has been identified;
- the head of sales has taken a different action where the explanation involving the documents was not confirmed;
- new promises have not erased the previous deadline or the history of the delay.
If the salesperson has only sent the file again, the handover has not yet been checked. If the buyer has accepted it and then said that the money will not arrive on the promised day, there is a different issue to work on. The head of sales must not keep examining how the invoice was prepared once that has stopped being an obstacle.
The money received is checked against actual payments. There may be none over a week: accepting a document does not create money for the buyer or guarantee that a promise will be kept. A short review shows something else: whether our unfinished work has stopped hiding behind talk of delays on the client’s side.
Then look at the next invoice with a correction request. Who noticed the return, who did they assign the correction to, and did they see it through to acceptance without the owner intervening? This will show whether the way of working changed after the review of the old list.
The owner should be left with a specific choice
It makes sense to bring the owner an issue the sales team cannot resolve on its own: the buyer is asking to change the terms, a dispute has arisen beyond the head of sales’ authority, or a decision is needed about continuing to work with the client. The history of documents and promises should already have been gathered for that conversation. Then the owner chooses an action instead of finding out over the phone which file has been lost.
At RENTROP, this is part of “turnkey sales management”: the head of sales organises the salespeople’s work and checks that they have completed their part. The business development director then reviews the head of sales’ decision: what the explanation for the delay is based on, what the team has been assigned to do and what has changed since the assignment. The client’s team in charge of accounting carries out that work; financial terms and decisions beyond the agreed authority remain with the owner.
Start with one invoice you were planning to call the client about yourself. Ask the head of sales to show the last confirmed event on the buyer’s side and the unfinished action on ours.
A call from the owner is needed for a decision that will not be made without them. The sales team must send the corrected invoice themselves.