Payment

Payment is the stage after the customer said yes: you send an invoice or a contract and agree on a due date. It is still not a sale. It becomes one under the rule you chose for the whole team, either when the money arrives or when the contract is signed. Pick one rule and use it in every report. Write it down where any seller can find it.

In a CRM a deal moves to Payment when the invoice is sent. Record the amount, the date sent and the due date. When the event your rule names happens, the deal is marked won, and that date becomes the sale date. Revenue for the period, average deal size and the sales cycle are all counted from that date. Get it wrong, and the sale lands in the wrong month.

For example, an invoice on Monday, due Friday.

In a team of 2 to 10 sellers, invoices are often issued by someone else: the owner, an accountant, an assistant. Deals wait at that handover. A deal leaves Payment when the money arrives or the contract is signed, whichever your rule says. Where it usually stalls: the invoice goes out, the due date passes, the seller thinks accounting is chasing it, and accounting thinks the seller is.

Each week the head of sales lists the deals in Payment with a passed due date. One person owns each reminder, usually the seller who closed the deal, because the customer knows them. As a start, send a short, polite message on the due date and call a few days later. Check that timing against your own history. If the same customer pays late twice, think about asking for a prepayment next time.

Payment feeds the forecast: a deal here is the most likely money in the period, though it is still not money in the bank. Once won, it counts toward the win rate, and the sales cycle closes on the day of the sale. If deals often fall apart at this stage, go back to Decision. The yes may have come from someone who cannot approve the payment.

• Mixing two rules for a sale. If one seller counts signed contracts and another counts received money, the monthly total means nothing. Write the rule down and set it up in the CRM.
• Sending an invoice without a due date. The customer then pays when it suits them. Put the date on the invoice and in the CRM.
• Marking a deal won the moment the invoice is sent, although the money may never arrive. Wait for the event your rule names.
• Leaving reminders to nobody in particular. Name the person who follows up on each overdue invoice.

By Friday, the owner and the head of sales agree in writing which event makes a deal a sale: money received or contract signed. The head of sales adds the rule to the one-page description of how you sell. Then they go through every deal in Payment, and each one gets a due date in the CRM and a named person for the reminder.

Six areas of the job on one map, with a self-assessment and a plan for your first month.