I always have thought this was one of the best business strategies I’ve ever heard of.
Peter, a friend of mine, owned a business and sometimes had trouble getting his customers to pay their bills. He could send out reminders that an account was overdue and there would be no response. Threatening letters served no purpose either.
But, being a student of human nature, he hit on an idea. If a client owed my friend $300, he would send him a bill for $900. The wrongly billed customer would be on the phone immediately, protesting strongly the incorrect billing.
“Well, how much do you think you owe me?” my friend would ask. “I owe you $300,” would be the reply. “Well,” Peter would say, “if that’s what you think you owe, then I guess I’ll have to accept that. Just send me a cheque.” A cheque would be in his hand in a day or two from the customer who was grinning with satisfaction while writing it out, knowing that he had shown my friend who the boss in this relationship was. Darned if anybody was going to overbill him.
I also know of a trick another business owner used to employ. This man, a restaurant owner named Bill, paid his waitresses in cash. When a new girl got her first pay, she would find $10 more in the envelope than there should have been. If the girl reported the overpayment to her boss, he would let her work the till. Any girl who kept the extra $10, never got near it. His reasoning was that the girl was either a bit dishonest or not very observant and didn’t notice the extra $10. Either way, not a good candidate to be handling the money. I’ve always thought that was pretty clever.
Also using creative thinking was Tom, a friend of mine, who opened a small diner and who wanted to be able to sell great homemade pies. Asking around, he found out who entered the prize-winning pies at the local fall fair and he went to see them, eventually hiring the second-place winner. His diner became known for its great pies, just as he hoped it would. I can still taste those cherry pies today. Mmmm good!
©2011 Jim Hagarty
