We have face based attendance solution. The pricing is user based licenses. The B2B customer has to buy as many user licenses as the number of employees who will enroll themselves for daily attendance. The total deal is of $20000 for 1 year. We have to provision the system, provide support etc and hence we ask for 50% advance payment. The remaining is paid on a monthly basis. The CIO wants to understand why the advance payment is required even before we start. Seeking clarity to understand from the community that what are the convincing reasons to ask for advance payment from a B2B customer for any cloud based offerings?
IF asking for advance payment doesn't prevent sales to close (which is why many companies avoid it), the benefits of getting advance payments are:
1) increased cash flow.
2) creating a deeper client commitment (making it more difficult to back out, stall, or change terms)
3) removes the burden on the vendor to go into "collections" mode which can be frustrating and difficult.
4) Gives the vendor a balance of leverage which can create a healthier relationship between both parties.
5) Gives the vendor the funds to proceed (assuming resources, etc. will be used). Otherwise, imagine resources are used to queue up the client, and then there is non-payment...the vendor then suffers a loss that may not be recovered.
Answered 9 years ago
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