Upon Request – ASI Social Network: Artistic Toy Credit Policy and Procedure

Based on the 28 comments to Josiah’s (ASI/285446) Deposit and Payment In Full… topic posted on the ASI Social Network Forum it is good to see that most distributors are collecting deposits or payment in full before accepting orders from customers. I was excited to get requests from Anita Patterson and Donna Weaver to see Artistic Toy’s credit policy. I hope distributors find this policy helpful and let me know if you have suggestions or comments.

Standard Language on Quotes to Customers:

TERMS: 50% DUE WITH ORDER, NET DUE ON SHIPMENT. TERMS ONLY EXTENDED TO CUSTOMER WITH MORE THAN 3 ORDERS. TERMS GRANTED ONLY WITH APPROVED CREDIT. CUSTOMER WITH TERMS WHO DO NOT PAY WITHIN TERMS WILL LOSE TERM PRIVLEGES.

WE ACCEPT: AMX VISA MC DISCOVER

CARDHOLDER NAME: __________________________ CUSTOMER SIGNATURE: _______________________

CARD NO: _____________________________________ EXP DATE _____

SECURITY CODE ________

Customer message sent along with Sales Order Confirmation:

We received your purchase order acknowledgement. Attached is a Sales Order Confirmation, please call us if you have any questions.

The following information is critical to ensure efficient processing of your order:

1. No product proofs will be started until 50% deposit is collected.
2. No Credit Terms are extended to customers with less than 3 orders.
3. Invoice balance is due on date of shipment.
4. Customers with credit terms who do not pay within terms will lose term privileges.
5. Customers who pay by credit card at end of term will be assessed additional 2% credit card processing fee.
6. Order cancellation is subject to minimum 25% of total order.

Best Regards,

Accounts Receivable


Notes and Explanation for Policy Requirements:

After a customer has 3 orders and approved credit application, then we extended Net 15 day terms. Why not Net 30 day? We have found that customers have different interpretations for Net 30, meaning payments generally arrive closer to 45 days. To avoid confusion our terms are Net 15 with a 15 day grace period. On day 31, customer will receive a 10 Day Free Demand Letter from the collection agency and lose future term privileges.

This policy is not perfect, but it does eliminate a lot of stress with collections and cash flow. In situations when the orders ship to customers outside the United States or have a value in excess of our own financing abilities we require a Letter of Credit or payment in full before shipment.

Key Implementation Tip:

We have found that these policies and procedures to be most effective when communicated with customers upfront before a quote is prepared. This eliminates any confusion and gets the money issue out of the way in the beginning. Sometimes it’s better to tell a prospective customer, “While we would like to do business with you, we might not be the right fit for you.” If the customer and vendor are going to disagree it is better to agree to disagree early in the process. We all have choices on who we want to do business with and I continue to maintain that “The Customer is always right, just not always right for me.”

Artistic Toy Launches Interactive ToyTag™ at ASB Winter Conference

It’s almost Spring and the creative minds at Artistic Toy have come out of hibernation. On March 1, 2008 we introduced our Interactive ToyTag™ to 600 distributor and exhibitor sales people at the American Solutions for Business Winter Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The response was overwhelming with show guests lining up 6 deep waiting to register to see which of the $80,000 worth of prizes they had won.

You may have heard of the popular brand of stuffed toys called Webkinz™. Well the product development teams at Artistic Toy and Ego-ID have taken the concept of web based toys in a different direction. A key problem identified by many marketing and financial professionals is that it is difficult to measure return on investment or return on objective when utilizing traditional promotional products.

That is why Artistic Toy and Ego-ID have partnered together to deliver a new application for Ego-ID’s successful brand of Dog Tags™ and developed the Interactive ToyTag™ by Artistic Toy. The tags are applied to Artistic Toy’s products. The tags have unique variable data printed codes on them redeemable for prizes on-line. The adorable soft cuddly toy is your initial prize given to a suspect for spending 1 minute collecting a few pieces of contact information. Then instantly they have become a winner of another fantastic prize. This prize however is not an ordinary prize; it is a NO RISK OFFER that separates the suspects from the prospects. The primary purpose of the prize is to provide a call to action for your visitor to see if they would like to move to the next step in building a business relationship with your company or its partners. Typically, this is something that cannot be achieved with an ordinary promotional product give-away.

If you think this is something you would like to present to a customer please send us an email to info@artistictoysmfg.com and we will send you marketing material and detail information about how to sell and present the Interactive ToyTag™ in your next marketing campaign. If you saw the ToyTag™ product at the American Solutions for Business Winter Conference and have any feedback please post a comment.

Jim