When your service fees run in the thousands, one thing that can help your prospects say “yes” is to allow them to make payments. Sometimes business owners find this problematic. There can be confusion because when clients don’t meet deadlines or put off decisions, they feel they can’t collect the payment as originally agreed.

1. Payment plans: how to make installments work for you
and your clients
When your service fees run in the thousands, one
thing that can help your prospects say “yes” is to
allow them to make payments. Sometimes business
owners find this problematic. There can be confusion
because when clients don’t meet deadlines or put off
decisions, they feel they can’t collect the payment as
originally agreed.
My students ask how they can collect the balance of
payments when they haven’t finished providing the services. For example, if your client hasn’t
made the decisions needed to complete a website, you can’t move on to the next section or
complete the project. This is where the confusion often shows up. Look at it this way though:
the payment plan timing needs to be separated from the service provided.
When I offered nutrition counseling years ago, the program lasted for six months. People
gave me six $200 checks at the start of the program. Five of these checks were post dated for
the future and my clients understood that those checks would go through even if we didn’t
have sessions that month. (This, of course, was before I had a merchant account or accepted
credit cards.)
Offering to accept payments is a courtesy to help clients pay for your services more easily.
But it’s not dependent on when they make decisions or have their sessions. The installments
are just a payment plan to make it easier to engage your service. So, if a client drags her feet
about decision making or cancels sessions, none of these things disrupt the payments.
Installments move forward as agreed.
Here’s how you can talk about this to get clients and make the process clear from the
beginning: “The fee for my program is $3,000. If you chose to do installments, we’ll be happy to
set that up over the next (number of months). These payments are a convenience for you to
make the fee more affordable and allow you to take advantage of the service provided.
However, the commitment is the same whether or not you pay all at once or over several
months.”

2. Discussing this upfront with your clients will solve a lot of problems. They’ll know that using
your services is up to them. You will not have to worry about getting paid when a client decides
they need more time, wants to take a break or is too busy to focus. Those situations no longer
impact your fee collection.
Your Assignment:
If you have clients who are behind in payments, now is the time to address the problem.
Explain how they have agreed to purchase your service and payments are due on schedule.
Installments are actually a convenience and are not optional. This will help you get clients to
follow through on agreements and probably help move projects forward as well.
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System,
the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record
time...guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing &
success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your
income, visit http://attractclients.com