Contrary to what many business owners believe, having potential customers fill out pre-sale paperwork, such as a credit application, does NOT kill a sale. How many times have you asked someone to fill out a credit application and they say, "No thanks" and leave your store? If that DOES happen, guess what? They have bad credit and don't want to fill it out because they know they WILL NOT BE APPROVED.
In reality, that is a blessing for you. Unless, you like working for free.
I write a "Ask Michelle" column for my local paper and the latest question I received was on this topic. A credit manager was asking how they could get their boss to use credit applicaltions because the boss beleives that if they ask potential customers to fill out a credit application, they won't make the sale.
My advice? Keep trying but be happy in the meantime because the longer they don't ask customers to fill out an application, the better job security for the credit manager!
I would love to hear comments from anyone who thinks asking potential customers to fill out paperwork kills the sale and how they justify that. I have been in this industry for years and still can't figure out why business owners might believe this. Please share why you think this is true below!
