The Competitive Edge: A Trade Checklist to Maximize Business Profitability

Make this year your most profitable year ever with barter. Make note of the questions you answer "yes" or "no" to.

1. Have you used your exchange more in recent years to build new contacts and enlarge your customer base?
2. Are you staying in touch with your trade exchange broker/counselor on a regular basis to find out what's new and available, as well as to let him/her know of your particular desires?
3. Have you analyzed your company's marginal cost of doing business? (Remember, day-to-day overhead is already covered by your regular cash business. It's fixed, regardless of whether or not you barter. Therefore, it shouldn't be used to figure the cost of your "extra barter business.")
4. Do you treat your barter customers as "A" list customers because they make a significant, very profitable, contribution to your bottom line?
5. Do you spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day (an hour and one-half a week) "thinking trade?" (Read More)
6. Do you have a document to plan your barter sales and purchases to manage your greater cash flow?
7. Have you filled out your business worksheet? One column for expenditures paid with cash, the second column for those acquired on trade.
8. Are you employing your exchange's advertising and promotional help whenever possible? (Remember, it's not what is advertised, but how often it's advertised.) Dale Mardak, President of IMS, has said: "IMS is the only form of advertising that guarantees pay for performance. We only earn our payment when we deliver a customer. No other advertising product can make that claim."
9. Are you using your trade dollars (when showing your appreciation and recognition) for the perks, incentives, bonuses, and raises?
10. Are you using a trade purchase request? Providing your exchange with an authorized purchase order so a salesman from the exchange can confidently call on a new company (a non­member) and "sell them" on working with you--on a trade basis.
11. Do you suggest to your present vendors that additional business be paid with trade dollars?
12. Do you explain to new vendors calling, that your company barters because it's a good business practice? And then ask them to participate in this economic arena with you?
13. Do you, when trying to crack a tough new account, use the greatest close there is? Tell 'em "you don't have to pay me in cash." Rather, show them how to save cash when buying your product. Then, with the cooperation of your exchange, have your new customer place an order with you via a loan from the exchange (prior to their having made any sales into the system). They not only receive your merchandise (on trade) but they save additional cash in financing charges, as interest is normally paid in trade dollars.
14. Have you reviewed your "aged" receivables? If payments aren't forthcoming, make arrangements to take products/services as payment.
15. Have you approached a long-overdue creditor with a "creative solution" to your company's debt problem? Offer to pay off your debt with trade dollars.
16. Are you realistic in your barter expectations? Since your barter business is only 3% to 10% of your total gross sales, are you objectively looking at the valuable service your exchange is providing for your company?

Barter is a proven business tool. One that your company can successfully use in its marketing, purchasing, and financing efforts. Through your trade exchange membership, you can gain that all-important competitive edge in your marketplace.