Reputation is many things. For our nation, here’s one insight about how we’re doing.
…times have really changed.
Sellers or suppliers are finding that payments are not guaranteed even within the system in North America.Many distributors, contractors, or buyers in North America are not even getting paid themselves by their own customers and thus can not afford to pay the supplier.
Bankruptcies and terms such as Chapter 11 are being learned by foreigners when they find out that the company they sold to cannot and will not pay the supplier at all.
Suppliers are finding that they do not understand the legal system or ways of collecting money from their American customers. Some suppliers are now changing their terms of sales to Letters of Credit only to find out that their competitors have not.
Since it is still a buyer’s market and hundreds of suppliers are selling with open account terms, how does one protect his investment and sell in North America?
Some suppliers are just backing out and saying to themselves “Let us sell to South America or the Far East where buyers pay by Letter of Credit or some guarantee of payment; plus these buyers are not so demanding.