TRIAL BALANCES. See MONTHLY STATEMENT. TURNOVER : How to Retain and Increase traders are aware that it is not always an easy matter to retain a customer even after he has once been secured. Through no apparent fault or neglect on your part his trade with you may begin to dwindle, and eventually become practically nil. Nor, in the absence of a proper system of detection, are these dwindlings easily observed at the right time, i.e. when they first begin to occur. But of course such leakages should be detected at the moment they happen and dealt with there and then, else maybe a competitor will get himself firmly established in the good opinion of the customer, a frequent cause of fewer orders. A competitor has managed by persistent eflbrt to get into the trader's favours, and unless immediate steps are takon it may be very difficult, if not impossible, to dislodge the other man and win back the client. Here, then, is a scheme which will enable you to deal effectively with the situation.
A Monthly Examination.—Regularly each month, directly the State ments have been dispatched, all the ledgers in the Credit :Department should be gone through very caret:ully and every decrease noted ; then a special business-bringer—a letter containing the very best offer at rock bottom prices—should be sent off' post-haste to each of those customers in whose account a drop of considerable note has occurred, to be followed with a " trailer "—a second letter, that is, supplementing the first—within three days if no reply is received. Suppose, for example, that you are a provision
merchant, and that you have one or two special lines which you know you can offer with advantage. You instruct the clerk at the head of the Credit Department to provide you with a list of those customers who need looking up, and the particular class of goods which they buy. Here is a form, named the "Monthly Whipping Sheet"—so-called because it is intended to whip up those who are behind—which will be found very useful for the purpose