What Data D&B Will Gather From Your Vendors
- Joy Greenwood
- Apr 12, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
I have yet to meet anyone who runs their business without expenses. Whether you're paying for prepared products or raw materials... advertising or marketing or shipping supplies... software subscriptions or legal fees... cars, jewels, chemicals, tires, flour, fans, computers... it doesn't matter. But where and how you pay those things DOES! So why not get credit for your prompt payment history!
Adding just one payment to your D&B file has the potential to boost your scores and ratings by up to 90%. So adding five or eight or a dozen payments can boost your credit capacity even further.
COMMOM FAQS
What does it mean to “get credit where credit is due”?
It means making sure your real, prompt payment history is reflected in your business credit file—so your scores and ratings are based on what you’re already doing, not just on a thin or incomplete report.
Why don’t my regular business expenses automatically show up on my D&B report?
Because many suppliers don’t report to D&B. Even if you pay on time, the payment experience won’t appear unless the vendor is an auto-reporter or the payment history is verified and accepted through D&B’s process.
What questions will D&B ask my vendors when I submit them?
D&B typically asks about your account existence, account start date, address on file, terms (revolving/discount/net/COD/other), highest transaction in the past year, most recent purchase date/amount, what was purchased, how you typically pay (prompt/slow/prepaid/delinquent), and the vendor contact’s name/title/phone.
How do I choose which vendors to submit to D&B?
Submit vendors you legitimately use, that can verify your account quickly, and whose transactions fit the normal scope of your business. Strong, credible vendor responses usually carry more weight than “cookie-cutter” tradelines.
Can a vendor submission be rejected—and why?
Yes. Submissions can be rejected if the vendor can’t verify details, the information doesn’t meet internal criteria, or transactions look suspicious or outside the vendor’s normal scope—especially unusually large purchases.
What should I do if I don’t have vendors to submit yet?
Start with what you already buy prepaid in your business name and explore whether those suppliers can extend credit-based terms—or identify alternative suppliers for the same items that can be verified and/or report. The goal is to build a compliant, believable payment history tied to real operations.
Some credit enhancement companies will try to talk you into using the same old cookie-cutter creditors they use on all their other clients, and that's just crazy. They don't care that those cut-and-dried vendors will actually put your company into a riskier classification.
Because I worked at D&B for almost five years, I tend to look at things through their eyes. I know what types of behaviors they see as risky or questionable. That's part of the reason why I push my clients to save their time and money (and risk) by submitting their existing vendors and suppliers to D&B. When those creditors provide strong responses to D&B's questions, their answers will carry a heavier weight, accomplish ten times more in the creditbuilding process, and can usually get your credit file built out in just a fraction of the time!
What Data DNB Will Gather From Your Vendors?
When you submit your existing vendors to D&B, an email will be sent from D&B's trade fulfillment department to the email address provided during the submission process. That email is going to ask ten questions and usually takes less than three minutes to complete:
Do you have an account for ( your company's name )?
When was the account originally created?
What address do you have on file for this customer?
What terms are they given? Revolving | Discount | Net | COD | Other
What is the dollar value of the highest transaction in the past year?
What is the date of their most recent purchase?
What was the amount of the most recent purchase?
What product or service was purchased?
How do they typically pay? Prompt | Slow | Prepaid | Delinquent
What is your name, title or position, and return callback number?
If the D&B trade fulfillment agent is able to gather the required information, and it meets D&B's internal criteria, it will get added to your file and will start boosting your scores and ratings.
Be advised, though — significantly large transactions or those that seem suspicious or beyond the normal scope of operations for the vendor will likely undergo a manager's review and could be deemed as unacceptable. If this happens, the transaction would get discarded, but the suspicion will remain associated to your file for it's lifetime.
Of course, if your company hasn't yet found the right vendors and suppliers, then you'd have none to submit to D&B to prove your payment history. If that's the case, then let's discuss what kinds of purchases you are already making in your business name on a prepaid basis. Chances are pretty good that you may qualify for a "credit-based" account with that supplier or I might be able to find you some optional suppliers who sell the exact same items, and those purchases will get auto-reported directly to D&B. If you'd like me to run your existing vendors and suppliers through my vetting process, you can email the list to me directly. If you provide their company name, address and phone number, I can usually complete the vetting process and have the list back to you within 24 hours, which means you could be on your way to better scores and ratings in hours or days, not weeks or months.
If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call — 800-918-7505.
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