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.

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 questions will D&B ask my vendors?

When you submit your existing vendors to D&B, they are going to put through a vetting process to determine whether they are an autoreporting vendor who has already reported on you in the past or if they are qualified to be manually contacted and credit history added into your file.

A) If your vendor is an autoreporter, they most likely can't be submitted.

B) If your vendor isn't an autoreporter, they will be passed down the queue where other agents will validate the vendor and make sure they meet the criteria to be manually contacted and data gathered. There are about 45 reason why a vendor wouldn't qualify, but far more reason why they would. If they don't qualify, D&B will decline the vendor so the slot gets returned back to you, allowing you to re-use the slot to submit someone else.

If the vendor is deemed qualified, they will be placed into a "contact" queue and an agent will be assigned to email the vendor or call the official phone number listed in your vendor's own D&B file. They aren't going to ask to speak to your sales rep or your best buddy, but only to an owner, officer, manager, or qualified person in the billing or credit department. They'll only attempt contact a couple of times, so let your vendor know D&B may be contacting them and that they have your permission to release your payment history.

The D&B trade fulfillment agent is going to ask ten questions in a call that usually takes less than three minutes to complete:

1. Do you have an account for ( your company's name )?

2. When was the account originally created?

3. What address do you have on file for this customer?

4. What terms are they given? Revolving | Discount | Net | COD | Other

5. What is the dollar value of the highest transaction in the past year?

6. What is the date of their most recent purchase?

7. What was the amount of the most recent purchase?

8. What product or service was purchased?

9. How do they typically pay? Prompt | Slow | Prepaid | Delinquent

10. 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 their 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 ext 2