The Universal Payment Identification Code, and Sales Metrics (#36)

In this podcast, we discuss the advantages of using the universal payment identification code (UPIC) for payables transactions, as well as the best sales metrics to use. Key points made in the podcast are:

  • The Clearing House Payments Company does payment clearing; it is an alternative to the Fed.

  • UPIC is a pseudo account number, to which customers can send their ACH payments. The Clearing House Payments Company then looks up the linked account account, and forwards each ACH payment to it.

  • UPIC is portable, so it stays the same when you change bank accounts.

  • UPIC avoids the need to contact customers when the underlying bank account changes.

  • UPIC does not allow the use of ACH debits or demand drafts.

  • Can ask your bank if they offer UPIC.

Key points relating to sales metrics are:

  • Sales per salesperson; use it to measure nonrecurring sales.

  • Customer cancellation percentage; use it to monitor the loss of longer-term customers.

  • Sales productivity; can use it to measure productivity for individual salespeople, or the entire department.

  • Sales effectiveness ratio; want to maximize gross margin per hour of bottleneck time.

  • Quote to close ratio

  • Pull-through ratio; useful when have large initial group of prospects.

  • Days of backlog; only at a gross level, so it may hide constraint issues for individual products.

  • Customer turnover; need to factor in which customers need to be dropped.

Related Courses

Business Ratios Guidebook

Payables Management