The future sales from a customer can be affected by the tone and aggressiveness of your collection practices. Except for the dead beats, it is only logical to respect the needs of your customers and suppliers. Where practical, it is even wise to mend poor past relationships. You may be surprised to find that the other party is more than willing to make amends. There are some basic facts about business efforts which often escape the most logical minds.
Every business has both predictable and spontaneous activity cycles.
Roofers and glaziers gain from hurricanes, while pond installers wait to work. Local climate can normally be predictable. If I sold pond products I would want to know the date of the first and last frost within my market area. If I had a choice, I would choose the local market with the most frost free days. If I developed a new pond product and wished to market it through the regular distribution channel, I would have to realize that if it wasn't ready to go by August not much would happen for another year.