Dean Kaplan For decades, a common sales mantra was to “Always Be Closing.” The Internet and social media have made this an outdated and potentially dangerous approach. Always Be Helping is the updated mantra, and it applies not only to sales, but credit and debt collections, as well as professional and personal interactions. ABC meant that … Read more
All too often, when a small business is up for sale, the net result for many of their vendors is bad debt expense. If you hear that one of your customers is selling their business it’s time to be very careful with outstanding receivables and new orders. WHY WOULD THEY SELL THEIR BUSINESS? If … Read more
Article by: Jeanne Lee of Anytime Collect Managing invoices and collecting them on time is not an easy job. It requires a significant investment of your time and energy and even then many of your invoices are likely still going beyond terms, being written off as bad debt, or being sent off to a … Read more
Article by: Kathryn Brown What You Need to Know About Credit Profile Number and Synthetic ID Fraud There are numerous fraud schemes out there – if there is money to made, there is going to be fraud of one kind or another. One type of fraud that is becoming more prevalent is Credit Profile Number … Read more
According to a study at Duke University, 40% of our actions are out of habit, not actual decisions. If all your habits are good, this makes life much easier. But, if you are like me and have some bad habits, this statistic helps explain why changing the Habit Loop is so difficult. This is what … Read more
My son graduates from UCSB in 20 days under a black cloud. He knew 2 of the six students killed by gunfire on Friday, and at least one of the hospitalized. What should be a joyous time for our son and family is now filled with enormous sadness as we think about those who lost … Read more
Michael Lewis’s latest bestseller ‘Flash Boys, A Wall Street Revolt’ is a non-fiction tale of Wall Street intrigue, unfairness, and salvation. The story itself has nothing to do with credit and collections, and yet it highlights the traits that make some people great at managing credit risk or successful debt collection when things go wrong. … Read more
Article by: Bertrand Mazuir Any commercial relationship based on mutual commitments shared between the seller and the buyer. The buyer undertakes to pay the price of the service or equipment delivered on the date specified in the contract and invoices. However, he frequently has a high propensity to forget, at least temporarily, this commitment. Several … Read more
You have been calling your customer about a past due invoice for the last month. After a couple excuses and a couple broken promises, now no one answers the phone or returns messages when you call repeatedly. What does this mean? Have they closed? Has office staff been reduced to the point there is no … Read more
Last week I read an article on LinkedIn on how to be more productive. I’m always looking to learn and try new things. The one productivity tip that resonated the most for me was this: Before you go home today, write down the top 6 things you want to accomplish tomorrow; Cross out the bottom 5; … Read more
“You’ll Get Paid When We Get Paid” This is one of the most common ‘explanations’ we get while providing commercial collection services. How the debt collector responds to this assertion can have a big impact on understanding what is really going on and figuring out how to get paid even if they don’t get … Read more
How One Credit Manager’s Creativity Made The Big Sale Possible Most credit managers have been in this situation: the company wants to make the big sale, the buyer is ready, but their credit situation doesn’t make a standard transaction possible. Bud Rule, who has 40 years of credit experience, recently shared this story of a … Read more
A Credit Manager’s Creative Way of Saving Customers Want to see a salesperson squirm with displeasure: just tell them the account for a long-term customer is being sent to a collection agency. The salesperson has visions of rogue debt collectors badgering their customer with threats of bad credit references, legal suits, judgments and garnishments, caring … Read more
We don’t know anyone who actually wants to make it harder to collect invoices, but we frequently encounter situations where businesses do just that. This week’s blog highlights six common problems from our eBook, How to Make Receivables Harder to Collect. The eBook has 47 tips on how to reduce delinquencies and write-offs and avoid the need for collection agency services. #12 … Read more
One of the simplest ways to detect potential fraud is to confirm certain information provided on a credit application using easy, free resources on the Internet. As a commercial collection agency, we regularly get claims where this has not been done and we discover that the information provided was either misleading or outright fraud. In … Read more
We hear it all the time: “We are not going to pay those invoices because the person who signed the contract didn’t have authority.” Many go on to say: “It says right in our By-laws that only an officer can bind the company.” This tells us several things: The debtor does not want to pay; … Read more
Getting permission to run personal credit reports on B2B Credit Applications can lead to payments during difficult times At our commercial collection agency, we often encounter business owners who claim their company’s financial condition is terrible and they can’t pay anything or can make only small payments. It is difficult to verify this information on … Read more
Elite athletes mentally visualize technique and success to improve actual performance. Our debt collectors use a very simple technique to get better results. Studies have shown that visualization improves awareness, mood, confidence and outcome. We’ve been using these techniques with dramatic success at The Kaplan Group for years. In house collectors typically have 2 objectives, … Read more
At our collection agency, we have a client who uses a provision in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”) to collect significantly more than the original balance due on accounts sent to collections. As an example, we collected over $22,000 on freight bills that were only $11,000 if they had been paid on time. … Read more
It is frustrating, or worse, when a business customer does not pay their first open invoice on time. Perhaps something just happened at the customer’s business after the credit decision was made that has resulted in cash flow problems. But, there is also the concern that this is just a ‘bad apple’ that was … Read more