Risk and Reward are the two sides of almost every business deal. What are you risking if the deal doesn’t go well? What will you gain if it does go well? Does the reward justify the risk? In collections, we often have to weigh risk and reward and make similar calculations. When trying to decide … Read more
Negotiating salary intimidates a lot of job hunters, especially in today’s economy. In addition to the health crisis, Covid-19 has caused an economic and employment crisis. The official unemployment rate hit a high of 14.7 percent in April, and continues to hover around 7 to 8 percent. But, that doesn’t mean that if you do … Read more
Cash is King during COVID-19. Poor cash flow can cause a significant number of financial issues but in a pandemic it can destroy your business. The good news is, strengthening your cash flow in a volatile environment can improve your overall cash position. Cash flow is about both bringing in more cash and spending less … Read more
During this difficult time, protecting your health and the health of your family is the most important task. Of course, the health of your business is critical as well. The Covid-19 crisis will end. When it does, you want your business to be in as good a shape as possible. Keeping your business running and … Read more
Part of being a collection agent is being a negotiator. I’ve mentioned before how important I think negotiation strategies are for everyone. Recently, I was talking to a friend about some unfortunate medical bills he was facing. I asked if he had tried negotiating with the hospital and he looked at me like I was … Read more
The cliché of the entitled millennial employee is more than a little worn out. I’m fortunate to have a birds-eye view of a lot of different companies and their employees and I know for a fact that millennials are just as capable and dedicated as their older coworkers. But, having managed employees in many different … Read more
As a collection agent and a business owner, I spend a lot of time in negotiations. I’m fascinated by how negotiation tactics vary from situation to situation. I try to learn from negotiations outside of work and apply them to my work, and vice versa. Ask my kids, I’m very good at using active listening … Read more
Whether you own or lease, real estate is a huge expense for any business. If you are planning on remodeling your space, or building a new facility, the expenses can skyrocket. Quality construction costs money, but that’s no reason to throw away money by failing to plan properly or negotiate with your contractor. Negotiation is … Read more
If you Google “hiring negotiation” you’ll see hundreds of articles about how to negotiate a higher salary when given a job offer. You’ll also get a lot of articles from the employer’s point of view about how to negotiate a lower salary. But what so many of these articles overlook is that the negotiations involved … Read more
In our last blog post we talked about how to make sure you get paid even after you fire a client. For the most part we focused on what happens when you terminate the relationship because they are no longer a good fit for your company. Another common reason for termination is that the … Read more
Just like newlyweds who never imagine divorce, when you first start a relationship with a new client you probably don’t expect to one day be firing him or her. But, it happens and just like with divorce, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and embarrassment can often get in the way of legalities. Every situation is different, … Read more
Arguments occur all too often, whether with a debtor who is disputing a debt, or a co-worker, manager, employee, or spouse. Anyone who is in an argument really wants to win. Frequently in an argument the parties get very emotional and winning is more important than the issue itself. More often than not, neither side actually … Read more
Here’s the premise: Good questions directly lead to greater success in life and career; Most people ask bad questions (myself included). We are constantly solving problems on the job, including making the sale. We need to collect information to solve these problems. How we ask questions greatly influences the answers and our eventual success. Better … 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
The Kaplan Group As we’ve explained many times in our previous posts, delinquent and non-paying customers and accounts can have a very serious effect on the health of your business. Obviously, when a customer orders a product or service and then doesn’t pay for it, your business suffers – so how can these delinquencies be … Read more
Learning to effectively collect debts, whether commercial (business-to-business) or consumer (debts owed by individuals) requires patience and diligence. The best debt collectors have honed their skills over years, learning what strategies tend to push debtors towards making payments. For new debt collectors who haven’t yet had time to develop their collection techniques, however, there are … Read more
While knowing when to send a past-due account to a collection agency is sometimes difficult, it is important to keep in mind that the sooner an agency has an account and can begin collecting on it, the more likely they are to successfully recover your money. There are multiple reasons to send a claim to … Read more
This was originally published by Dean Kaplan on InsideARM in September 2012 We’ve all heard hundreds of different stories as to why a business debt has not been paid. For our commercial collection agency, the first thing our debt collectors are trained to do is to figure out if it is a legitimate explanation or … Read more
One of the most important aspects of debt collection is knowing how to negotiate effectively with debtors. Learning to negotiate is not an easy process, and certainly requires practice, but anybody who’s already working as a debt collector has likely had time to develop their negotiation techniques to some extent at least. With this in … Read more
