By Dean Kaplan+
Every business owner wants to make a profit. This is why we’re in business in the first place, right? Well, what if you are doing all the right things, but some of your customers aren’t paying their bills? What can the savvy business owner do, besides get on the phone over and over and still not get paid? One possibility is to hire collection agencies.
Commercial collection agencies make their livings collecting outstanding business to business debt. They understand the most successful collection techniques and they know the laws.
Benefits of hiring a professional agency
Allows your company to be optimally efficient.
Let’s face it, contacting customers to pester them to pay their bills can take an inordinate amount of time. By allowing professionals to do this for you, you and your employees can devote your time and energy to other necessary tasks that hopefully will add to your bottom line with new business. The time saved can also be devoted to improving credit application and credit term procedures. It is often helpful to educate customers up front about credit terms and procedures, thus reducing the incidence of the slow or no-paying customer.
Improves the chance of your customers paying what they owe
Good collection agencies truly know how to collect. Employees are trained in the latest
collection techniques, and they do their homework before making any contact.
When they contact your delinquent clients, they are ready to talk the talk. They get
results.
Expert Advice
Agencies know their way around business to business debt issues. They can advise you on many aspects of the debt collection process and may even be able to act as consultants to help improve your in-house practices. Sometimes they can also provide financial consulting expertise. Because they have such extensive experience in the credit/collection arena, they can often provide many helpful insights to their clients. This financial expertise can also help the agency when discussing payment options with debtors. Collectors have seen it all. They are very savvy when it comes to getting payments from debtors. They have a vast array of negotiating tactics to select from.
Legal Assistance
A few agencies have their own in-house attorneys. When “normal” collection tactics just aren’t getting the collection job done, legal action might become necessary. Rather than hiring your own lawyers and having to go through the process of selecting the right legal help, you can just have your agency take care of everything for you. Again, filing suit to collect is just part of the collection process for an agency. They know what they are doing, and their lawyers will have a greater chance of success than if you hire a lawyer yourself.
Whatever you decide to do, remember that statistics show that the longer you allow a debt to remain outstanding, the less likely it is to be collected. Therefore, if you decide to hire collection agencies, don’t wait too long. If a customer’s invoices remain unpaid for 90 to 120 days, it is probably time to consider hiring a commercial collection agency.
The Kaplan Group is a boutique collection agency specializing in large (over $10,000) debt collections due from businesses. Founded in 1991, the company has a stellar reputation (A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau) and is recognized as one of the leading collection agencies for results on large and complex matters.
