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
At our commercial collection agency, we aren’t afraid to talk to attorneys. When we call a debtor and they tell us to talk to their attorney, our biggest fear is that the attorney will not actually talk to us. Once we are instructed to talk to a company’s attorney, we are no longer allowed … Read more
The chances of collecting on an invoice due from a company that has ceased operating are very slim. If the business was organized as a corporation or LLC (limited liability company) then only the business entity itself is liable for outstanding invoices. If there are no assets remaining in the entity then the entity … Read more
This article has been updated since originally published in CreditToday with new input from attorneys and other credit professionals. We received numerous comments via CreditToday, InsideARM and LinkedIn that has been incorporated into this revised edition. We frequently get asked by new clients about piercing the corporate veil on owner-operated companies that go out … Read more
At our commercial collection agency we always prefer having a personal guaranty. Years ago, a new client started sending us claims along with their very simple, one page credit application. At the bottom of the page, immediately above the signature block, it reads exactly as follows: NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ACCOUNT IS ESTABLISHED IN THE NAME OF … Read more
If a business is organized as a corporation, limited liability company (LLC), or other type of separate legal entity, the owner is not liable for the debts of the business unless other conditions exist. For small businesses, the primary reason the owner took the time and expense to set up the separate legal entity was … Read more
A discussion on LinkedIn regarding my recent article “Does Knowing the Truth Matter” prompted this comment from Kim Gelinskey, Credit and Collections Analyst for Veolia ES Technical Solutions, L.L.C. “I’ve learned you are more productive working through a problem than plowing through the issue.” This immediately struck a chord with me. I thought of all … Read more
Unfortunately, we know that many debtors will provide false or misleading information in order to make it harder to collect. A well-designed and executed strategy is necessary to get to the truth which is key for increasing collections and making good business decisions as discussed in this recent post “Does Knowing The Truth About a … Read more
