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 creative solution he used years ago.
Their company was gearing up for the big annual trade show. A salesman was working with a dealer to place a large order at the show. This was a long-term customer so everyone was happy. But, one problem: the customer had shown slowness in repayment and the approved credit limit was not sufficient enough for the order.
Bud traveled to the trade show a couple days in advance for a variety of reasons, including to meet the customer face to face the day before the show started. The customer explained the unusual circumstances that resulted in their current predicament. Bud discussed all the typical methods that the customer might use to generate immediate cash or become more credit worthy, but nothing panned out.
Bud was under a lot of pressure to figure something out. Management wanted the inventory sold. The salesman wanted his commission. And now a long-term customer was upset that he was being told “No” on a deal that would really help him.
During the conversation, he couldn’t help but notice the customer’s HUGE diamond ring. In a moment of inspiration, he asked the customer if he was willing to put the ring up as collateral. They went out and got it appraised right then and Bud took it back and locked it in the company safe. When the invoices were paid a few months down the road, Bud offered to fly back and deliver the ring. The customer was so happy with how things worked out that he flew to corporate to say thank you and put the ring back on his finger.
Bud told me “So many people look at the Credit Department as the ‘Sales Prevention Department’. I’ve worked throughout my career to make it the “Assist Sales Department”. I’m sure many credit professionals can relate to this.
Bud has had a long and quite productive career. At this stage, he is no longer looking for that high profile credit manager position and salary. He just wants to stay active (full or part-time) in the credit and collection field. So anyone who could use a highly experienced professional for daily routine matters or to help improve things, check out Bud’s profile on LinkedIn.
And a shout out to all AR professionals: please contact me if you have a story where you have creatively solved a credit problem. I want to share more examples with our community so we can all learn from each other.
