Learning the tricks of the trade

A collection agency I know recently received an $80,000 claim from a building material client. The agency charges 20% of the amount they collect. The client had supplied material to a public works project. They had filed the necessary preliminary notice. They had even filed a Stop Notice. But they did not know what to do next so they assigned the claim to the collection agency. The collection agency sent a letter to the general contractor’s bonding company and soon thereafter they received a check for the entire $80,000. The agency made $16,000.

The building material company did almost everything right. With a little more training they could have sent their own letter to the bonding company and saved themselves $16,000. Where do credit departments get a little more training? There are an abundance of collection seminars but they require leaving the office, usually for the day, and they cover a lot of material, not all of it new or relevant, and there never seems to be enough time for questions. Webinars are all the rage, but they are topic specific and there are no opportunities for questions. This assumes that the credit personnel recognize they could use a little more training. Maybe, the building material supplier assumed the next step was assigning it to a third party.

That’s where CreditPowers comes in. We are not a collection agency. We are a credit management resource. We can identify those areas in a credit department that would benefit from a little more education and we can train your personnel in those specific areas. We can do in-house training customized to the needs of the department. It would be money better spent than letting someone else write collection letters.

For more information, contact us at patrickpowers@sbcglobal.net.