Do You Want Wally Cox or Phil Silvers Collecting Your Money?

Employers seeking credit managers frequently insist on two qualifications I don’t see too often on other job descriptions. One is “flexibility” and the other is “hands on.” These are in the job description now, because the last credit manager was neither hands on or flexible. I think I know why. The previous credit manager was an accountant. So many senior managers make the mistake that since credit is a function of accounting; you can make credit managers out of accountants. Wrong. Think about it, just how flexible do you want your accountants to be? It goes back to the old joke, when somebody asked the accountant how much is two plus two? The “flexible” accountant answered, “What do you want it to be?” This kind of flexible accountant became “Enron accounting”. As a rule, accountants are not flexible. Two plus two equals four, period. There is no gray area. People who take up accounting as a profession embrace the certainty of numbers. They are secure in the order and harmony of numbers adding up to what they are supposed to. Balancing is more than an objective, it is nirvana.

Therefore, when an accountant takes the reigns of credit manager, their first act is to establish the rules. Rules govern accounting, thus, rules will govern credit. They are very specific do and don’t lists and usually, they are written in stone. No gray areas allowed; accountants loathe gray. The second act of an accountant credit manager is to go about enforcing the rules. Thus starts the conflict between credit and everyone else in the company, sales, operations and ultimately senior management, who wishes the credit manager could be just a little more flexible.

The second “qualification” being hands on you would think would be no problem for an accountant. They seem to be very “hands on” when it comes to creating spread sheets, pro formas and financial statements. Why are they not “hands on” credit managers? Simply put, “hands on” means different things to different people. Like I said, an accountant considers being hands on doing spread sheets themselves and not having someone else do it. In fact, accountants, in order to satisfy their controlling needs, are very “hands on”. They usually make poor delegators. But, accountants tend to be very “hands off” when it comes to dealing with other people, particularly disagreeable customers and sales reps. For example, if the rules say a customer will be put on credit hold at sixty days, the account will be put on hold. The rule did not call for someone to call the customer and tell them. Accountants prefer to have someone else make that call and they usually tag the sales rep. Accountants are not people persons. They like and find comfort in numbers and charts and spread sheets. They are uncomfortable with people, particularly confrontational people.

That is why when I see the requirements, flexibility and hands on, I am convinced the problem is not with who has been hired, but who is doing the hiring. Accountants hire accountants. The problem is systemic. The company will always have the issue of stubborn “inflexible” credit managers, seemingly unable to get their hands around the problems of the customers and the sales reps as long as they have controllers managing credit managers.

This is where Strategic Credit Management Solutions can help. We know credit managers. We know what it means to be hands on and flexible. We can teach it or we can find you qualified individuals who are both. See our website, http://powerscredit.com/. You can reach us at patrickpowers@sbcglobal.net. Your comments are welcome.