Utilize Your Sales Team To Spot Potential Payment Problems

5 Feb

Utilize your sales team to help you avoid debt collections and the use of a 3rd party commercial debt collection agency.

You already know how essential it is to regularly monitor the health of your customers. Maybe what you don’t know is that, while it may seem counter-intuitive to review your customer when things appear to be going smoothly, the fact is, that is actually the best time.

We recommend incorporating a routine health-check process into your in-house debt collection strategy. This isn’t to monitor slow pays. After all, if they’re behind, you’re already looking into the problem. What we recommend is at least an annual review to monitor customers who routinely pay satisfactorily. To keep the task manageable, schedule a set number of accounts to review per month. It’s a pro-active measure to help you keep bad debt at a minimum by spotting trouble before it takes root.

There are four quick checks you can do that won’t eat up loads of your valuable time:

• Run an updated credit report

• Confirm that there’s no change in banks

• Review your customer’s actual purchases VS anticipated purchases

• Confirm that customer’s payment pattern remains consistent

The results you find will either set your mind at ease or prompt further investigation on your part. It may be impractical to run these checks on small accounts, but for your big clients where your risk is at its highest, these checkpoints are worth the effort.

The above four checkpoints are a great start. But the best source for spotting trouble is found in your sales team. It’s your salesperson that relates regularly with your customer; handshake-to-handshake and face-to-face. What’s your salesperson hearing from your customer? What’s he seeing when he visits your customer’s business? Is it bustling? Too quiet? Same as always?

Most of us are inclined to focus on the accounts that are in trouble. This approach certainly ‘feels’ right, but it’s also reactionary and in many cases, by the time you’re reacting, it’s too late. The best way to avoid complicated problems is to keep an eye on your customer when things are healthy. It will likely be your routine health checks that help you take action before a problem takes shape.

How about it? Do you use your sales team as a pro-active measure against possible trouble?

 

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