As a Debtologist, I’m often asked to provide coaching to new and inexperienced credit controllers. I recently met a lovely lady called Sarah* who had just been asked to take over as her companies’ credit controller. Sarah was in her mid to late 30’s and had been by training, a conveyancing solicitor. When she married, she stopped working unfortunately due to very messy divorce she had to return to work & the only job she was able to get, was as an office administrator. Her brief was to bring the companies' debtor days down from 120+ to nearer 30.
I met Sarah during her first week and she was still working up the nerve to pick up the phone to call her late paying customer. When we spoke Sarah explained thather problem was as she had had no training, she was concerned about what should she say & act, what happens if the customer was rude, slammed the phone down etc and as much as I tried to reassure her and take her through credit control procedures, she was still unsure.
Sarah had also mentioned that the only thing she missed about her husband was the sex! She explained that he had been her “first” but she didn’t miss the bullying or her interfering mother in law. Once she had told me this, I was able to coach her in the art of credit control.
I explained that being a novice credit controller was very much like having sex for the very first time as most people don’t really enjoy it but wanted to get it over with, she said she could relate to that. However, I carried on the more you made love the better it becomes. I explained that it was exactly the same with credit control as the first time you pick up the phone to ask your debtor to settle their account is nerve racking and not something you really enjoy. But like sex the more times you “do it” the more credit control becomes enjoyable. However, unlike sex where you could get accidentally pregnant or worse, with credit control the pleasure is reduced debtor days, a swollen bank account and no nasty social diseases.
When I last spoke to Sarah, following my advice and utilising Deanem's collection services she had managed to get her debtor days down to 45 and was delighted to be told by a slow payer that he dreaded her telephone call.
If you would like more details of our unique approach to credit control training, please visit our website www.deanemcollections.co.uk
*Sarah is not the real name of the person concerned.
I met Sarah during her first week and she was still working up the nerve to pick up the phone to call her late paying customer. When we spoke Sarah explained thather problem was as she had had no training, she was concerned about what should she say & act, what happens if the customer was rude, slammed the phone down etc and as much as I tried to reassure her and take her through credit control procedures, she was still unsure.
Sarah had also mentioned that the only thing she missed about her husband was the sex! She explained that he had been her “first” but she didn’t miss the bullying or her interfering mother in law. Once she had told me this, I was able to coach her in the art of credit control.
I explained that being a novice credit controller was very much like having sex for the very first time as most people don’t really enjoy it but wanted to get it over with, she said she could relate to that. However, I carried on the more you made love the better it becomes. I explained that it was exactly the same with credit control as the first time you pick up the phone to ask your debtor to settle their account is nerve racking and not something you really enjoy. But like sex the more times you “do it” the more credit control becomes enjoyable. However, unlike sex where you could get accidentally pregnant or worse, with credit control the pleasure is reduced debtor days, a swollen bank account and no nasty social diseases.
When I last spoke to Sarah, following my advice and utilising Deanem's collection services she had managed to get her debtor days down to 45 and was delighted to be told by a slow payer that he dreaded her telephone call.
If you would like more details of our unique approach to credit control training, please visit our website www.deanemcollections.co.uk
*Sarah is not the real name of the person concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment