What links the Taming of the Shrew and Credit Collection?

This week’s blog has been inspired by Jacqui Frost of The Office Genie who challenged me to write a blog linking The Taming of The Shrew and credit control.

When I first received the challenge my mind went blank was it possible to link William Shakespeare’s masterpiece with credit control. But then I thought of the “Shrew” in Shakespeare’s tale Katherine & her sister Bianca. In the story Bianca is everything that Katherine is not she is soft-spoken, sweet and unassuming and is the one that all the men want to wed. The problem is that Bianca cannot get married until Katherine does. In the story Katherine is eventually “tamed” by Petruchio and eventually both Kate & Bianca find happiness.

There is a direct link between the characters and credit control and I hope this illustrates why I can make this statement. When I started in business over 30 years ago being allowed time to pay was not expected or demanded as it is today, you had to earn the right to be granted credit. Once you had proven yourself worthy of being offered credit and you had passed the vigorous vetting procedure, well OK it wasn’t that vigorous as it usually consisted of you providing 2 trade references. Obviously the salesman, or Bianca would be delighted and they soon became a “friend”. They would show you the latest goods, they would shower you with compliments etc etc.

Depending on the size of the company you were dealing with there would be at least 1 or 2 people, who were generally ladies who took care of the credit control for the company. These ladies could also be like Bianca as it was in their interest to be nice with customers who paid. However, if you didn’t pay your invoice Bianca would suddenly become Katherine.

I once met a Katherine when I was asked to meet Maggie* who was the credit control manager for a major publishing house. Maggie had a reputation for being a bit of a dragon and was for ever stopping new customers from obtaining credit and as such upset the sales team who found it hard to attract new advertisers who would not be granted credit. The board felt that while Maggie was doing a good job they wanted to know if she was acting unreasonably and asked me to carry out a review.

Maggie & I met for a cup of coffee and I found her to be charming very much like Bianca, she explained that before joining her present employer, she had been a tax inspector. It was her belief that if as long as a client let her know if there was a difficulty and sorted out a payment plan and stuck to it, she was happy. However woe betide anyone who did not keep their promise, as she then became Katherine. When I asked her how far she would go to get paid, she pulled out a portable credit card machine! She explained that she would attend exhibitions both here and abroad and if she saw an errant advertiser entertaining someone, she would march up to them and demand that they pay their overdue invoice.

I reported back to the board that Maggie was the perfect example of a competent credit controller whose goal was to insure that her company did not suffer from bad or late payers. John* the sales director asked what did I think of Maggies’ attitude to granting credit as it affected the sales staff’s ability to attract new customers as they wanted credit before placing an order. I explained that I felt Maggie was right and gave him my favourite analogy of not being able to go to Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose etc and fill up a trolley and then walk out with out paying. I finished my report by saying that I felt as long as they allowed Maggie to carry out her job the company would continue to grow and remain relatively debt free.

A few years later I met Geoff* who was the Chairman of the publishers at a networking event and as we both had some spare time I treated him to a coffee and asked how things were, howMaggie, John and the rest of the team that I had met were. Geoff explained that after Maggie had retired John had insisted that the company employ less of a Kate and more of a Bianca as he felt it would allow his team to take the company to the next level. Geoff then went on to explain that within a year the company had gone from having virtually zero debtors to over 15% and the majority of the debtors had come form new customers that had been signed up since Maggie retired.

When I asked him what he had done, he took a deep breath and said that he had begged Maggie to come back on a part time basis so that she could teach her successor how to do her job. When I asked Geoff how John took the news, he said that John had said that if Maggie came back he would leave because he felt that she stifled the sales team with her attitude. Geoff then smiled and said since Maggie had come back debts had fallen and while they had lost a small number of customers, the majority respected the fact that if they wanted to advertise within their titles then they had to follow Maggies’ rules.

While I have not used Maggie, Geoff’s or John’s real names the story is true. If you would like to know a bit more about the Taming of the Shrew or other works by Shakespeare I would suggest that you obtain a copy of To Be or Not To be, Innit by Martin Baum.

If you would like to challenge David to link a subject to credit control or like to know more about him or Deanem Collections Ltd please do visit our website www.deanemcollections.co.uk or send David an email david@deanemcollections.co.uk