Commercial Debt Collector
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A commercial debt collector has to be diplomat, investigator, accountant and eventually often a tough guy. Each of these hats worn by this professional are put on or taken off at various times, depending on the size of the debtor's business and the stage of the collection process. For the corporate side of things, millions of dollars could be at stake while the small business owner may be holding out on a few thousand dollars just to stay in business. A one size fits all philosophy will definitely not work when it comes to commercial debt recovery tactics. Neither will the harassing, strong arm tactics from previous generations. A lot of the movies have portrayed debt collectors in the past as big hairy gorillas that much preferred to pound somebody's head in rather than sit down and try to work out some kind of payment plan. To be a commercial debt collector today, one must know each customer's method of doing business including how billing and receipts payable are handled, must become a presence not resented when calling or visiting business sites.
When handling a large account, the commercial debt collector probably spends more time in correcting paperwork than in actually collecting money. Despite the proliferation of automated accounting systems where the computer is never wrong, the task of reconciling accounts can be the most common task assigned to a large account collector. Consider how multiple invoices for the same service could cause an issue, or a missing invoice (one that was never generated) could drive everyone crazy. Then there might be a pricing issue. What if a customer who ordered four thousand bags of oranges and found that forty bags were spoiled on delivery? Under the supplier's policy, the customer can opt to not pay for them, but rather than short the current payment, the next invoice payment is shorted to make up for the forty bags. And what if there isn't a good paper trail?
The commercial debt collector could spend days trying to track down that issue, but how about pricing issues? That "make everybody happy "sales department gives a nod to a lower price on a shipment of product but no one tells the billing department and away we go again. What about a shipment that arrives damaged and is returned, but somehow is not recorded by the receiving department when it is returned? Investigator, reconciler, accountant and even diplomat are in the recovery agent's job description. For giant corporations where a million dollar past due account is like a flea on a camel's tail, the camel would like to be rid of the thing but a hundred others are trying to get into its eyes. What sort of collector would one want headed to that corporate headquarters and what would be the greatest strength that recovery expert would possess? The Bible is filled with incredible insight and teaching; that is why the psalmist wrote," Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." (Psalm 119:18)
Clear written communication must be an attribute of the commercial debt collector when it comes to crafting dunning letters to overdue customers. Usually dunning letters are progressive in nature. "Dear Sir, we know that your accounting department has just overlooked this overdue account, blah, blah, blah." "Dear Sir, we are hoping that your failure to respond to our recent letter can be blamed on a postal worker who lost his mailbag." "Dear Sir, since you have obviously ignored all attempts to collect this bill, we are forced to hire our attorney, Mr. Bill 'Mad Dog' Bumstead to sue you and your grandmother." But seriously, letters must be written to match the culture and the type of business being pursued.
One of the clear obstacles that the commercial debt collector must face is the skip mentality that might be pursued when a small business owner is faced with insurmountable bills. It's the "close up shop during the middle of the night and be in Nevada by the next evening" sort of thing. Any collector worth his money must have on hand skip tracing tools to help located a suddenly vanished delinquent account holder. Some debt recovery firms might advertise that they use social engineering strategies to find missing overdue account holders. What that means is that the collector will use all the online information available to then go talk to neighbors, family members, business associates and other possible resources persons to locate the missing person. Utility bills, tax records and other information are available to recovery experts who have all the rights online software tools. But often that information only leads to good old fashion pavement pounding.
The commercial debt collector has a final assault weapon in the form of a good collections attorney. The recovery agent is really not served well by having to hire an expensive attorney, so before that occurs, the company that hires the commercial debt collector will welcome the agent being able to negotiate a payment plan for past due accounts. Sometimes the best a collector can achieve is a percentage of the lost revenue, but when an attorney is employed, real estate attachments, bank account attachments and other hard core efforts can be made to recover monies owed. When hiring a commercial debt recovery agency, check references, reputation and make sure that there are no licensing issues in the state where the recovery effort is being made.
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