It's not a sale, unless collected

A lot of times, I am witness to a lot of delinquency meetings wherein I always ended up acting like a mediator (more of a referee) between the sales/marketing group and credit & collection dept. I would always tell them that no matter what is the merit of the case, whatever is the situation and points being raised, they have to agree on this simple and most important principle: “A Sale Is Not A Sale, Unless Collected!

Most companies, especially those with big marketing or sales group, have a lot of incentives being given to the Sales/ marketing department for hitting their respective targets/ quota. I always advise these companies that if ever there are incentives being given for a particular sale, it must be only released or given if that particular “sale” is already collected in full or if only half is collected, it only follows that half of the incentive is also released. With this policy or in this case, the salesperson will have a mindset that anything that is still NOT PAID is not considered a SALE. Now, in this set-up, especially if there is a separate collection group that is tasked to collect, the salesperson will sometimes (if not always) put the blame of non-collecting to the credit and collection group. The sales group will raise a lot of issues such as “incompetence”, not enough effort, or the much classic line: “is it our fault if the credit and collection group cannot collect a legitimate contract/ transaction?” or this is the reason, why in all of my talks, I always push companies to have a simpler, clearer and well-discussed credit granting and collection policy coupled by escalation matrix. In drafting your Credit and Collection Policy, it is very important to start with the objective. For example, you could state as your objective: “To maximize sales, minimize cost and avoid losses”.

Of course, one must have in mind that there are a lot of factors to consider in drafting and designing credit and collection policies such as available resources, capital, competitors, product or services, target market or kind of customers, territory among others. Credit and Collection Policy acts like a map or a direction especially if you are already experiencing delinquencies in receivables or worse, you are already having an infighting between your sales/ marketing group and credit and collection department. As you know, delinquencies in receivables needs to be monitored because of the following reasons: delinquencies makes: (1) working capital tied up; (2) business operation disrupted and complicated; (3) company growth slowed down; (4) causes business failure; (5) the creditor financier for free; (6) the company requires to borrow more than necessary to finance receivable; (7) profits to be drained and/or reduced; and (8) lastly delinquency prevents build up of reserve for seasonal or long-term demands.

Developing and implementing no-nonsense credit and collection policies and procedures must be based on the sound basic principles and guidelines of credit and collection management. Bottomline, it is to your advantage to develop a sound credit and collection policy. However, make sure that you have competent, experienced personnel to implement and enforce the said policies and procedures.

For credit & collection (C&C) questions, comments and rejoinders you want to share or inquire, you can reach him at 0917-7220521 or at [email protected]