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'Happy Birthday, KTSS...' (Would you credit it?)
It’s September 2010: how come I’m still here? I’ve been in business exactly five years, half of that time in the Credit Crunch Era, and as a veteran of four redundancies I hardly dare believe I’m afloat. In fact, how are any of us staying afloat? Actually, I can answer my own question. Cash keeps us all afloat, credit control keeps the cash flowing, and it’s persistence that makes for good credit control. And have I got persistence!
I send statements out when due (because larger concerns in particular pay by statement, not by invoice). I phone customers when 30 days are up (not three years later), and I phone them again as soon as it’s clear nothing’s happening (not when the bank manager whines ‘some money might be useful...’). I send warning letters exactly when I say. And, finally, I get my friendly debt collector on the case exactly when I threaten to.And at every step of the way I just glow with what one client calls ‘an air of polite menace’. But it doesn’t stop with my role as whipper-in at the debtor end of the chain; there’s also what I do at my client’s end. And that adds up to just about everything. I don’t just know exactly when your clients should pay; I can have view-only access to your bank account to check that they have. Then I don’t simply tell you that you’re due to pay; I actually write the cheque and leave it for you to sign. That someone is me: I’m there when you need me. And as I display my ‘I AM FIVE’ badge with pride (and some relief) I’m thinking: ‘Wow! I’m still there when you need me’. To learn more, contact me, Keely Taylor at keely@ktss.co.uk |
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Dear <$salutation$>
So when I run your credit control, I make sure, for instance, that your customers are invoiced when they expect it (not when I’m back from my hols).
It’s not that you need a minder, of course; it’s just that you’re totally in love with non-stop cash flow as well as with the idea that, in your business relationships, you play good cop while someone else plays bad cop.