#commercialcollection

The collection business is hard to navigate when you are competing against multiple firms and profits are based on who can get to the early worms first. It is essentially a race that can get competitive and stressful but going through the motions is part of the job. When it comes to was that you can collect without having to resort to aggressive collection tactics, that is where many collection agencies usually fall short, and that is why so many people lodge complaints against collection agencies on their treatment of consumers. The CFPB regularly gets complaints from borrowers about litigious and aggressive collection agencies that do not stop at anything to collect overdue debts. But that is not how successful collection strategies have to work. The real indicators of legitimacy for any collection agency include cordial and empathetic communication with borrowers to establish trust and a straightforward path to accounts receivable recovery, which Cedars Business Services embodies.

Many people have questioned the legitimacy of Cedars Business Services and its operations, but the truth is that with all the experience that Cedars has garnered over the years, it is not only a legit business but a frontrunner in the collection industry. Starting from the mission of Cedars Business Services, it collects with empathy and puts people first during its collection process. It trains its debt collectors to approach debt collection with emotional as well as technical intelligence and craft their collection strategies in a way that they can benefit all consumers. When approaching consumers for debt collection, Cedars Business Services ensures that it can provide multiple modes of flexible payments to address various financial stresses of different consumers and ease their debt recovery.

Another vital indicator of legitimacy is that Cedars Business Services properly validates every debt that comes to them from their clients and ensures proper scrubbing and screening protocols including Name and Change of Address (NCOA), as well as deceased and bankruptcy to ensure that every debt that comes to them is filed to the right consumer without any pitfalls. Additionally, Cedars ensures that after the debt has been validated, proper complaint measures are taken to initiate the debt recovery process, in collaboration with consumers rather than against them. Each Cedars employee knows they need to treat every case differently and follow the financial situation of every borrower to ensure their recovery is tailored to their needs and they have a straightforward path to debt recovery.

In this YouTube video, Parris Trimble breaks down the differences between Consumer Debt and Commercial Debt and gives us specific examples of each.

Full Transcript:

Hi, my name is Parris Trimble and I’m an attorney here at Greenbaum Law Group. Greenbaum Law Group is a commercial collection and judgment enforcement firm. Here at Greenbaum Law Group, we only take cases that involve commercial debt and do not take cases that involve consumer debt. You may be wondering what is the difference between commercial and consumer debt. In today’s video, I will give you a brief very general overview of the two types of debt.

Let’s start with consumer debt, this is something we are all too familiar with. Consumer debt is sometimes called retail debt, and it is debt that is incurred by an individual in the course of their daily living. Consumer Debt is the money you owe as a result of purchases that you made for you or your family members. Let’s look at a couple of examples. You go to Macy’s to buy new clothes for your infant and charge it to your Macy’s card, that’s consumer debt. Or perhaps you have termites and you tent your house, money owed to the Exterminator- that’s consumer debt.

Now, let’s look at commercial debt. Commercial debt is typically debt that’s incurred between businesses. Now, it’s even the case if the business is a sole proprietorship or partnership. An example of a commercial debt could be unpaid invoices for a bulk supply of sweatshirts to a retail shop or say I want to start a new pizza parlor and I go out and get a small business loan to start the pizza parlor, the business loan is commercial debt.

Now, let’s look at an item and see how the item could be a commercial debt or a consumer debt. The example I’m going to use is a dining table. If I go out tonight and buy a new dining table for my kitchen at home and put it on my Visa card, that’s consumer debt. However, let’s say I want 20 new dining tables for my pizza parlor, the 20 dining tables for my business is business debt and that is considered a commercial debt.

Collect bad debt in California. Bad debts are not unusual, most businesses experience some bad debt. Take action. Don’t just hope things will change. Send your own demand letters and make your own collection calls.

When those don’t work, hire a collection attorney to sue now, not after more of the same. If your collection calls and demand letters failed engage us as your collection attorney to begin your collection suit quickly. Bad debts don’t age well. If you don’t hire a collection attorney and the other creditors do, your debt won’t ever get paid. collection agencies don’t sue, they just make more calls and send more letters.

The courts aren’t free. There are court filing and process server costs. Anyone who promises to collect without any court costs are just a come-on. Consider the benefits of either contingent fees or hourly fees for your collection. We’ll send you information on both.

1. Know who to call

Determine the name and extension of the A/P person once and keep it. Get the email also. If repetitive calls are necessary, be nice.

2. Know how soon

You teach your payment terms. If you call when a bill is 30 days late, you just taught that there are 30 extra days in the payment cycle. Call 5 days after a payment is due.

3. Know when

Afternoon calls get deferred to the next day. Be on the short list for today’s action.

4. Two Views on Content

KISS, Keep it short and simple. No blame! No insults! No emotions! “I’m calling because your account is overdue. Will you pay this now?

Chatty. Listen without blaming and keep the conversation going. Discover the facts or build rapport or become less threatening.

5. Be Prepared to Respond

Anticipate the usual excuses. Have the responses ready. For example, if told they didn’t receive invoices or billings, have pdf’s ready to email immediately while you are on the phone. Have your statements and A/R balance report handy for past payment application responses.

6. Payment Alternatives

Send an email with direct deposit and wire transfer instructions to an account in one of the big chain banks. Describe payment by going to a branch of your bank to deposit. Do you take credit cards? PayPal? Venmo? Zelle?

7. Pick Up a Check

FedEx, UPS and others will pick up, usually same day if called early. If you are told they have a check for you, ask if you can have (FedEx) pick it up that day. If yes, call for a pick up. Eat the cost to get the money if the payment is big enough.

8. Speak Through a Smile

Few people like collection calls but most people like to talk to friends. They smile when talking to friends. Treat each debtor as your friend and your attitude will come through your voice. People pay more attention to friends.

9. Keep a Log

Know when you called, sent letters, what was said, who you talked to and what was discussed. This may not be important now but it could be very important in the future.

10. Make Every Call a Success

You won’t collect on every call so don’t set yourself up for feelings of failure. End each call with an assessment of what you gained from making the call. You can almost always find something positive, even if it is just knowing you must move to the next level.

Most business-to-business debt is monitored and collected on a monthly billing cycle.  Most vendors send invoices with payment terms detail such as “net 30”,  a specific date or EOM (end of month).

Sending Out Billing

Generally, open accounts are billed at the end of a month for the monthly balance owing.  Creditors teach their customers that they will wait 30 days from statement to get paid. Some Creditors bill on an invoice basis but send an EOM Statement of Account.  The terms on the Invoice contradict the EOM statement.

ADO (average days outstanding) is a key metric used in assessing cash flow and in collection of accounts receivables.  But from when do you start ADO?  From invoice?  From EOM billing?   It goes without saying that the faster your company gets paid after the sale is shipped, the better your cash flow.  A big problem is that frequently the accounting department, the sales department and the finance department define ADO differently.  Best Practices requires that everyone in the company work from the same definition of ADO.  

But the decision on how rapidly an invoice or bill is sent isn’t always easy. Who makes the decision varies from company to company.  It seems frequently dictated by the technology being used for billing.  Or the task is done by an Account Receivable Department that wants a specific date so they can balance workflow or human resources.

If the finance department wants an ADO from date of invoice, the technology may resist specific billing in favor of account wide billing.  The “System” may not be  “programmed” for promptest payment.  And if “The System” is programmed to measure ADO from the EOM billing, that may add from 1 to 29 extra days to the ADO.

Critical Event Billing

Critical event billing is superior for sales that aren’t repetitive.  A billing is generated when a big sale is made.  That becomes day one.  

Start with just the first step.  Conduct a company-wide survey of how each department views the money that is owed. Did it hit their sphere of influence on the day of the order, the day of the sale, the day of the shipment, the day of the invoicing or the EOM?   If you find variance, management must make a decision and implement a policy.  Good Management about all interested parties being on the same page when using a metric of ADO as a cash management technique.

Extending Business Credit