Credit control and debt recovery – practical issues (In-House)

1 Giving credit and collecting debts

• The benefits when you get it right
• The cost of getting it wrong

2 Analysing yourself

• The importance of making the right ‘first impression’
• Assessing your own personal communication style and how this affects your results
• How do you (or might you) look in the debtor’s eyes? What would you like to change?

3 Analysing your debtors

• Types of debtor
  • The delaying debtor
  • The genuine debtor
  • The cashflow or hardship problem debtor
  • The ones who never intended to pay
• Spot the most common reasons and excuses for non-payment – and learn how to deal
  with them

4 Understanding debt recovery and the law

• Data protection issues
• County Court suing enforcement methods
• Human rights and debt recovery
• Retention of title matters

5 Telephone skills for debt recovery

• A 7-point plan which works every time
• Learning by example: listening to and analysing some pre-recorded (or live) collection calls
  • What was done well?
  • What should have been done differently?
  • Did the collector recognise opportunities?
  • Did the collector create opportunities where seemingly none existed?
  • Did the collector negotiate well or not at all?

6 Writing skills for debt recovery

• Key phrases to avoid
• What to include
• A sample letter which gets results in over 90% of cases

7 Tracking down the ‘gone aways’

• A unique debtor-tracing plan
• Why spend money on external tracers when you can find those ‘gone away’ debtors for
  yourself?

8 Course review

• The traps to avoid
• Key personal learning points