Outsource your receivables!
What business are you in? What are your core competencies and resources? Whether you’re a professional, a service provider, a retailer, a wholesaler, a manufacturer, or something else, you probably don’t consider receivables management to be an integral part of what you do. We all deal with receivables, just like we all put out the trash…but an hour spent on debt collection is an hour wasted, time when you haven’t been focused on your core business.
A/R management is an overhead task. 
The best thing to do with an overhead task is to delegate it – to an outside resource that offers good value for the dollar. We all save time, money, and headaches by using outsiders for drudgery, and debt recovery is a perfect example of drudge work. Past-due accounts are a distraction and a waste of time for most business people. Let professionals help!
Compare debt recovery to other overhead tasks like trash removal or carpet cleaning. It’s more important to outsource debt recovery than other functions. Why?
- Because debt recovery involves only a small percentage of your account volume. You want to focus your time on your good customers.
- Because for effective debt recovery, you absolutely must follow a tight schedule – contacts must be prompt and regular. That is hard to do if recovery is treated as internal “fill-in” work.
- Because the risk of delay is very high: debts rapidly depreciate in value over time. A $100 debt might only be worth $70, $40, or $10 after being allowed to languish for months; and of course it might be worth nothing.
- Because most people hate debt collection – so it’s all too easy to procrastinate.
- Because only a consistent, automated process gets results. Few businesses could justify the investment to create such a process in-house. Besides, a good outsource solution is already available, so why do it?
So… What business are you in? Are you in the receivables business? Or would you rather have receivables experts take over the drudgery, and leave you in control?
