"Show me the money!” The popular tagline is from the famous 1996 film “Jerry Maguire,” in which Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed a football player challenging his agent to fight for his rightful worth. It’s also the perfect mantra for your company’s collections efforts. With equal urgency and enthusiasm, collections should be a primary effort shared organization-wide. Perception becomes reality. If collections aren’t perceived as important, they won’t be a top priority for staff members or customers.
Where our business failed at collections was by jumping on the list only when we were low on cash flow. Putting the company into a paralyzed state caused a rush to bombard customers to relieve the cash pressure. After years of punishing ourselves and our customers, we finally realized there is a better way. Here is how we turned the word “collections” from a dirty word into a welcomed part of daily operations.