See Peter Hattaway's 15 seconds of fame as he talks about the New Zealand No Asset Procedure [Jul 28, 2008]
Surviving a recession
Since about the start of 2008, we've found that people attending our seminars (particularly those who took notice of some of the articles I'd been writing) have been much more focused. They weren't there for a day off work, or for the nice lunch, they were there because they really needed to know how to collect their debts. They were starting to realise that in tough times, credit staff have to step up and do the job, so that their businesses survive.
Our Psychology of Credit Management seminar is constantly evolving. For obvious reasons, as we've started to see what was coming, it's been focusing more and more on how you collect debts off failing businesses and desperate consumers. Our Law seminars, likewise, are focused on the issues that apply to these debtors. Obviously, surviving the recession is not just about the people skills and legal skills of the staff at the frontline. Issues to do with policies, procedures, processes and performance measures are even more important. We talk about these to some extent in our seminars, particularly in Psychology of Credit Management. We cap the numbers at 20 and if you have burning issues you want to discuss, we'll find the time to talk about them, but if your business ever uses consultants, now is the time to get us in to give you a second opinion of your credit processes (see our new website - http://www.hattawaysconsulting.com). As consultants, we're here to help, not to show you up or prove how clever we are.
In terms of frontline skills, here's a summary of the sorts of things we think are most important at the moment.
1.
Understanding your debtors – working out why they are not paying, who
they are paying instead of you, and what is required to make them pay
you
2. Negotiating payment arrangements – when debtors want more time to
pay, creditors with good negotiation skills will get extra securities
and guarantees getting guarantees and securities out of debtors
3. Dealing with people who are under a great deal of stress – there
will be a lot of people who find that when their credit dries up, their
business/marriage/life falls apart.
The big credit law issues for credit staff will be:
1. Anything to do with the debt collection through the courts –
statutory demands, getting to judgment, garnishees, etc, etc. You need
to understand how to use the court system to force debtors to pay;
2. Insolvency law generally, because there are likely to be lots of
bankruptcies, liquidations, receiverships and administrations;
3. Guarantees and securities - making sure you understand the options and avoid the traps that can allow your debtor to wriggle out of their liabilities.
4. Unfair preferences – when your debtor (who has paid off half of his
old debt to you) finally goes bust, you don’t want a liquidator or
trustee in bankruptcy taking the money back off you. You have to
understand this law.
Four things about us
Hattaways Credit Management Training occupies an important niche in the credit industry in Australasia. We specialise in training for the industry and we believe, with some justification, that no-one spends more time and effort on the development of credit management training materials than Hattaways. It's impossible to say for sure, but we think we probably know more about credit management in Australasia than anyone else. Check out some of our body of knowledge in the form of the articles and bulletins on this site: if there's anyone who has more expertise in this area than us, they're not writing about it like we are.
To keep abreast of developments in the law, we produce the Australian Credit Management Law Bulletin and the New Zealand Credit Management Law Bulletin. These summarise recent cases of relevance to credit staff and are available free to anyone in the credit industry.
Our most popular public course is our Psychology of Credit Management course. This is a one-day seminar which takes what psychologists know about persuasion and applies it, along with a great deal of practical wisdom, to persuading customers to pay over the phone.
All our courses carry a money-back guarantee
Wisdom from the guru
Some credit staff are very resistant to the idea of asking customers for "private" financial information. In a recent seminar we were talking about asking customers about their financial situation in the course of collecting debts - asking for financial statements or asking questions such as "how much do you earn?" and "what other debts do you have?" and "what payments are you expecting from your customers?" Someone said, as someone often does, "I couldn't ask my customers that!" Here are 9 points to consider on this issue. The first point, and I think it's an obvious one, is that... (Click to continue)
From our latest Australian bulletin - Vol 10, No 6, June 2009
- Did “letters of support” mean parent company liable for debts owed by subsidiary?
Holding company pulled plug when subsidiary lost multi-million dollar court case - Bankrupt fights 5-year battle to prevent property being sold
Trustee’s legal bill of around $1 million won’t be paid until he gets cash from sale - $80,000 of administrators’ fees; what for?
The judge isn’t sure
Have a look at previous Australian bulletins or have a look at the New Zealand bulletin instead