The two greatest assets of a company are:
1. SALES, they deliver the REVENUE
2. Business CREDIT, they bring in the CASH

Here’s why I see it this way. Sales deliver revenue. What would happen if your entire sales team decided to take next month off? Would that have an impact on your company? No top-line revenue and nothing for the Business Credit team to do. Of course this would have a tremendous impact!

Business Credit brings in the cash. If you go to the office tomorrow and your executive team tells the Business Credit team to take the next two months off, would that have an impact on your company? No cash coming in the door to cover expenses including payroll. Of course this would have an adverse impact on the company!

A successful company needs five things:
1. A strong purpose
2. Solid policies and procedures
3. Great people
4. Solid performance measurements
5. Strong CREDITandSALES relationship

This is where most companies fall short; they miss the opportunity to ensure their CREDITandSALES teams are united and enjoy an OUTSTANDING relationship. With all relationships, there are hot spots and struggles. When struggles occur between these teams, it’s usually about cash.

Think about it from a salesperson’s perspective, when Business Credit places a customer on credit hold, sales thinks, “You’re cutting into my commission checks! What are you, nuts?”

From a Business Credit point of view, they see it as protecting their “assets”…”If we don’t turn this customer off; we’re risking one, two, three, four hundred thousand dollars in bad debt.” For the company, cash means profitability. Without cash, nothing else matters. Cash drives salespeople, it drives business credit professionals, and it drives the company—period!

Be sure to check out my white paper, “The 5 Myths You’ve Been Led to Believe About Credit and Collections”, just enter your info in the box on the upper right side of this page.

Let’s remember, a company is only as good as making payroll next week. You could have the best sales team in the world to sell substantial amounts of products and services, but if you can’t make payroll next week because there’s no cash coming in the door, what good are the sales?

A solid and positive relationship with your CREDITandSALES teams produces many benefits:
• Improved profitability
• Increased cash flow
• Better operational efficiency
• Improved communication
• Better teamwork

Strive to build and maintain a strong CREDITandSALES relationship to catapult your company ahead and drive more profitable sales…together!

What are you doing to strengthen your CREDITandSALES Relationship? Leave a comment…