Get In Front of 2009's Biggest Challenge

I recently returned from two days of credit management training at the Executive Development Retreat in Vail, CO. Abe "Walking Bear" Sanchez led a spirited discussion about credit and a/r management that provoked a lot of discussion among distributors and left me with these "nuggets" about how distributors should attack a 2009 in which getting paid by customers may be the year's biggest challenge:

1. Review all of your customers that have credit lines with your company
2. Have your sales teams target those with the most unused credit
3. Identify those are not paying as timely as they used to
4. Get your credit managers more closely integrated with your sales teams
5. Work the phones to start learning more about what might be delaying payments
6. Start using Collection Days Index rather than DSO to measure cash flow
7. Be sure your sales staff really understands what credit is