There is a tension every sales manager knows: the customer who owes you is often
the same one who keeps buying from you. Squeeze too hard and you may lose the account.
Don’t squeeze and you lose the money. And while you decide, the invoice ages.
The good news is that this dilemma is almost always a false one. A serious customer who is
going through a cash crunch is not offended by being collected from well: they are offended by
being collected from badly. The difference lies in the method.
The underlying mistake: collecting is the salesperson’s job
At most mid-sized companies, the person chasing the invoice is the same
account executive who wants to renew the contract. It is an impossible conflict: nobody puts
real pressure on the person their monthly commission depends on.
The result is always the same. Soft reminders, promises nobody
logs, and a debt that goes from thirty to ninety days without anyone admitting that it is
deteriorating.
Separating who sells from who collects is not distrust: it is design. When
collections move out of the sales department, the salesperson gets their role back—looking after the relationship—and
collections gain the one thing they lack: consistency.
The principle: escalate the tone, not the aggression
Collecting well is a sequence, not insistence. Each stage has a different message,
channel and owner, and the shift between stages is what conveys
seriousness—not the volume.
Before the due date
A courtesy notice, automated, no drama. It confirms the date and amount.
Many missed payments are not deliberate: they are an invoice misplaced in the customer’s accounting
department. This reminder eliminates them.
First days past due
Administrative contact, not sales contact. Neutral tone, focused on verifying: did you receive the
invoice? Is it approved? When does it enter the payment cycle? This is where you find out whether
there is a process problem or a money problem.
Sustained delinquency
The point of contact changes. It is no longer an assistant: it is someone with a name and authority,
who refers explicitly to the contract and to what follows if there is no response. No
threats, just facts.
Formal escalation
A communication with legal backing, addressed to the debtor’s legal representative. It is not
a lawsuit: it is the last door before one, and often it is enough.
What must always be logged
Every collection action must leave a trail: date, channel, who you spoke with, what was agreed and
what was not honored. That record serves three purposes.
- Negotiating. A debtor who hears “on March 14 your treasury manager
committed to paying on the 30th” stops improvising. - Suing. A documented case file is the difference between a swift lawsuit and
one that falls apart. - Learning. After a few months, that record tells you which customers always
pay late and whose credit terms you should change.
What actually breaks the relationship
It is not collecting. It is collecting in these ways:
- Contacting the wrong person. Writing to the CEO about an
invoice that accounts payable already had in the queue burns your contact for
no reason. - Threatening without following through. The first warning you don't act on teaches the debtor that the
next ones aren't serious either. - Cutting off service without notice. If the contract allows it, give notice first and in
writing. What offends is the surprise, not the measure. - Exposing the debtor. Discussing the debt with third parties, pressuring family members or
calling outside reasonable hours doesn't just destroy the relationship: it exposes
your company legally. - Accepting a partial payment and dropping the case. A partial payment with no written agreement and no
date for the balance is often a way of buying time.
Negotiating well: three rules
- Ask for a concrete commitment. Not “next week,” but amount, date and
payment method. Anything vague can't be enforced later. - Put it in writing the same day. An email summarizing what was agreed, even
a short one, turns a conversation into a commitment. - Offer a dignified way out. A realistic payment plan recovers more than a
demand for the full amount that the debtor can't meet. But the plan is documented,
signed, and has consequences if it's broken.
When to bring in a third party
When the business relationship is worth more than the discomfort of collecting. That's exactly
the opposite of what most people assume.
An outside agent can hold a firm position that your sales team
can't afford to, and do it through an auditable procedure. Your salesperson stays
“the good guy,” the debt moves forward, and if the case ends up in
court, the file has been built from day one.
That's the logic behind preventive and early-stage collections:
step in while the debt is still young and the customer is still a customer, not
when there's nothing left to save.
In summary
Collecting without losing the customer comes down to three decisions: the person who sells doesn't
collect, the tone escalates in stages, and everything is recorded. Companies
that do these three things don't collect faster by pushing harder, but because
they stopped improvising.
At FEXCOB we manage portfolios for banks, credit unions and companies in Ecuador,
Colombia and Peru, with our own team and traceability of every action under
ISO 37001 certification. If you'd like to review how your company collects today, write to us.
You may also like: how to set up a credit and collections policy · the legal limits on debt collection in Ecuador
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice for any specific case.