Getting on top of your collections means money in your bank account.
Charlie Becker, trainer with Singer's Midgets, walked the smallest elephant of his troupe to Merchant's Bank and made a deposit for Keith's Theatre. The elephant delivered the money satchel directly to the receiving teller. 1924, Harris & Ewing, photographer. Library of Congress.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas:

Begin working on your collections before the eleventh hour, like eleven days (or more) before the end of the month.

In media sales, some of us get paid on collections, and most of us have some kind of charge-back policy by which we lose at least partial commission if payment is not received in 90 or 120 days.

• Put a recurring appointment on your calendar 11 business days before the end of the month to start making those collection calls.
• If you have a CRM system that includes aging, note those accounts that are on in future months, but will owe you money. You have some leverage with those accounts.
• For local accounts, go by in person.
• For agencies, get to know the person who can “expedite” your payment. It will probably be someone in their business department, as opposed to your buyer. Just don’t wait until the eleventh hour!

And, update ten of your contacts each week.

And, develop plans to move your nine target accounts through the sales funnel.

And, discover and focus on eight non-returning accounts.

And, when answering avails, make sure your rates expire within seven days.

And, come up with six good ideas for your clients.

Make five new business calls each week.

And, you may have four budgets to hit, so be sure you are paying attention to all of them.

And, find three reports you can use to help you be accountable and develop sales, and visit them frequently.

And, if two (or more) people call on an account in your organization, work together and share information.

And, promise yourself that you will have fantastic and productive one-on-ones forever more.

Next time, on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the topic will be budgeting.

By Kitty Malone, Efficio Solutions Manager of Client Services