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Our Subscribers Say...
I think Credit Today is fantastic. You cover many practical topics in the credit field that I use regularly. Just one recent example—a conversation on the ListServ about preferential payments—gave me tips that I used in an actual case. The specific information I picked up from this one discussion saved me $10,000, enough to cover my membership for many years!
- Steve Savino
Manager of Credit & Collections, ASSA Abloy Americas Division, New Haven, CT
Credit Today's Resource Directory and their online e-mail forum (ListServ) provide information on almost any credit-related topic you can think of. It is a great way to exchange information with other credit professionals. As the saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know."
- Scott Goen,
Credit Manager, Big Lots Stores, Inc., Wholesale Division
"We've recently started using the ListServ tool within Credit Today. This is phenomenal and powerful forum for gaining immediate feedback, ideas, and suggestions, relative to any credit topic under the sun, all in a real-time e-mail format."
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"Being a part of the Credit Today online community is like having the expertise of hundreds of credit managers at your fingertips. These credit execs are willing to help you solve topical business issues as they arise. In the current environment of ever increasing competing priorities which reduce our opportunities to meet peers out of the office face-to-face, this is the most valuable tool you can have on your desktop! It's important that we have a mechanism to reach out to our counterparts quickly to exchange knowledge as well as to stay on top of industry trends."
- Victoria Artis, Director of Customer Financial Services, Pfizer, Inc.
"Over the last 10 years I've seen Credit Today evolve from a monthly credit publication into a quality source of information and guidance for the B2B credit community. The website, with its user friendly form downloads, will take you from examples of new account credit applications to bankruptcy forms and everything in between.
The Credit Today ListServ has become the pre-imminent online forum, providing an opportunity for discussion and comments (and occasional humor) from an impressive list of credit professionals."
David Dungan, Director of Credit
Justin Brands, Inc. (A Berkshire Hathaway company)
Fort Worth, Texas
"There are numerous credit periodicals available to the credit professional today. How good is Credit Today? Is it relevant? I always have to read it late, or online because my credit analysts want to read it the minute it comes in. When my staff wants to read a publication before I have a chance to read it then something is working in that publication. We have cancelled our other subscriptions. When you have the best you do not need the rest."
Ron Woods
Corporate Credit Manager-World Wide
Thales Navigation, Inc.
"The newsletter, coupled with the website and the ListServ, are to us, more valuable than any other credit publication, bar none. I try to use at least one article out of each newsletter for departmental training/discussion sessions."
D. Mark Constantine
Corporate Credit Mgr
Fulton Paper Company
"I love Credit Today and read every issue cover to cover. For me, the greatest perk of a subscription is ListServ. I believe Credit Today's ListServ members may be the most knowledgeable Credit brain trust in existence today. I have saved and categorized hundreds of contributions on a wide variety of topics which I refer to often. It's an easy and cost effective way to network and learn."
Doug M. Thomas
Kimberly-Clark Customer Financial Services |
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Four Steps to Developing an Outstanding Credit Staff
Until the early 1990s, Progress Software Corp. (Bedford, Massachusetts) engaged in active collections but did little in the way of credit investigations.
"Because of the high margins, the company tended to ship to almost anyone," explains Corporate Credit Manager Paul M. Tourtellot, CCE. Tourtellot is a 20-year credit management veteran who joined Progress in January 1993 and was given responsibility for creating a "full-fledged" credit and collections department at that time.
In this era of outsourcing credit and collections and downsizing credit departments or merging credit departments with Customer Service, how has Tourtellot been able to create and build a credit and collections department? He lists four strategies, all of which revolve around the employees in the department.
1. Hiring. While Tourtellot may hire an employee with credit and collections experience, he prefers to hire graduates fresh out of college and looks for
- a desire and commitment to gain a strong foundation in the business world,
- an outgoing personality,
- involvement in extracurricular activities in college,
- community involvement,
- the ability to handle multiple projects in college, and
- a history of not conforming to college peer pressure.
Tourtellot also asks applicants to provide details on at least one major college project. "I want to know why they selected the project in the first place, how they accomplished it, what the results were, whether they achieved the results they expected, or whether they had to revise something along the way," he says. This discussion and demonstration help him judge the applicant's creativity and persistence.
Credit HR Issues Today
The best and most insightful reporting on how to succeed in your career and how to ensure that all members of your credit department work to their potential. You'll find what you need to know about motivating your staff, the role of incentives, interviewing, downsizing, staffing and pay issues. Many of our articles are based upon the hard data that we have gathered in our annual Credit Today Salary and Job Satisfaction Surveys.
Check out Credit Today's
HR Issues For Credit Execs
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2. Training. Once on board, new employees go through a three-month training program. A documented training manual provides specific and detailed information in credit extension, financial statement analysis, and collection calls.
Collection call training is handled both through employees making actual calls to customers and through role-playing with other employees, with situations ranging from "easy" to "difficult" (e.g., irate customers).
 In most credit departments where downsizing and outsourcing are going on, it's usually the result of the department not identifying and promoting the value they provide. 
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-- Paul M. Tourtellot, CCE
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3. Managing. Tourtellot considers himself more of a mentor to his employees than a manager. "I try to help them build enthusiasm for the credit profession and for achieving success in it," he explains.
He has found that many of today's younger employees are short on patience. "They want to become president tomorrow," he says with a laugh. "I try to help them develop realistic career paths so that they can either expand further into credit and collections or, if they desire, develop a background that will eventually allow them to move into other departments."
4. Adding Value. The hiring, training, and mentoring efforts eventually lead to the development of employees who can truly add value to the company. So Tourtellot is diligent in identifying this value and publicizing it.
"This is especially important in these days of downsizing and outsourcing," he says. "In most credit departments where downsizing and outsourcing are going on, it's usually the result of the department not identifying and promoting the value they provide. In our department, we make sure that we're very visible. We show the pluses we bring to the company that did not exist prior to 1993."
For example, Tourtellot is also doing work with the company's subsidiary financial managers. (The company has 19 international subsidiaries around the world, each of which has a financial manager responsible primarily for accounts payable, payroll, taxes, and local credit and collections.
Tourtellot, as corporate credit manager, has primary responsibility for all domestic credit and collections, as well as credit and collections with the company's international distributors, which are set up in countries where the company does not have subsidiaries.)
"I've been working with these financial managers to help them be able to take on more credit risk by utilizing proper credit extension techniques," he says. "As they learn how to do this, they'll be able to begin doing business with more marginal customers."
He is also helping them learn how to turn cash over more quickly, which will allow the company to reinvest it, use it for R&D, or have it available for acquisitions.
Tourtellot shares the results and benefits of this international endeavor with members of senior management.
When Tourtellot began with Progress Software in 1993, the company was doing $110 million a year in sales. "Today," he reports, "we're doing $200 million."
Editor's Note: The above article originally appeared in the Credit & Collection Manager's Letter, a newsletter purchased by Credit Today in 2006. This article originally appeared prior to 2000.
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Credit Groups 2012
Wonder What the ROI is on Credit Groups?
Find out here...
It's been 4 years since our original ground-breaking survey on credit groups and we're revisiting this most important topic. Among other topics, we're investigating:
- What are the top services being offered by credit groups
- How much credit groups cost
- What the value of credit group services is
- What the value of credit group services is in comparison to credit reporting services
- How data is submitted
- What percentage of credit groups reveal terms
- What percentage of credit groups share data outside the credit group
And much more...
Click here to participate!
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May 2012
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