Recently, I noticed that our receivables had plateaued. We had several accounts that were showing up on our aging day after day, week after week, and with no apparent progress. Since I know that doing the same thing, the same way, and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, I decided to try to mix things up. Instead of setting up new procedures or policies, all I did was to reassign which accounts were handled by my collectors.

Sounds simple, right?

My employees were less than overjoyed, and several fought the changes. People are resistant to change. However, as they took on their "new" accounts, they each brought a different approach and unique personality to the collections for those accounts. Suddenly, accounts that had been stuck on the aging for months were getting collected. Why? They did not have any established patterns and were not in a rut. They were building new relationships with existing customers. A customer that simply did not like person X really enjoyed working with person Y and responded differently to their requests. Both X and Y were professional, but they each brought something different to the table and the customers responded to them differently.

The best part is that it also helped to motivate my team. They were feeling that rut even if they didn't know it. Given a new challenge and the opportunity to develop new relationships, they rose to the occasion.

I can't guarantee this would work for everyone, but it's something worth trying. If you are not getting anywhere with an account, have someone else try giving them a call. Sometimes just a slight change in approach or personality can make the difference in whether that customer writes a check.