In a million years, I never thought collection of accounts receivables and clip arts would be linked together in a success story. But its true. I found that clip arts can tell a compelling story ....so let me tell the story.
Prior to the implementation of a successful new collection software system, I didn't have a whole heck of a lot off tools in my "arsenal" to drive down our Days Sales Outstanding. I was with a software company which just had an IPO. So, now being a publicly held company, our DSO metric became one of our principal financial milestones. I was the company's first Global Credit Manager.
The transition from a conservative New England manufacturing company to a fast growing California based software firm was difficult ..to say the least.
Anyway, I was use to writing multi page receivable reports detailing the state of collections and A/R. But, in the fast paced IT world....hardly anyone read these reports. Looking back, I don't blame them (for not reading)...those reports were rather boring and...who wants to read boring stuff?
So...going with Bill's axiom "When you have to nothing to loose....you have nothing to loose"....I sensed the company culture wanted quick information ..and direction...on how to accelerate accounts receivable collections. I had to reinvent the communication of the message.
My next report went to senior executives, plus all of Finance and all of Sales. In addition to widening the distribution, I also shorten the "report" to about 3 paragraphs, in an email message, with no attachments. Importantly, at the top of the message was a clip art of an arm holding a bag of money (like the one on this blog) saying "We Need To Collect a Lot of Money.....Here are the top 20 accounts past due....We need help getting them paid this month." Incredibly....it worked! This report took 30 minutes to create...while the "old" ones took me a couple of days.
Why did it work? It was visual....stated the problem....and gave direction. You didn't have to read through a lot of detail to get to state of receivables. Also...by ccing all of Sales...I created a partnership with them...I wasn't finger pointing the problem at them....I drew them into the problem by asking for their help.
I continued these type of reports for years...even after the implementation of a new collection software system. After that..success was even more dramatic...and everyone felt that had a piece of that success.
When you have nothing too loose...you have nothing to loose.
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