Do you have the right stuff to be a Credit or Collections manager? To be fair, not everyone does. Most people in this line of work fall into it, rather than plan for it. Then they stay because they enjoy it and are good at it. As their career develops, they take courses, perhaps leading to a Credit Management designation, like the CCP (Certified Credit Professional) from the Credit Institute of Canada.
To get the job as a Credit or Collections Manager, what should your resume look like? What credentials and experience will you need to succeed? Which are the “right” credentials or experience to have and which are “wrong”? After all, the wrong qualification may get in your way and prevent you from reaching your goals.
Who should decide which qualifications and experiences are important or essential and which are not? The reporting manager, HR, the CFO, the controller? If your background is not in Credit, Collections and Accounts Receivable, how would you know which are the right qualifications and what the right experience looks like?
To be all that you can be as a Credit or Collections Manager, I think that your background should include experience interacting customers (as well as stakeholders), credit granting, making collections calls and dealing with remedial collections files. You should know how to get a credit report and know what the information in the report means. You should be familiar with Canada’s bankruptcy laws (yes, there are more than one) and you should have experience dealing with accounts that have sought bankruptcy protection. Experience working with customers, to help them recover from serious Credit problems would be very helpful. And, you should know how to analyze a financial statement.
I get that you should have an accounting designation if you are responsible for preparing financial statements. However, I do not believe that you need an accounting designation to read and analyze financial statements, especially those involving your customers. To crunch those numbers, you need some specialized Credit training and experience. In my opinion, that’s it.
If you get that job, what will you be doing? In my experience, Credit/Collections Managers: lead, analyze, evaluate, research, monitor, supervise, delegate, decide, document, influence and persuade, negotiate (all the time, it seems) communicate, advise, teach, coach, …and help sales sell.
So, what do you think it takes to be a Credit or Collections Manager?
Asking for a friend…
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