People will often ONLY pay when the ABSOLUTELY have to. There, I said it! Time and time and time again, this is a proven fact. And it is ridiculous isn’t it. To think that they had the money all along but for whatever reason they couldn’t bring themselves to part with it. Just today I managed to get a debtor to pay $4500 in 6 minutes, 43 seconds. From my email to him attaching a copy of a draft Court Summons giving him 30 minutes to pay, to funds being received. He didn’t even respond- the money just showed up in our trust account. This is the same debtor that had been ignoring all our collectors for the last 2 months. Polite emails, countless reminders, strict demands, threats of credit defaults, texts, calls, escalation calls.
To collect very overdue invoices, you must create urgency. Tight deadlines. Literally deadlines giving them 15 minutes to pay if need be. Don’t threaten anything specific- just say in 15 minutes the matter will be gone and “Enforcement Action” taken. Let their imagination decide what this mysterious enforcement action will involve. I guarantee though they will think the worst and expect a knock on the door from a Sheriff. If the deadline passes and they still don’t pay, then leave it a few days and then go to Plan B. But more often than not, this will work and you will get paid. Another great tip is to create a dedicated email account called “enforcementteam@yourwebsite.com.au” Create an email signature for it to, but without personalizing the “team” with someone’s name. This way they won’t know it is just you going by an alias.
Cheers