Strategic Accounts Receivable Management

Historically, AR Management has been a backroom function focused on minimizing lousy debt expenses and browbeating customers into paying on time. Incremental revenue from existing and new customers, market segments, and geographies is often constrained by over-cautious bad debt risk avoidance and old-line thinking. I call this Transactional AR Management.

• However, your AR Management approach can be Strategic vs. Transactional, designed to:
• Drive revenue and margin growth
• Provide an excellent customer experience
• Operate at ultra-efficiency
• Manage bad debt risk and cash flow properly

In today’s competitive markets, can any customer-facing department in your firm afford NOT to be Strategic with a laser focus on:

• The customer
• Driving revenue
• Margin 

• Definition of Strategic AR Management
• Providing Exceptional Customer Experience
• Driving Revenue Growth
• Increasing Margins
• Achieving Ultra-efficiency
• Increasing Cash Flow

Strategic AR Management is today’s AR Management with its focus on the customer experience and driving revenue. Other benefits such as lower operating costs, shorter cycle times, and improved cash flow are also realized.
This is accomplished by the following actions/programs:

• Define, agree, and articulate a Corporate AR Strategy that is harmonized with the firm’s Go-To-Market Strategy
• Review risk vs. revenue models, especially with new markets & customers
• Establish better control over net pricing (vs. unauthorized discounts)
• Ensure Order Processing’s customer-facing elements are a major beneficiary of increased automation
• Ensure foundation Order to Cash transactional processes are Best Practice
• Increase productivity by 50 – 70% and improve response times via leading technologies such as robotic automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce (digital vs. paper, high use of portals 24/7).

• CFO’s
• Controller
• Treasurers
• Customer Financial Services Managers
• Credit Managers

John Salek is President of Revenue Management Associates, an Accounts Receivable & Order to Cash consulting company.  He is a highly experienced financial professional with proven performance in the Order to Cash process including order and contract processing, billing, dispute management, credit control, collections, and cash application.  John has worked in a broad range of industries with over 250 clients.

John’s consulting experience includes a variety of engagements that have generated over $800 million of increased cash flow, improved productivity, and enhanced customer service for over 250 companies. Improvements in process, metrics, staff skills, and technology tools have been implemented to drive measurable improvements in cash flow, cost, bad debt exposure, and customer satisfaction.

John has led numerous High Impact Receivables Recovery projects that have enabled clients to recover from deterioration in their receivables assets. Such deteriorations are often caused by the integration of acquisitions, implementation of new ERP applications, and migration to Shared Service Centers. These “one-time”  Recovery projects have delivered substantial benefits in cash flow, cost, bad debt exposure, and customer satisfaction.