By The Intelitech Group
For those involved in sports you are well aware of a tactic to improve the team that has become known as tanking. This approach means you essentially set your team up to lose or try to win less often in order to get a better position in the draft. Sometimes it is used to position your team to sign a high dollar free agent after the season. This approach has been met with varying degrees of success over the years. In 2011 a quarterback named Andrew Luck was projected to be the number one draft pick in the upcoming 2012 draft. Some NFL teams viewed him as a QB who could turn a team into a title contender. The only way to draft him would be to finish with the worst record in the NFL. That year a term was coined called ‘Suck for Luck’. Teams appeared to be losing games for the chance to be able to draft this franchise saving young man. The Indianapolis Colts won the draft by losing the season. In the NBA the Philadelphia 76ers have appeared to be tanking for years with no success to show for it up to this point. They are struggling to win games and don’t appear to be contenders anytime soon. In baseball the Houston Astros appeared to be tanking for several years. During this time they were stockpiling high draft picks and giving their young talent plenty of playing time. This strategy appeared to pay off after last season when they made the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. They are set up to contend for the playoffs for several years to come.
How does this relate to collections? We are not suggesting that you let all your best collectors go and not collect money now so that you can collect more down the road. What you can do however is set yourself up for the best year you have had by preparing now. Tanking in sports, if done correctly, allows a team to ready itself for the upcoming season by improving the current team they have before they even bring on additional resources in the future. MLB’s Astro’s are the perfect example. They trained and prepared talent over a period of time so that the entire team would be at its best in the season to come. Collection agencies can do the same. The winter months are typically the hardest to collect in. There are a lot of factors that play in to this. The good news is the best time to collect is tax season which is soon upon us.
Now is the time to prepare. Invest in your team with the training they will need to be the best when you will see the most profit. Teach your collectors negotiation techniques, compliance law, and phone skills now. Hire people that have a team first attitude and teach them your way now so that the team is ready to go in the season where you will see the most success. This leads to continued success when things are slow and you can use your seasoned veterans to lead the rookies to a winning year for your team.
