DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING OF PERSONNEL IN COLLECTOR BUSINESS

In any business, communication skills and negotiation skills are difficult to overestimate. Professionals know that the greater the “polarity”, the distance from the common goal, the more difficult it is to negotiate.
Of course, negotiations between the collector and the debtor (especially the debtor who refuses to repay the debt) are classified as the most difficult and “hard”, because in addition to the “polarity” of goals, there is also the polarity of the methods and tools used to achieve these goals. If the debtor uses the entire “arsenal” of convictions, from direct threats and obscene language to hysterics and crying, then the collector has such a set of “instruments” of influence limited by the law and the ethics of business negotiations.
The first collection companies, using the experience and knowledge of law enforcement officials, and often acting simply by trial and error, as they say “by touch,” collected and tried to systematize the most effective methods of influence during negotiations on problem debt. Another source of information was the experience of collectors from other countries, especially from Russia, where the collection business began to develop a little earlier.
Creating a training system in our company, all this acquired and valuable experience was used. The most difficult task was to select and systematize the knowledge and skills that could be most effectively used in the work on the Ukrainian market collection.
In its structure, the algorithm for constructing a reservoir training system is no different from the training system in any other business. At the same time, there are a number of differences in the approaches and methodological content of this algorithm, which I would like to highlight in this article.
First of all, it was necessary to decide what we want from the training at the exit, i.e. prescribe specific goals and expected learning outcomes. Thus, the following list was compiled:
• Development and implementation of the collection business culture – unambiguous definition of the purpose of the collector’s work and the means to achieve it.
It is necessary that every company employee understands the essence of the collection business, correctly articulates the purpose of his work and clearly knows the entire set of tools to achieve it.
• Development and implementation of work standards.
On the one hand, a clear distinction between what is possible and what is not. On the other hand, the work of the collector must be creative, there must always be a place for improvisations, since the standards do not allow to take into account absolutely all situations in the negotiations.
• Increased stress tolerance and motivation to work.
During the day of work, the collector takes on such a dose of negativity, which an ordinary person in life receives on average per month. That is why it is so important to include motivating business games, exercises for managing stress and one’s emotional state in trainings.
• Improving the qualitative and quantitative indicators of the collector.
The issue of return on investment will always be relevant to the business. From the experience gained, we say that the direct and indirect effects of training on the qualitative and quantitative indicators in the collection business manifest themselves most clearly, unlike, say, from the same sales. Here it is important to clearly define and agree on the control parameters of the collector and to objectively evaluate them before the start of training.
The next step, after determining the goals and desired results, was the development and implementation of training programs. Our training program is divided into 3 levels. Thus, there is a gradual and consistent introduction of knowledge and skills, from the fundamentals of business negotiations to the skills of managing the negotiation process and its emotional state.
Each level necessarily includes:
• Business training. Basically, this is a one-day group training, the number of participants is not more than 12 people.
• Fulfillment of a control task to verify the knowledge gained. Best after a week of training.
• Systematic monitoring wiretapping. This makes it possible to provide employees with objective feedback and develop the necessary skills directly in the workplace.
The period between training levels is 1 – 2 months. The transition to the next level is carried out on the basis of the performance of the planned indicators and the results of the control listening. Thus, an employee cannot move to the next level without having learned and applied the knowledge of the previous one.
At the first level, employees learn about the main goals and objectives of the collector, with the general technology of business negotiations. In business games, they practice skills of voice management, preparation for negotiations, making contacts, and also get acquainted with the classification of debtors, the basic technique of argumentation and ending a conversation.