Top 15 Credit Controller Skills to be Top of your Career

This post provides important credit controller skills and qualities you need to develop to be effective in performing your job duties and responsibilities, and to succeed in your career.

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What is Credit Control?

Credit control is the method employed by a firm or organization, including central banks to administer credit to only prequalified customers that can pay as at when due.

This is a crucial task because if the issuance of credit is inappropriate and uncoordinated, a lot of things will go wrong in the society.

For an organization to maintain a healthy cash flow, good credit management must be in place and the credit controller is accountable for handling a book of debtor accounts to make sure outstanding invoices are paid on time.

Some of the tasks of a credit controller include performing credit checks on newly acquired customers, handling problems as regards invoice payments, and working out tricky month-end accounts.

It is essential that credit controllers bring to management’ notice unresolved issues, whilst communicating probable debtor problems.

Here are important skills and qualities to have to be successful in your credit controller career:

Superb communication skills
Negotiation skills
Confidence
Persistence
Self-control
Strong IT skills
Good numeracy skills
Organizational skills
Adaptability
Sense of humor
Analytical skills
Decision making skill
Team management skills
Debt recovery management
Writing skills.

Superb communication skills

There is a lot that go into a conversation. Communication entails several elements; message, sender, and receiver.

With the message serving as stimuli and eliciting response that comes back as feedback, communication can go beyond what is spoken; body language is also a subtle way of communication.

In communication, one attempt to share meaning and emotions in a clear and effective way.

A good credit controller should be able to read beneath what is spoken, evaluate whether people will follow through with the undertakings contained, display empathy at times, or steer dialogue towards the expected conclusion.

Evidently, admirable communication skills are essential.

Negotiation skills

Negotiation involves two parties coming to some settlement or agreement where each party gives something in return for what was offered.

Both parties are expected to follow through with the deal after commitment is made.

Negotiation involves putting a number of things in place, like planning, strategy, communication, conflict avoidance and persuasion.

These are integrative in nature. Doing all these well makes you a competent negotiator.

A good credit controller is outstanding at negotiating and could win rapport with even the most difficult of customers.

The proficiency to communicate with a diverse group of people regardless of moods is a must-have skill in credit control.

Confidence

Confidence suggests a firm self-belief in your capacity to get a job or task done. Without self-confidence, one might not pursue opportunities that match one’s skills

It takes confidence to speak to people comfortably about the subject of money and to get them to agree to some terms and conditions that will benefit both parties.

Money is one subject that is sensitive to a lot of people and it takes skill around such knotty issue.

To be confident, you need to have:

Conviction in your own ability
The tenacity to get beyond excuses
The capacity to display empathy.

Often people feel embarrassed or may go on the defensive when asked about their financial situation, so having confidence in your knowledge and skills is a must-have quality as a credit controller.

Persistence

It is easier and tempting for people to relax and get cozy in their comfort zone, rather than taking the trouble to face with risk, fear, and uncertainty in pursuing a goal.

Most people want to achieve some great thing but many don’t because it takes more than planning to reach a worthwhile goal.

When the going gets tough and demanding, that’s when a lot of people quit.

It’s only a few who possess the rare skill that will go past all difficulties.

Persistence is not just a skill but considered by some as a master skill.

It is a very practical skill that comes to play in assisting a person to achieve success on a given task, project, or job that is accompanied by a lot of setback and difficulties.

Self-control

Self-control is a mental skill where a person subdues impulsive feelings and frustrations while thinking on a specific subject for the purpose of making a good decision.

Self-control is one skill that will help you avoid people and situations that prove to be aggressive or upsetting.

People act differently on same or similar circumstances.

A situation where people think or assume the worse of you like accusing you of some wrong doing which is untrue; it takes self-control to be calm at the whole thing and be as nice as possible to the other party.

Another way to demonstrate self-control is when dealing with a person that did not live up to his or her obligation and as a result could not pay up.

In a situation like this, you can remain calm and work out a solution that works well for both parties.

Strong IT skills

Technology has disrupted almost every industry and it is only necessary that a professional in any field is familiar with the technology at play in one’s industry.

It is expected for a credit controller to be familiar with specific IT systems for data entry actions, record payments and retrieve information.

There may be occasions where one has to perform the above actions and more depending on the case and customer type.

Credit controllers must be skilled to log into dedicated databases to access credit records, create, and maintain customer accounts, as well as importing and exporting data.

The need for credit controller to be adept at using computer systems and software applications cannot be overemphasized.

Good numeracy skills

Credit controllers work with numbers a lot; and have a proficiency in that area cannot be overemphasized.

When dealing with people’s funds, you are expected to exhibit professionalism and trust in enquiring about customers’ records, answering questions, handling payments, clarifying terms of credit, and bargaining payment plans.

These are tasks where numeric know-how is necessary.

As a credit controller, working with numbers and figures is an everyday thing.

Your math skills must be top notch and any work history where you used that skill will be an advantage, such as in credit control, accounts, and customer service.

Here are some regular task that require solid numeracy proficiency:

Appraising sales ledger/ aged debtors report for accounts long overdue
Recovering debts from customers
Securing overdue payments
Resolving customer queries for disputed invoices
Dispensing credit notes
Decreasing debtor days
Instituting payment plans
Initiating action for legal recovery.

Organizational skills

Organizational skills have implication on the success of any venture, including the work of a credit controller.

Organizational skills help you to manage your time, resources, and work load in a way that ensures productivity.

A good credit controller will be organized and knows the state of the sales ledger.

Using a systematic method helps the credit controller to monitor the sales ledger reliably and keep thorough accounts of all calls and commitments made.

Adaptability

Adaptability is also referred to as flexibility – this is changing one’s actions or methods as a response to suit a new situation.

Adaptability helps one develop resilience and improves productivity.

In the light of new situations, it’s important for a credit controller to interpret a new situation correctly and chart a positive outcome from it.

By employing active listening skills and excellent negotiation skills a professional credit controller will customize a payment plan that will be mutually beneficial for the customer and the business.

For a very important customer that contributes a huge chunk to cash flow, diplomacy should be exercised to avoid dispute so as to retain the customer and minimize risk to the business in any way.

Sense of humor

People are people and they will always want a human face and touch on commercial activities between customers and the business that serve them.

A big part of interpersonal skills is the ability to have a sense of humor and respect, and ability to show people you do care about their overall welfare.

Analytical skills

Analytical skills explain skills to assemble and investigate information.

It is taking a complex phenomenon and examining its individual parts and making logical conclusions after carefully looking at the whole.

With analytical skills, you can solve problems and make evidence based decisions leading to productivity.

Analytical skills might sound like a fancy but it is a very practical word as almost everyone use some form of analytical skills in daily life.

Analytical skills has many parts to it, they include the following spotting patterns: free-associating, observing, inferring data, assimilating new information, hypothesizing, and taking decisions based on a number of factors and alternatives available.

Decision making skill

Decisions have implications on outcomes, whether good or bad. When we make informed decisions, we can avoid harm and have a more productive outcome.

Decision making is among the major functions of management alongside other functions like planning, organizing, and controlling.

A decision has to do with making a choice between two or more alternatives for the purpose of reaching a desired goal.

Decision making is an inevitable part of working in any organization at some capacity or role.

Team management skills

Team management skill is crucial if an organization will make progress and achieve its set goals.

It involves the organization and coordination of a group of individuals towards a shared goal.

Team work has several components like communication, goal setting, collaboration, and performance appraisal.

While a team is at a task, there may be problems and conflicts that may manifest; it takes a capable credit controller to identify such problems and solve them.

Before a team can successfully work together, they have to go through different phases, like forming, storming, norming, and performing.

A team leader must watch out for familiar problems teams go through and prepare to solve them.

Debt recovery management

Debt recovery management skill is at the heart of a credit controller’s job.

For a business to continue to exist, it must find smart ways to contain non-performing assets.

For debt recovery to be operative, you have to arrest defaults and create NPA.

Additionally, the credit controller has to initiate loan delinquency.

Writing skills

A credit controller will have to record details and accounts in an easy to understand manner.

Writing and comprehension works hand in hand, since the ability to provide written instruction is closely associated with comprehending correspondence so as to respond properly.

Credit Controller Skills for Resume

If you are writing a resume or CV for the credit controller role, you need to add the Skills section to it to show the skills and qualities you are coming with.

You can highlight some of the credit controller skills and qualities discussed above if you have them in your resume/CV.

This will be helpful to your getting the job because it tells the recruiter/employer that you have the required skills and qualities to be effective on the credit controller position.

Conclusion

Credit controllers do more than going after customers to pay up. They have to possess a set of skills and qualities that they can draw upon when occasion demands.

Some of these skills and qualities have presented in this article; they include debt management skills, writing skills, and solid numeracy skills.