If you’re a business without a proper credit control process, you might fall into two camps when chasing an overdue invoice: you are either too aggressive or too passive.
Whilst the extremes feel understandable in the moment, chasing payment for services that you’ve provided can be frustrating; unfortunately, both slow down recovery.
The Problem With Being Too Aggressive
We all have different views of what aggression looks like, but in business, it should rarely involve shouting.
In fact, it’s usually subtle
- Sending messages too frequently
- Escalating tone too early
- Applying pressure instead of following process
- Making threats you can’t or won’t act on
If you’ve used aggression as your go-to, you’ll recognise that it will often trigger defensiveness, reduce cooperation, and even create compliance issues.
Aggression is the consequence of urgency without structure, and it rarely gets your invoice paid faster.
The Problem With Being Too Passive
It can often be tempting to take a passive approach to recovering your debt as it feels polite, but it can communicate the wrong message.
Being passive results in:
- Long gaps between reminders
- Avoiding the use of firm language
- Hoping the debtor will “sort it soon”
- Not setting clear deadlines
- Allowing the situation to drift
Adopting a Passive approach tells your debtor that you don’t take payment seriously, that the invoice isn’t urgent, and you can pay whenever you can.
Unfortunately, you’ve created this environment, and they respond accordingly.
The Middle Ground: Structured Assertiveness
The most effective approach to corresponding with a debtor isn’t with aggression or passivity; it’s being structured in your assertiveness.
It sounds obvious, but it isn’t often built into business processes, as we often think that how we are in our personal lives translates into our professional lives.
In adopting a structured assertive approach to recovery, you are:
- Setting clear timelines
- Being consistent in your communication
- Using factual, neutral language
- Taking predictable escalation steps
- Adopting no emotion, no pressure, no threats
Every business owner should learn to be assertive, as this shows urgency with structure and can actually assist in protecting business relationships while making sure that the necessary steps are taken to recover what’s owed.
Timing Matters More Than People Think
Without a robust credit control process, you will often escalate too early and end up damaging any goodwill you might have had.
You will wait too long, and recovery chances drop sharply.
As business owners, there is skill in recognising the moment when your internal efforts have stopped or have failed to move forward with recovery.
Conclusion
Chasing debts is not something any business owner wants to do, and if you’ve ever had to do it, you will already know which side you lean toward, whether this is aggressive, passive, or the middle ground.
The ones who can recover debts consistently aren’t aggressive or passive; they adopt a structured, assertive approach and are willing to escalate when the process calls for it.