The previous handler had left and the assignment had drifted. The letters had all been sent, the legal position had not changed, and the easy contacts were long since exhausted.
Botan did not get the job because he was the obvious choice for debt recovery. He got it because the firm already knew him, from an office in the same building years earlier, and from work he had done for them since — and knew what happened when he was given something to finish.
What the debtors had actually learned was the rhythm. They were used to being chased once a week, or once a fortnight, by someone working through a list. That is a schedule you can plan around: say something reassuring, and the problem goes away for another 10 days. Almost nobody was refusing to pay. They were simply kicking the can to a date they knew was coming.
So the rhythm changed. If someone said call back at two, they were called at two. If they said tomorrow, they were called tomorrow. Where a call was not enough, Botan went to the door in person. Nobody was allowed to slip off the list, and nobody was forgotten between contacts.
Approximately £1 million came in during the first week. Money actually paid in, with the arrears cleared, not promises logged against a file. The assignment then ran on for several months, recovering a further £200,000 to £300,000. The relationship with the client has continued since through maintenance and facilities work.
What changed my thinking
Commercial recovery taught me that debt is far more often psychology than law. Every legal avenue had already been opened before I arrived and none of it had moved the money. What moved it was becoming the thing the debtor could not plan around.
I do not think I was tougher than the person before me. I just did what I said I would do, at the hour I said I would do it — in the first week and in every week after. That is unusual enough to change an outcome, which tells you something slightly depressing about how most follow-up is done, and something useful about where the advantage lies.
Botan Hourami