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By Norma Burns
E-mail Norma Burns
Burns & Carlisle is a new collection agency, established in Feb 2005. Norma Burns is the owner of the company. She is located in Yantis Texas, home of the best Large Mouth Bass fishing lake in the United States, Lake Fork. Her agency specializes in medical and utility debt collections, and has clients in both Oklahoma and Texas.
Norma started her business on Feb 23, 2005. “It took me 2 months to get everything in place, software, advertising, phone lines, applications for credit bureau, electronic payments and more”, says Burns. Norma then turned her focus to clients. She tried what most people recommended, “Cold Calling”. It did not take long before she realized that this method of selling was a waste of time. “I rarely walked into a business and met with the individual that I needed to meet with. Instead, I got a lot of “she’s out today, we do our collections in-house, she’s busy and can not meet with you, can you mail us something, and so on” states Burns. She thought maybe the phone would yield better results. Her and her employee developed a strategy and designated territories. In no time at all her calendar was full of scheduled appointments. She then decided to hire sales reps to make the phone contacts – as it was time consuming and she had business rolling in that needed to be worked. Under the terms of her sales rep contract she is guaranteed to have a minimum of 12 appointments per month. That’s over 100 clients per year if she get them all, well worth the sales reps fee. Her reps are getting her approximately 6 appointments per week right now. She is signing clients right and left and that is because the sales rep sells the business and gets the interest, the brochure sells my business services, then Burns simply closes the deal with a signed contract. Her biggest fear is that she will grow too fast too soon – IMAGINE that being the concern of a new business! She now has 4 employees and her goal is 100 + clients by the end of this year.
In addition to this, Burns offers her staff 1% of all commission they bring into the company – under the same general terms of her sales rep contract. This is far better than a “finder’s fee” because it does not take long before a collector sees the $ potential. She also increases her fee by 1% with her client to cover the collectors fee so she gains everything and loses nothing.
Burns finds it more effective to get clients over the phone than in person. She feels it is a real time saver when you know you will be meeting the person that makes the decisions and not the front office clerk. At Burns & Carlisle the rep will make the phone contact, send a brochure of her services, then follow-up and secure the appointment. Sometimes, they don’t even want a brochure – they just make the appointment. If you’ve gotten that far, there is a good chance you’ve got the client. They are obviously shopping for an agency or they would not even take the time to meet with you. So you know when you get there they are interested to begin with. This method is very effective for me.
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