“LBM Talks” hosts top professionals from different sectors of the lumber and building material industry to share their expertise, with a heavy emphasis on practical, tactical strategies to help you serve your markets and grow your business.
Join LBM Talks host, Thea Dudley, as she brings her razor-sharp expertise to dissect trends, regulatory changes, and offers real-world advice for credit professionals. Subscribe and stay up to date as we add more experts on key topics. Listen now and subscribe via your favorite podcast provider below:
Prefer to read about it instead? Take a peek at the transcript below for Episode 1: 5 of Thea Dudley’s Pet Peeves.
(Editor’s note: Transcript is AI-generated and may include some errors.)
“Hey, welcome to some of the first editions of LBM Talks credit. I am your host, Thea Dudley, also known as the Credit Overlord. And if you haven’t joined us before, LBM Talks credit is the only podcast that I know of that talks about trade credit in the lumber and building material space. I’ve been having a lot of you reach out and ask me for a very long time why we hadn’t started something that was good for the beginner and also good for more of the advanced. So we’re going to do our best to keep you up on everything that’s coming up credit related, what to watch for and how to be successful. So this is no BS, no textbook kind of credit. We’re just going to hit it straight and conversations that basically happen in every credit department all over the country, whether you’re tackling a tough customer conversation or just exploring new methodologies to use within your day to day.
LBM Talks credit is your place to come if you have any questions, please reach out to me. You can either reach out to operations at lbmcredit, or you can send something directly to me at Thea at creditoverlord.com and we’ll be happy to address those on camera. Hold on a minute. So sorry. I’ve been starting to get over some covid, and it’s just Hey. It feels like it’s just hanging on. So in this episode, we’re going to talk about credit manager pet peeves. Now I’m a huge fan of credit managers all over the country. I know it’s a hard job, and it sounds like I’m becoming a trader to my group, but we have some habits that drive me absolutely nuts.
So we’re going to tackle the top five pet peeves. So pet peeve number one, accounts consistently over their credit line, and you don’t change the credit line, like say you have a say you’ve got a credit account for they have a $10,000 line, and then you consistently, month after month, let them carry a $50,000 balance. You keep releasing orders on it, and you look at it, you know you should do something, and you just don’t. It’s like putting a band aid on a broken leg. It just never gets any better. And not only that, you’re really lying to yourself. Here’s where a $10,000 account, if that’s all they’re worth, then keep them at 10. Let it go over like 10% give them 11,000 but if you’re releasing consistently at that $50,000 level, or, you know, whatever you pick, I mean, you’ve got an account with a $50,000 credit line, you just haven’t taken the steps. So just picture how this would play out. Let’s say the account suddenly goes south and is not paying you, and you have to either file liens, or you’ve got to send them to collections, or whatever you’re going to do now you’ve got to stand in front of somebody and say, yeah, they have a $10,000 line.
But I went ahead and released them consistently to 50. Bite the bullet and make a decision. So take that extra step, pull a credit report, do some digging, and if they deserve it, then bump them up. But if it’s a business decision and you’re like, Well, you know, their credit report really doesn’t support it, but everything’s going okay, and I’m using the luck method. If you’re making the decision, then make the decision and just do it. You’re also creating work for you and a whole bunch of other people. So years ago, I was on a credit team with somebody who I could never figure out why she was this busy. Her phone rang non stop. I kind of felt like a loser sitting next to her, because I thought, why my guys don’t need me this much? How come nobody needs me as much as they need her? And she was couldn’t even go to lunch. It was constant phone calls. Well, then I found out that when she opened an account, she opened it for $5,000 with the intention of, hey, I’ll go back. You know, I’m just opening this to get the initial order out the door, but then by the time it came back, it was it just got beyond you. You moved on. You forgot to circle back. And so all these accounts kept going on hold, so the branch constantly had to call her, Hey, can you release this order? Can you release this order? Okay, how frustrating is that, not only for you, you can’t even go to the bathroom without someone trying to track you down. And then you’ve got a branch that’s sitting there going, Okay, I know she’s gonna release it, but we’re gonna call again. And then worse than that are the credit managers that sit there and go, I don’t wanna release this. And they stare at it all day, and then right before they get ready to go home, they go ahead and release it. Just FYI. In case you don’t know this, the warehouse guys and the guys loading the trucks want to kill you at that point, because now, depending on where they are in the stop, they’ve got to take all that stuff back off the truck load this so that it’s in that order of how they’re delivering. Okay, nobody’s nobody’s loving you. You’re making a lot of work for everybody. So just skip the multi steps, review the account and get it over with. Move on.
Okay. Pet peeve number two, multiple requests for a trade reference. You know I got it. I got it the first time you sent it, because I didn’t turn it around in your time frame. Please don’t send me a second one in the afternoon or every day for the next three days. And your messaging gets as the week goes on. Your messaging gets sequentially more harsh. It’s second request. Please rush Order pending. You know, by the third or fourth request, it’s like, this means you. I know it means me. I’m getting it. Here’s a news flash for you, just like you. I’m trying to get work done too. I am trying to get orders out the door, get money in the door, and although these trade references are important, I will get to them as soon as I can my day. It consists of critical and important, and critical gets done first, so I’ll get to your stuff. But I gotta be honest, you know, and no one ever said I was canonized here for sainthood. I gotta be really honest about this. I get so agitated by the time I get the second one that I’m not even printing them, that delete button is working hard, like using it is my job. I will delete that thing in a heartbeat. I got your first one. I usually save them up till I have a couple of them. I remember once I got so annoyed this guy sent me like four. And so I called him, and I thought, You know what? I’ll just get him off my back. I will just call him this bonehead had the nerve to say to me, Well, you know, we’d really prefer it if you would just fill it out and email it back. I’m like, look, look, cowboy, this is how it’s gonna work. Either you take it over the phone or you don’t get it. I carved out a minute, and in the time you gave me all this grief, I could have been actually giving this to you, and we could both be on our way, and our magical unicorn connection could now be over. So hey, I understand that this is important to you, but if it’s that critical for you to get a trade reference, pick up the phone and call me. Hey, I hate to bother you now it can’t be your go to move. You know, I don’t want you to call me every two minutes when you get something you’re trying to update, or a new credit app, pull a credit report, get the order out the door, get on with your day. If it’s something that you’re digging into, because you’re having, you know, issues with getting paid, that’s fine. Pick up the phone. Hey. You know, maybe I know we haven’t met. I could really use a little insight. We’re not getting paid. What’s happening with you? Usually, if a credit manager calls me, I’ll try to make time for that person, but sending me multiple requests that that have rush on it. This means you, I got you, sweetie, stop it. It doesn’t inspire me to stop, drop and return this thing.
And then pet peeve number 2.5 it’s like a little cousin of this one, the credit manager, who never responds to my requests. So you want me to give you a trade request and you want me to hurry up about it, but you don’t want to respond to anything I send over. And it might not be your fault. You might have directions from your ownership or your sales leader, whoever it is, they’re like, Hey, we don’t share with them. Well, that’s fine, but you can’t expect to get if you don’t give. So if you’re not going to share, absolutely not. Do not darken my doorstep, because guess what’s going to happen there. Delete.
Pet peeve number three, sending me an email, and this is, this is for just everybody that I hang out with. You know, whether it’s salesmen, whether it’s CFOs, whether it’s other credit managers, no matter who it is, admin people sending me an email, then 10 minutes later, calling me and then texting me if I don’t answer your call, all to find out if I got your email. Well, the last time I checked, I’m still getting them, and nothing in this email was critical, so I’m not sure why you need to call me to find out why. Why is this so important? Did you get my email? So usually, when somebody goes to that length to get a hold of me, I automatically assume, hey, there must be, like, a 911, emergency somewhere. You’re holding a severed head. You don’t know what to do with it. We’ve got, you know, a truck that’s rolling out. What is the problem? But when I call you back and say, Hey, I got your texts and your your phone call. I just wanted to see if you got my email. That usually is just a spreadsheet attached to it from something that I could have reviewed at any time. Yeah, I got it. I got it. If you really want to know if I got it, just put return receipt requested on there. I. Uh, or, you know, Hey, read receipt, I guess, is what it’s called. Read receipt requested, and you’ll know when I opened it. I don’t look at my emails all day long. I don’t just sit staring at my and I don’t know many people that do that, sit and just watch your email for stuff to happen. Usually, I bucket that. It’s called time management. I bucket it, I go in, I work on other stuff, I come back, I circle around to the emails. So stop stalking me. Give me a chance to respond and just back off. Okay?
Pet peeve number four people that don’t use their blinker. Okay. This is not a credit manager pet peeve. This is totally personal, but I think we can all agree that everybody’s car came with one, and it’s not that hard to use it. If you have to have that much instruction, maybe you shouldn’t be on the road. I’m not a mind reader. Flick the blinker my guy, and let’s just make it happen.
And finally, pet peeve number five, waiting until the 11th hour to get an order out the door. This is typically a salesman issue, and usually not a warehouse issue. If a customer doesn’t have an account or their cod and you’re trying to ship it out, and you wait till I have my purse and whatever, you know, my lunch or whatever other junk I’m carrying out the door with me, you wait till 11th hour. It’s like, hey, Thea, can I get a little help with this? Okay, really, you didn’t know this customer in all the time you’ve been courting them in all the time you’ve been trying to get them to place orders. And you never thought to say, hey, Thea, little heads up. I’m working with this guy. What do I need to make this happen? Because now, at 5:30 in the afternoon, where am I going to get a credit application on this guy? Did you get one? Did you bring one? I can’t just let a seven or $10,000 order go out the door. What are you thinking? Poor planning on your part doesn’t make a crisis on mine, although that’s how it ends up, because I understand we’re a for profit corporation. I understand that without sales, the rest of us don’t exist. But I’d like to remind you that if we don’t get paid for the sale, it makes it really hard for you to exist too. So could you give me a heads up? Hey, I’m working on this guy. Can you pull a quick credit report. Let’s see what’s happening there. Or, hey, what do I need to make this happen? This order just didn’t fall on you. So don’t tell you were just walking down the street. This guy just grabbed you and said, Oh my gosh, you must work for a distributor. Let me get an order together and you take it and I need it by tomorrow, or my world’s going to crash down that never happens. So could you do a little planning? Could you work with me? Could you give me a heads up? I think that’s enough pet peeve for now. I don’t know how everybody else looks at things.
Those are my top five that usually swirl around in my office at any given time. I have an entire list of customer pet peeves, no pay pet peeves, salesman pet peeves, but we’re going to save those for another episode. And if you have a pet peeve that wasn’t on the list, please email it over to me. Thea at credit overlord.com I will be happy to air that on future episodes. And with that, I am Thea Dudley, the credit overlord coming to you from LBM Talks credit, and I’ll be with you next time.”
