That was the advice that retired banker Basil Graham gave a group of finance professionals during a recent seminar on debt collection.

"The responsibility of the collector is to motivate the debtor to pay . . . You have to let them understand that you are not adversaries and your intentions should not be to fight, bully, nor to antagonise," he said.

Graham was a facilitator at an Effective Debt Collection and Fraud Awareness seminar hosted by the Barbados Community College's Industry Services unit at Savannah Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church.

Now the managing director of ABR Financial Services Inc., a firm that specialises in debt recovery, receivables management and training, Graham said: "Invariably banks, financial institutions . . . have some leverage and legal action is always a possibility. But the key is getting cooperation from the debtor to pay that debt."

Speaking on the topic Correspondence, Essential Telephone Techniques, and Negotiation Skills for Debt Collection, the former banker stressed that communication, whether written or oral, should incorporate appropriate people skills.

Collectors need to ask open-ended questions for solid responses to determine when a debtor is stalling, giving excuses to protract the situation, or is defaulting due to circumstances, he explained.

"You need to understand that people sometimes would be very aggravated because the situation has made them stressed, but you must remain in control," Graham added. (SR)