Take informed risks in uncertain times

Combining data with insight from our underwriters to power your credit strategy

In my role as a risk strategist, the question I’m asked most often is ‘what is the best way to build a robust credit strategy during uncertain times?’ My answer is always the same: ‘know your customer’. 

This means developing a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your customer’s business and their value chain, including being alert to any changes. The best way of achieving that is through access to high-quality data. 

With the right tools and insights, you’ll be able to assess risks and make informed decisions to support your business’ trade and growth, no matter what the latest disruption to global trade is. With real-time intelligence and expert support, you can power your credit strategy to make sure it helps you drive growth, without exposing your business to unnecessary risks.

How to benefit from the best customer and market data

As an Atradius trade credit insurance policy holder, you will have access to high-quality customer and market data in addition to the insurance itself. As an Atradius Global customer you can also benefit from open discussions with our specialists, who work as an extension of your team, helping you to make informed decisions to achieve your goals. This is because we know it can be helpful to employ a team-approach to knowledge gathering and problem solving. 

Our underwriters are specialists in their fields and markets. It is often the case that we already know your customer, or prospect well, and can share that information with you openly. You may find that we have a slightly different view on some of your trading partners based on our real-time data including insights into how they are paying their other suppliers. We add in the missing pieces of the jigsaw to provide you with a clear picture. 

An example of how our underwriters can help enable business growth

Here’s a real example to help explain how this can work. 

We recently contacted one of our clients to alert them to a deterioration in the creditworthiness of one of their customers. Although this was bad news, they were grateful for the warning as they had recently experienced late payments, but didn’t know the extent of the issues. 

No knee jerk decisions were taken. We worked together, enabling them to continue to trade with their customer in the short-term, but at more realistic levels (lowering the risk to their cashflow and ours), while we simultaneously provided information and insurance cover on a new prospect for them. 

This was a team-effort led by decisions made by our customer’s Head of Credit, supported by our key account underwriter, and our local underwriters. Our key account underwriter was responsible for working closely with our customer, sharing information on the wider risks, while problem solving the best solution for our customer. They also liaised with our local teams who were on the ground, close to our customer’s trading partners, and were able to share a deep understanding of the risks and opportunities within the local markets. Working together, this team employed a problem-solving approach which successfully resulted in a gradual transition from the high-risk customer to a fruitful relationship with a new partner, enabling our customer to continue to expand their trade safely and more sustainably for the long-term. 

Good credit management is not about avoiding risks

This example is not about avoiding risk (in fact, the new prospect did bring new risks). I’d argue that an element of risk is necessary for all business growth. However, good credit management means avoiding payment defaults by pre-empting risks and anticipating problems. It’s about navigating the risks and leveraging knowledge so that you can make informed, smart credit decisions, to support your sales teams and enable your business to grow.

This is also where trade credit insurance can really help to support growth. On the one hand it secures your accounts receivable, enabling you to trade with peace of mind. On the other, it opens a door to high-quality, real-time information that can help you minimise risk with existing trading partners while also helping you identify prospects.

How to start building a strong credit strategy

A good place to start is to look at the data you hold on your customers and the data you can access on your prospects and markets. Could you benefit from more, or better-quality insights? If the answer is yes, or even just possibly, why not get in touch? We’d be happy to show you how we work by providing you with a free-assessment on a key customer, based on our real-time data. We’re always happy to have an obligation-free chat about how we collaborate with our customers and how we could support your credit management approach with access to up-to-date, high-quality data. 

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