Selling Service

Gary Williams was the sole salesman for the first three years. He had always represented his client’s needs, even at his former company, going beyond what was expected. He understood the importance of serving the needs of his clients by being one of the first to create educational and networking opportunities via conferences that he organized. Gary further recognized the value of consistent personal office visits to strengthen the relationship between clients and their collection agency.

The company’s first client was Elon College. Other early clients that first year include Pfeiffer College, a local doctor’s office, Montreat College (formerly Montreat Anderson College), Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic, South College – Asheville, Spartanburg Methodist College, Catawba College, Ferrum College, North Greenville University (formerly North Greenville Junior College), Barton College (formerly Atlantic Christian College), Newberry College, Belmont Abbey College, and Converse College. Even though Gary and Neil had not previously worked with the school, Averett College had heard of the success of the young company and became a client in early 1987.

Gary recognized how valuable good information is to the success of the collection process. Unlike other sales representatives, he always carried with him a folder full ofd ebtors’ names, given to him by the collectors, with one goal in mind: to collect more money by searching on campus for more demographic information. Sometimes Peggy traveled with him to help go through student records, seeking additional reference information (what was referred to as R1 information), trying to identify parents, other relatives, alternative addresses, anything that would help the collectors make contact with debtors. He taught this method of selling to others, beginning with Esther Wallingford, the first sales rep, hired in 1989. BJ Lee was hired in 1992 as a sales representative to support clients in the Carolinas.

In August of 1999 Chris Ruh was added to the sales team. Placements each month averaged approximately $4.5 million and totaled $54,138,264.12 for the year. In August of 2000, David Williams became a sales rep as Esther retired. Up until 2000, the sales reps were not only responsible for bringing on new clients but they, along with Bob, Gary, Mona Rankin, and other managers, also handled customer service for existing clients. It was not until 2000 that a full-time Customer Service department was created. Caryl Mitchell was hired to build/manage the department, with Linda Vaughn and Marcella Greene as the first full-time client support representatives.