A CFO once told us he'd hired three collection agencies before reaching Intercol. Each one sent a letter, made phone calls for six weeks, then issued a final report recommending legal action — which they didn't provide. He described the experience as "paying someone to do what my credit department was already doing, just with a different letterhead."
He wasn't wrong. Most commercial debt collection services operate on a volume model: receive the file, send the letter, make the calls, close the file. The debtor receives a slightly more formal version of the reminders they've already been ignoring. The recovery rate reflects this approach — industry averages hover around 20–30% for commercial claims, a number that should embarrass an industry but somehow doesn't.
Where commercial recovery actually happens
Real commercial debt recovery — the kind that converts aged receivables into cash — operates in the space between your credit department and your lawyer. It requires three capabilities that most collection agencies don't possess and most law firms don't offer:
Forensic intelligence. Before contacting the debtor, you need to understand what they own, where they own it, and what legal structures stand between their assets and your claim. This isn't a credit report. It's an asset map — built from corporate registry filings, property records, banking relationships, and commercial activity patterns. A collection agency that contacts a debtor without this intelligence is negotiating blind. The debtor, who knows their own asset structure intimately, is not.
Jurisdictional legal instruments. Every jurisdiction has enforcement mechanisms that most foreign creditors — and many domestic ones — don't know exist. Italy's decreto ingiuntivo. Germany's Mahnverfahren. France's référé-provision. The UK's Statutory Demand. Brazil's ação monitória. These aren't academic curiosities. They're fast-track legal instruments designed specifically for undisputed commercial claims, and they produce results in weeks rather than months. A commercial collection service that can only escalate to "we recommend you engage a lawyer" is missing the instruments that actually produce payment.
Local presence with institutional relationships. The debtor in Milan pays attention when they receive a call from someone who operates in Milan, knows Milan's commercial courts, and has worked with the debtor's own legal counsel on other matters. The debtor in Dubai responds differently to a recovery professional with fifteen years of Gulf banking relationships than to a letter from London. Proximity isn't a convenience — it's a capability. It determines whether the debtor takes you seriously before or after enforcement proceedings begin.
What our commercial recovery process actually looks like
When a case arrives, the first 72 hours are spent on intelligence — not contact. We map the debtor's corporate structure, identify assets, assess enforcement options in the relevant jurisdiction, and determine the fastest path to payment. Only then does our team in the debtor's jurisdiction make contact.
That first contact is informed by everything we've already assembled. The debtor understands immediately that we're not starting from scratch. We've already done the work. The conversation is about resolution timelines, not whether payment will happen.
For cases requiring legal enforcement, we don't refer to external lawyers. Our teams include legal professionals in each jurisdiction we operate in — people who have filed thousands of commercial claims in their local courts and know which instruments produce results fastest. The legal phase isn't a separate engagement. It's an integrated escalation.
The economics of professional commercial recovery
Our average recovery rate across commercial claims is 73% — against an industry benchmark of approximately 25%. The difference isn't luck. It's methodology. Intelligence-led engagement produces higher recovery because the debtor's options narrow when someone who understands their financial position is the one making the call.
We operate on a performance basis for most commercial claims. No recovery, no fee. This alignment means our incentives match yours — we're motivated by the same outcome you are, which turns out to be a surprisingly rare arrangement in this industry.
The CFO who'd hired three agencies before us? His case involved a £420,000 receivable from a logistics company that had restructured into two entities. The previous agencies hadn't noticed the restructuring. We traced the operational assets to the successor entity, filed enforcement proceedings in the correct jurisdiction, and recovered £395,000 within 74 days.
He mentioned afterward that the difference wasn't the phone calls. It was knowing where the money had gone.
If you're evaluating commercial debt collection services, the question to ask isn't "how many calls will you make?" It's "what will you know about my debtor before you make the first one?" Brief us on your portfolio.
