There is a fundamental tension that exists in almost every business — and it is one that very few organisations address honestly. It sits between the sales team and the credit function. And in my experience, it is costing businesses far more than they realise. The salesperson’s job is to win business. They are measured on revenue, incentivised on deals closed and celebrated when they bring in a new account. What happens after the invoice is issued is, in most commission structures, someone else’s problem. That misalignment is at the heart of one of the most common and most avoidable causes of bad debt.
The Problem with Selling at Any Cost
Sales teams are by nature optimistic. That optimism is an asset when it comes to prospecting and closing — but it becomes a liability when it overrides sound commercial judgement about who the business should be extending credit to. In many organisations, the pressure to hit targets creates an environment where credit assessments are seen as obstacles rather than safeguards. Due diligence slows things down. A request for financial information can feel like it is jeopardising the relationship. And so, the path of least resistance is taken — push for the credit facility, get the order booked, move on to the next one. The credit and finance team are then left to manage the consequences of decisions they had little or no input into.
What the Numbers Actually Show
Here is the commercial reality that every salesperson should be required to understand. If your business operates on a net profit margin of 10% and a salesperson brings in a new account that subsequently defaults on AED 50,000, the business needs to generate AED 500,000 in additional revenue just to recover that loss. The commission on the original sale has already been paid. The salesperson has moved on. The business carries the cost. At lower margins — common in trading and distribution across the GCC — the multiplier is even more punishing. A 5% margin means that same AED 50,000 default requires AED 1,000,000 in new sales to break even. Put simply: one bad account can erase the profit from dozens of good ones.
The Root Cause — A Structural Problem
This is not fundamentally a people problem. Most salespeople are not reckless — they are responding rationally to the incentives they have been given. If you are rewarded purely for revenue and never held accountable for the quality of the customers you bring in, the behaviour that follows is entirely predictable. The root cause is structural. Businesses that separate the reward for winning business entirely from the outcome of that business create the conditions for this problem to thrive. The fix requires a shift in both culture and process.
What Needs to Change
Credit assessment must be part of the sales process — not separate from it. Before a credit facility is offered, a proper assessment should be completed. This should be treated as a standard step, not an optional extra that slows things down. In markets like the GCC, where financial transparency is limited, this step is particularly critical. Salespeople need to understand the true cost of bad debt. This is not about creating a culture of fear — it is about commercial education. When a salesperson genuinely understands what a write-off costs the business in terms of additional revenue required, their attitude towards credit assessment tends to change. Incentive structures should reflect quality, not just quantity. Businesses that tie a portion of sales commission to successful payment — or that claw back commission on accounts that default — create a far healthier alignment between sales behaviour and commercial outcomes. The salesperson has skin in the game. Sales and credit should operate as partners, not adversaries. The credit function is not there to obstruct sales. It is there to ensure that the revenue the sales team generates actually reaches the bottom line. When both teams understand that shared objective, the dynamic changes.
A Message to Business Owners and CEOs
If your sales team is consistently pushing back against credit assessments, bypassing due diligence, or bringing in accounts that are regularly slow to pay or defaulting — that is a management issue, not a sales issue. The tone is set from the top. When leadership makes clear that the quality of a customer matters as much as the volume of business they bring, and when processes and incentives reinforce that message, behaviour changes. A sale that doesn’t get paid is not a sale. It is a cost.
The Bottom Line
Winning new business is essential. But sustainable, profitable growth requires that the business you win is the right business. That means having the right processes in place before credit is extended, the right culture around commercial accountability, and the right partners to support informed decision-making. Your sales team should be one of your greatest assets. With the right framework around them, they can be — without exposing your business to risks that quietly erode everything they work to build.
