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A salesperson at an equipment dealer spent months avoiding his company's new online credit application.
It wasn't that he was afraid of technology. He liked what the paper process gave him. Filling out an application with a customer was another reason to sit across from them and build the relationship. He wasn't giving that up for a link.
His credit manager finally caught him in the office and made him an offer: pick your next customer and let's try it together.
He gave her an email address. She sent the link. Less than five minutes later, the application was back.
No chance they included the signed addendum, he said.
They did.
Fine, but they definitely didn't attach the driver's license.
They did.
Within minutes, the customer was approved. He's now one of the online application's biggest advocates.
I heard that story from Michelle Ochetti, Director of Treasury, Credit, and Finance at Ziegler, when I sat down with her and Michelle Kelly, Senior Credit Manager at Mansfield Energy. Between the two of them, they've spent decades making credit decisions and working alongside sales teams.
The biggest thing I took away from our conversation was this: Most friction between credit and sales isn't actually about credit. It's about information.
Sales wants to grow the business. Credit wants to make sure that growth turns into cash. Those aren't competing objectives.
The problems start when one team has context the other doesn't.
Kelly says some information belongs with credit. Things like financial statements, personal credit reports, and sensitive third-party risk data don't need to be broadly accessible. But sales should know enough to manage the customer proactively. Does the customer have a credit line? How much is available? Are they paying on time? Are they getting close to their limit?
Ochetti did exactly that. At Ziegler, sales can see much of that information directly in their CRM and ERP. That way, instead of learning that a large order is blocked after they've already made a commitment to the customer, they can call credit before the order ever comes in.
But visibility has to work both ways.
Credit sees what's on paper, but sales knows the customer. They've visited the business. They've met the owner. They know about the new contract starting next quarter. They know the owner has years of experience even though the business itself is new.
That context can completely change a credit decision.
Ochetti shared an example of a newer business with a poor credit profile. On paper, it was a no. Then sales provided the rest of the story: the owners had spent twenty years in the industry, had large signed contracts, and they were willing to consider a personal guarantee and autopay.
So the answer changed. It wasn’t like credit lowered its standards—it finally had the full picture. That's why Ochetti now has sales complete a simple one-page questionnaire for new customers. It gets the information sales already knows into credit's hands before a decision is made.
"Credit never says no. We provide options."
That’s Kelly’s motto. That sounds a lot like elite selling to me.
Great sellers don't hear an objection and assume the deal is dead. They understand what's behind it, figure out what's missing, and figure out another path forward.
But Kelly says credit can do the same. Maybe the customer can't get the limit or terms they want today—but could they put down a deposit? Sign a personal guarantee? Start with a smaller limit or tighter terms?
Ochetti shared a six-figure opportunity where credit couldn't support the full exposure the customer wanted. Instead of killing the deal, they structured it differently: the customer put down a deposit, made the first payment in advance, and paid invoices as they went.
In the end, the company got the sale and credit managed the risk. And Ochetti believes they may have earned a customer for life because they found a way to support them when others wouldn't.
That's what good credit looks like. It's also what good sales looks like.
When sales only talks to credit after an application is declined or an order is on hold, credit naturally starts to feel like the department that says no.
By then, everyone is reacting. Sales is trying to save the order, credit is being asked to take on risk quickly, and the customer is stuck in the middle.
The better model is proactive. Give sales enough visibility to see risk coming. Give credit the customer context that sales gathers in the field. Educate both teams on how the other makes decisions so when the answer isn't an immediate yes, they can work together to understand what would make a yes possible.
Kelly described credit as "sales enablement, not sales prevention."
That line captures the entire conversation for me. The best credit and sales teams aren't great because they always agree. They're great because they share enough information to make better decisions together.
Watch the full conversation to hear Michelle Ochetti and Michelle Kelly share how they build credit teams that sales wants to work with.