As manager of Levelset’s Payment Professionals Community, I have the honor to award a credit manager of the month who is nominated by their peers. I am beyond excited that my longtime friend and colleague, Toby Brutsman, was nominated and won the award for January 2022. Toby is the Regional Credit Manager for MORSCO.
Toby is one of those credit professionals that truly enjoys his job! He has energy and passion that you don’t see in a lot of people. When I worked with him in a previous life, he always offered his help and experience to everyone around him.
Now, as an active member of the Payment Professionals Community, Toby has stepped up to mentor other credit professionals, lead webinars, and teach classes. It truly is an honor to present this award to Toby, and I am excited to share his answers to help those currently in — and those up and coming — in the field.
Do you know a credit manager who deserves recognition? Nominate them here.
Q&A with Toby Brutsman
Lori J. Drake, CBA: What got you started at MORSCO?
Toby: I was laid off unexpectedly from my prior employer and MORSCO was looking for a Credit Manager with construction experience.
How has MORSCO helped you in your career development?
[MORSCO provides] so much education, training, mentorship, and focus on relationships across all levels of the company.
How do you measure success as a credit team and what are you doing to improve?
I measure success by consistency of numbers, and development of people every day. Keep the team growing, learning, developing and improving every day!
Read more: 12 KPIs for credit teams to measure success
What is your approach to reducing credit risk with new customers?
Early start to the relationship, and monitoring for the first year. Visit when we can, call often to check in, and understand their business and how we can partner with them for long term growth.
What advice would you give to someone who is considering credit as a career?
Be accurate, consistent, and understanding. Know what you do and do it well. Be quick but don’t hurry. Little things matter greatly.
Read more: What makes a great credit manager?
What are some lessons you have learned so far in your career?
Trust…but verify!!!
What do you like to do outside of work?
Cook and travel.
What are 3 words you think your colleagues & friends would use to describe you?
Relentless, hardworking, compassionate when I need to be.
If you didn’t work as a credit manager, what would you do?
Something in the food industry, or hospitality world.
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Do you have any predictions about what direction things are headed? How will companies respond to these changes?
I anticipate more struggles with getting talent to handle the workload. I think leadership will be key to hiring good people and keeping them. Leaders matter!
What do you think are the biggest changes in the industry that have evolved over the last 10 years?
Vendors and the workload they have helped with. Sending notices, filing liens and bond claims, and tracking of those deadlines. Doing those manually in the past was a nightmare! (Kudos to Levelset.)
Watch: How software can simplify your lien and notice process
Do you have any advice for other credit professionals on what tools or processes they should utilize to make their jobs easier?
Invest in vendors that can grow with your business. Change is inevitable, but building with those that can grow with you creates less fundamental change when growth happens.
Do you have any advice for people submitting new credit applications?
Be early to collection issues. Never be the last one to recognize a problem. Early on get the documentation you need (credit aps, PG’s, terms, PO’s, POD’s etc.) You may not need them, but when you do they are critical to the success of avoiding loss.