Interview: John McNamara, Chief Marketing Officer at LiveVox

Q. How did you get into the collections industry?

A. When I graduated from the University of Kansas in 1983, I didn’t have a job, and I saw that American Creditor’s Bureau in Kansas City, Mo., was hiring trainees for its Phoneix office. There had always seemed to be a lot of jobs for collectors. I figured if they’re willing to train me, this may not be a bad profession. I had no preconceived notions about it. To say I was naïve is an understatement. I started with eight other trainees. They had us listen to training tapes, then they put us on the phone.

Q. Can you describe how your career evolved from that beginning?

A. I was “adopted” by some of the senior collectors at the company. They thought that I had the makings of a good professional…I had a pretty good talk off. I also had a positive attitude, so they started to help me with different aspects of the business, which helped me become the office’s top collector.

Management noticed that I enjoyed training new collectors. So I was promoted to collection manager after eight months. I transferred to our San Antonio office in 1985, and became site director. In 1987, I moved to the New Orleans office as the site director, followed shortly by a move to the Jacksonville, Fla., office, also as site director. In 1989, I returned to the Phoenix office as regional vice president for American Creditors Bureau, Inc.

In 1995, the company merged with Nationwide Credit, Inc., and I became senior vice president of banking and retail operations. I had that position until 2003, when I left to join United Recovery Systems. The company had the best technology in the business. They had the best dialer; I can’t sing its praises highly enough.  In 2004, I took a job as chief operating officer for Asset Management Outsourcing. I was working for Mike Chamberlain, who was a longtime friend and mentor of mine and one of the most innovative guys in the industry. In 2006, a partner and I started Fidelis Recovery Solutions, Inc.

Q. What was different about running your own collection firm rather than working for someone else?

A. It was a very humbling experience. I had always been part of a larger company. Now my partner and I were the entire company. My thinking was that I could start an agency from scratch and use the best available technology. When you’re at the highest level in a company, there are no boundaries to what you have to learn, from client placements to the price of gasoline to macroeconomics.

Q. You’ve been in the collections business for 25 years. How has the market evolved over that time?

A. As the market has matured it’s become more competitive, leading to client rate compression. At one time, a company like American Express might represent 33 percent of your business. Now you’re lucky if they are 8 to 10 percent. The business has become hyper-competitive. Each client is different, so the business screams for tools that boost agent productivity, like scoring, dialers and hosted products. All of those technology tools are critical to keeping this going.