In most companies, Credit and Sales can feel like they are on opposite sides. One side wants to close the deal. The other wants to make sure the money comes in. Left unmanaged, that tension quietly costs everyone.
In cannabis, where the person closing the sale and the person watching the cash are often the same small team, it shows up fast. Slow pay and defaults are common, personal guarantees are rare, and unpaid industry receivables are widely reported at over $4 billion. Industry research has also found that more than half of past-due cannabis receivables run more than 45 days late.
Here is the thing. Both sides want the same outcome: a good customer whose sales turn into cash. A sale that becomes bad debt was never really a sale. It isn’t a sale until the money hits the bank.
Sales grow the relationship and the top line. Credit helps make sure the company collects on it.
Neither wins alone, especially when a single large customer not paying can put a real dent in the year. In one reported case, just two customers made up about 21% of an operator’s receivables. If one goes bad, that hurts.
So, it helps to look at credit before terms are set, not after.
Too often that review happens after pricing is agreed, terms are promised, and product is out the door. By then, any concern feels like it is getting in the way of a sale.
A little homework up front keeps options open. There is still room to shape the deal, factor in the risk, and land on a better decision together. Bringing credit in early does not slow the deal down. More often, it helps the right one get done.
Conditions can change fast in cannabis
A good customer can slow down quickly. A licensing change, a shift in regulation, a tough harvest, a drop in wholesale prices. With the right information, those signals often show up across a portfolio before they surface in any single account, and that early read is worth sharing.
Credit analysis can help grow revenue, not just slow it down
Good credit information surfaces what a sales conversation alone cannot always see. Payment trends, customer stability, public record changes, and where exposure is building up in one place. Used well, it points toward the stronger opportunities and away from the shakier ones.
Handled right, credit becomes a way to say yes more often, and to say it safely. COD protects cash, but it can also cap growth, and not every customer needs to be treated the same way.
The bottom line
The strongest companies do not make Sales and Credit compete. They line them up behind the same goal. The result is steadier growth, healthier cash flow, and better customer relationships.
Cannabis operators are sharp. The industry is still building the shared payment data and credit tools most industries have leaned on for decades.
That is the gap Reklaim Credit Solutions is being built to help close, so the whole business can work from the same picture and be as profitable as possible.