Helping European SMEs stay competitive

Across Europe, businesses have faced three years of tighter credit conditions, softer sales and squeezed margins. More recently, renewed talk of possible ECB rate hikes has added another layer of uncertainty. Large corporates have the financial buffers and the negotiating power to absorb turbulence. What helps B2B SMEs manage risks and grow in this environment?

This survey looks at what works — and what doesn’t — in credit control, payment terms, and risk-adjusted B2B pricing for SMEs. In particular, we want to understand how SMEs reflect payment risk in pricing and terms, and how they manage credit control with lean teams and limited tooling.

When you offer the same price and terms to every buyer, you are effectively subsidising your riskiest customers. Financing costs, collection effort, and bad debt risk all add up — and none of them are reflected in what you charged.

In a tightening EU economy, especially when trading cross-border, absorbing that risk is getting more expensive. Who is going to pay for that?

Large enterprises handle credit risk with dedicated credit departments, rigid policies, and enterprise software. They have the deal volume to simply reject imperfect buyers.

SME finance teams operate in a different reality: fragmented decisions, overstretched teams, almost zero ongoing monitoring.

SMEs won't use a watered-down version of enterprise software. They need a flexible system that accepts they will do business with imperfect customers.

We'd like to know your view on how to make credit policy actionable. Are you building in-house AI-powered automations or leveraging better ERPs or other specialised tools?