Let’s continue on this series of why some companies shy away from offering equipment financing. Today’s topic will be the misconception that offering financing is something that’s too complicated. Which, of course, is 100% false.
To start, I do understand the notion. After all, ‘financing” involves numbers, calculators, forms, percentages, interest rates, monthly payments, residual values (if leasing), collateral, and a ton of other scary words you thought you left behind for good when you squeaked through tenth grade accounting class with a C+ (ok, that was me, not you, but it’s still a good thought.) Plus, there’s the added layer of offering financing online, as in “on your website”. That can scare even finance majors.
So instead of asking “how can my company offer financing?”, many business owners simply ignore it, and don’t want to get involved at all.
The good news is none of the above need to involve you at all. Let me give you a quick analogy that shows how easy offering third-party financing through a company like mine is:
You own a business that makes equipment. Your friend is a loan officer at the bank. Your friend says “Hey friend, can you do me a favor? When you get a customer looking to buy your equipment, and they ask about financing, can you hand them my business card? I’ll handle everything else – just sell your customer on the equipment like always, and I’ll get them the money to buy it, ok?”
That’s it – that’s all offering financing is. You’re referring your customer to my company. We handle all “accounting class” details.
Now let’s go one step further to address the online thing. Your friend comes back a week later and says “Hey friend, could you maybe put my e-mail address on your website? I’ll even give you the cut and paste code – your web person will know what to do with it.” Again, that’s it.
What I’ve outlined above is not only easy, it’s extremely robust and effective. Offering financing is simple, and if you aren’t doing it, it’s something you should definitely explore.