If you read this blog, you’ll see I hit this topic a few times because I feel it’s an essential part of any business. But what spurred me to write today was reading an old blog from five or six years ago about always selling on a payment. 

I believed it wholeheartedly then, and I believe it now. Saying “You can have this for $1326 a month” is a lot easier to take than “It’s $75,000. Will that be cash or check?”

You can think whatever you want about auto dealerships, but they are the absolute masters of closing sales. And they learned the ultimate lesson decades ago: always sell on a payment. Always. 

Of course you will get that one customer who doesn’t need financing and wants to know the total cost, but the fact is almost everyone else buys a vehicle on a payment. 

It’s the same with your company and what you offer. Even if your customer doesn’t ask you about financing, I promise you a considerable percentage of them, likely well over 90%, are thinking “monthly payment”, even if they say nothing to you about it. They are going to Crest Capital, they are going to the bank, they are going to their rich-but-obnoxious uncle… they are going somewhere, and will make monthly payments.

But there’s another customer you never got to really talk to. Know why? They ultimately bought from your competitor because your competitor made it easy. Your competitor made it so they didn’t have to go to Crest or banks or uncles they really can’t stand… your competitor partnered with someone (maybe even us) to offer equipment financing right there at the point of sale.

Your competitor understood that offering financing cost them nothing. Your competitor understood that offering financing was ridiculously easy, and it involved no work on their end at all. Your competitor had “only $XYZ a month” right on their website. 

Your competitor made the sale. You never even had a shot.

Compete better. Offer financing. If you need help, we’re ready.

In my previous post, I discussed how easy offering financing was for equipment sellers, and how it was literally plug and play. Then I talked about being proactive about it.

In this post, I’ll go one step further and discuss a few ideas on how you can be proactive about offering financing to B2B customers. None of these take a lot of work, but they can all have an extremely positive effect on your sales. Note: I am certain I discussed these in this blog before in some form, but it was at least a few years ago.

Offer Financing Right at the Point of Sale 

On your website’s product page, mention there is financing available. Better still, put our widget there, and your customer can quickly and easily get a payment quote. Also, right on any product collateral, make sure you put “financing available” pretty much near each product. 

The above is pretty basic, and requires very little work or upkeep.

Give a Payment Amount

This is similar to the above, but it puts a number on it. We often work with vendors to come up with a payment based on the cost of the equipment and term. So “financing available” can become “as low as $XYZ a month”. 

That’s really powerful marketing. Think about it: people are looking at your products because they are interested. Showing them how affordable it can really be always has a substantial impact on buying decisions. Especially if your competition isn’t doing this. 

Now, this does take a little more effort, because when you raise your prices, it needs to be adjusted, but we have found it’s well worth the tiny amount of effort it takes.

Get Your Salespeople on Board

I just did an entire post on this called “it’s a question of closing”. But let’s repeat the thought, because it’s low hanging fruit. Trust me, your salespeople are already hoping for something like this. If they’ve been around the block, they know how powerful monthly payments are at closing time.

Get More Creative

Do you want to get really proactive? We work with B2B equipment sellers to offer things like “no payments until next year”, “skip first payment”, or similar. These are a little more advanced, but again, they can really boost sales, and that’s what it’s all about, right?

Listen, offering financing to your B2B customers is great. And it’s even better if you are proactive about it. 

However, there are some people that are still not convinced. They don’t see how offering financing can help them. I can hear them now: “I don’t care how my customers get the money.” (I’ve heard that).

If you’ve ever thought something like that, you really should care. And if you don’t believe me, please, ask your salespeople. Because financing is a serious deal closer.

All good salespeople are always on the lookout for what they call “closing questions”. These are questions that a prospect asks that indicate interest. Here are a few examples:

“Does it come in red?”

“Can I get the chrome trim?”

“What options does it have?”

And so on. All of these questions, and questions like them, indicate interest. And a good salesperson will answer them and work towards asking for the order.

But there are a subset of closing questions that not only indicate interest, they indicate SERIOUS interest. These questions pertain to dollars and cents. Things like:

“Is there a delivery charge?”

“Do you know if this equipment is Section 179 eligible?”

And the biggie: “Do you offer financing?”

In fact, “do you offer financing” is without a doubt the strongest indication of interest there is. A competent salesperson will jump all over that, as well they should. The sale is as good as closed.

Well, an addendum: the sale is only closed if you offer financing. If you don’t, your salespeople do NOT want to hear that question. 

Again, remember that I’m not talking about YOU offering financing literally. I’m instead saying you offer financing by partnering with a company like mine. WE provide the financing – you are simply playing matchmaker, with your “closed sale” as the introduction.  Oh, and you get paid in full for that sale right away. You already knew that from my other posts, but it’s worth repeating.

So yes, it’s a question of closing. Talk to your salespeople – they’ll tell you. 

But for now, let’s continue on with my “what you should look for in a finance partner” series. If you don’t know what I am talking about, see the first two posts in this series here and here. Last time, I finished with telling you that any finance partner should be proactive. Here’s what I mean by that:

It’s easy to understand the concept of offering financing. Finance X for Y years. Do the deal, the payments start, and everyone is happy.

But what about a finance partner that can go above and beyond a simple “straight” financing deal, and could get creative to help you close sales – wouldn’t that be nice?

Here’s what I mean – you ever see those deals that stores sometimes offer – “no payments until 2015”. Or maybe “first payment skipped” or “no payments during the winter months” or something similar? That’s what I am talking about – does your financing partner engage in creative programs that make financing more attractive to your customer? That’s really key, and for some industries, it can make a real difference.

A good example of this is a golf course in the Northeast. They operate (in general terms) April through November. So Dec-March, they make no revenue. Do you think they might like a financing deal that follows this schedule? Now I realize it’s easy to say “hey, that’s business – they should be happy to pay all year – just budget for it”. And you would be correct. But if you’re one of ten golf cart manufacturers, and you’re the only one that can offer “no payments Dec-March” (because you have a really proactive financing partner)… guess what? You have a HUGE advantage.

This is one very basic example, and there are a lot of different “types” of deals, but you get the point: “Proactive = Good”.

So, do you have a proactive financing partner?

One thing that I really like about the internet is how easy it makes doing business (and offering equipment financing). Allow me a quick story to demonstrate this:

Years and years ago, a friend of mine started an advertising business. Basically, he wanted to be a “small town ad agency” helping Mom and Pop businesses advertise. And he had a really good idea – he was going to offer these businesses the ability to pay via credit card. Which, in 1992, was a big deal (if you remember, in 1992, it was uncommon for even a supermarket or fast food restaurant to take credit cards, never mind an advertising service.)

But he was undaunted. He wanted to give Mom and Pop the ability to pay him on credit. I have to say, as someone involved in equipment financing and credit, my friend was ahead of his time.

But try as he might, he couldn’t get it done. 1992 was “pre-web”, and the only way to accept credit cards was to walk into a bank and get things rolling. And banks laughed at my friend. I know – I went with him. One bank officer even said “son, that’s not how credit is used”.

Fast forward to now. The internet has made things very, very easy. And, attitudes towards credit have changed as well. Right now, my friend could go to one of several websites and in five minutes (and no expense at all), have the ability to accept credit cards from anyone, for anything, right on his website. No stuffy bank officer needed.

In fact, this has changed how we buy things, hasn’t it? Workers are now commonly paid via direct deposit, and some even get paid on a debit card. We use credit for everything. It’s super common. Even fast food is paid for by credit, and small town ad agencies can accept credit cards for their services. It’s a totally different world.

“So what does this have to do with equipment financing?” you ask… well, stay tuned for part two.

When I say flexibility, I am talking about a few things. To most people, the obvious things are “financial” in nature – things like finance term, rate, down payment options, payoff at the end of the equipment lease, etc. A solid equipment financing partner should be able to do almost any kind of (reasonable) finance deal that the buyer wishes – if the buyer wants a five year term, it should happen. If they want a seven year term, that (generally) shouldn’t be an issue.

I say things like “reasonable” and “generally” in the preceding because let’s face it; given the choice, we’d all like zero percent spread out over 20 years! But then Fletch starves (and Mrs. Fletch runs off with the paperboy, who’s making way more than me under that zero percent scenario.)

But anyway, financials aside, “flexibility” means a few other things. Like financing “odd” things, such as software. Believe it or not, there are many equipment financing firms that will not finance (or lease) software. But let’s face it – software increasingly is becoming more and more ingrained into what we do. In fact, many businesses simply cannot be run without it – it’s as every bit as important as a machine. Thus, your equipment financing partner should be able/willing to finance software, and any other reasonable product. Even if you don’t sell software, this type of “proven” flexibility means they will likely be able to help you next year when you roll out “the wonder widget” and are looking to offer financing.

Here’s another thing – how about financing used equipment? Some equipment finance companies will, and some won’t. But in the end, your equipment financing partner should be willing to finance good condition used equipment. Now again, you might be saying “big deal – we don’t offer used equipment”, and that may be true… for now. But could that change? Perhaps. But in the end, it’s better to have a partner who’s willing to do these things NOW than get stuck with someone who won’t play ball when you roll out something new.