For example, I posted a “why aren’t you offering financing?” series in January of 2020. Just one month after I posted, we began hearing about a possible Pandemic. Then a month later, the pandemic happened. And you know what else happened? Credit exploded. With shutdowns looming, companies did not want to spend a dime of their own money, so they borrowed and financed equipment in droves. 

Like everyone else, we worked from home, but were quite busy. And you know what took up a TON of our time? Helping our best vendor partners better offer credit to their customers.  

We have hundreds of vendor partners. Every one of them is important. But there are a certain percentage of them who truly embrace offering credit and monthly payments, and use financing as a selling tool. They already know, beyond any doubt, that offering credit raises sales. So they proactively employ it.  

For those vendors, our help was there for the asking. We worked with their salespeople, helping them better present financing. We assisted with marketing collateral. We worked out “as low as” price points for their websites. And for the most prolific ones, we worked out special payment schedules and similar. 

This all mattered immensely to our best B2B vendor partners. When the pandemic hit and business seemed quite “iffy”, we helped them take advantage of the sudden increased interest in credit, and for a great number of them, sales held serve during a very challenging time. 

So this begs a question to companies who already embrace offering credit: How much does your finance partner actually help you?  

At Crest Capital, we see it as a true partnership. A two-way street if you will. 

Many vendor partners don’t really want to push credit, and that’s ok. We give them some self-service tools, and financing is there if they need it.

But there are other vendor partners who proactively view credit as a vital sales tool (which it is). And together, we do some interesting, revenue-driving things. 

Do you have a vendor partner now, but haven’t seen much interesting (or revenue driving) lately? Maybe it’s time to talk to a vendor partner that actually does those things. 
I’ll discuss specifics in the next post, but suffice to say, if you’re interested in more revenue from your financing program, then we’re interested in talking to you.

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. 

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.