Happy New Year everyone!! Hope you had a great holiday season, and I hope you got your Section 179 deduction in as well (and if you didn’t, you can be sure I’ll remind you many times here in 2014).
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?