This business is a relationship of transactions. In a recent survey of end users, the worst thing about the equipment finance business is the “process”. But don’t feel bad guys, that’s what every end user says about any type of financing. But in our business we have the unique ability to position the customer for a greater ease of doing business by offering the good old fashioned “lease line” or pre-approved equipment line of credit.
As we all know, it’s really not a line of credit as much as it is an exposure approval, but to the client it can be huge convenience and for you…a huge differentiator to win more new business. But I can almost hear you saying “yeah, we already do that”. Do you?
In a recent evaluation of equipment finance websites, we found a reference to the solution only 5.6% of the time. And of ones that did, no one featured the solution with any prominence. “Yeah…ok…but it’s our sales team that brings it up.” When they are working with credit they are proactively talking about future needs and asking for the solution to sell? Are you absolutely sure?
Ok, let’s say they are. Then market the solution as well to help the sales team for goodness sakes. You could even brand it some kind of cool “product” name. Bring the solution more prominently to the front of your marketing effort. Combine that with a powerful message about equipment finance as an asset management tool and not just a finance function and suddenly you start to look and sound so much better than the competition. Cool huh.
Don’t forget the dealers. Get in an app for a pretty good sized outfit that might be interested in more equipment over the next 12 months? Ask the dealer about the end user’s needs (if you are not direct with them). Then bring to the dealer an equipment line just for the dealer’s gear just for that end user. Think that might differentiate you from folks running “app machines”? Yup.
Or how about going back to end users you have on the books that qualify and tell them they are approved for more at any dealer (depending on your dealer agreements and philosophy)? Might drive some low hanging fruit into the pipeline.
These are easy ideas folks. If you ever wanna chat about ‘em…give us a holler.