Unleash Hidden Potential in Your Equipment Business By Offering Lease Options
Premier businesses are experts in selling equipment financing and leasing into their process, and have dramatically increased their closing percentage over other competitors.
From small businesses selling machines to companies like Dell, CDW, Toshiba, and Xerox, each has a leasing program embedded in their sales process. These companies are highly successful at bundling equipment and service with financing, and they are rewarded with enhanced sales and margins. They offer a leasing option on each and every sales proposal. They simply give the customer an option to pay cash or to lease.
Equipment vendors who don't offer leasing, and leave their customer to find their own financing, force the customer to step out of the sales cycle and away from the closing table. Not having a referring leasing source for your business could be perceived by your customers as not taking care of their needs. Offering financing to your customers through lease options is a flexible, affordable way to close more sales and motivate more customers to buy.
Offering the option of leasing provides a simple solution for any size customer, in any industry, in any market. Thirty-five percent of all equipment in the United States is leased and 80% of all companies utilize leasing. In 2007 more than 235 billion units of equipment were leased. Most small-to-medium sized companies are looking to maximize their cash flow and minimize their downside risk in investing equipment. Alternatively, in times of expansion companies will leverage leasing, in terms of opportunity costs, as they expand to hire more employees instead of paying cash for equipment. The flexibility of leasing allows you to meet the needs of customers who already are accustomed to leasing, and equips you to expand your business by attracting customers new to leasing as a choice.
By giving every customer the option to afford the equipment with all the tools needed to maximize the potential for their business, vendors who offer leasing also sell more equipment and have higher average order size. Have you noticed your customers reducing the accessories on your proposal to accommodate their budgets? Leasing allows your customers to get the equipment they need and will allow you to increase the sales price for your customers. Let the financing close the business for you and reduce the sticker shock of your proposal.
Expand your customers' options, and you expand your business. Adding leasing options to your existing proposals alone can raise your closing rate by at least 10%! Offering financing through leasing allows you to attract and keep customers who would otherwise be left out in the cold.
Tom Williams is President of eLease Equipment Leasing. He was inducted into the Leasing Hall of Fame for his work pioneering the use of the world wide web to help entrepreneurs fund their businesses. Tom purchased equipmentleasing.com in 1995 and began the era of offering business equipment leasing and financing online.
He has a degree in Economics from Boston University, has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Red Herring and Business Times, and is a frequent speaker on e-Commerce and Equipment Leasing on the national circuit. Tom writes regularly on his equipment leasing blog. He is also a proud member of equipment leasing associations UAEL and NAELB.