Thinking about a customer finance vendor program. We know for sure that many Canadian business owners and financial managers recognize that their competition sometimes wins the sales battle, without even beating you at actual pricing / cost.

How do they do that? If you had the ability to get to the bottom of the matter you just might find that your lost client was offered a financing solution by your competitor for a sale you should have made!

Thousands of firms in Canada increase sales and are able to motivate their clients to purchase by the effective use of a vendor finance program.

Can we think of two reasons why you wouldn’t want to do that directly? We sure can – first of all you probably don’t have access to unlimited cash, and secondly, there are some serious revenue recognition programs when financing is offered by the seller.

So if that’s the case, what’s the solution? There’s a great one, and it’s simply to set up an effective customer finance program that allows you to control the sale and program in partnership with a firm that will provide you with the capital and tools to offer such a benefit to clients.

It’s important though to understand the benefits, and in some cases the limitations of the program. Simply speaking, you need to know how and why to offer a financial solution for your client. To coin a phrase we came across over 30 years ago from a trusted mentor, you want to be in a position to ‘ Remove the Obstacle to Innovation ‘ when a client considers your product and service combo.

In many cases you want to be in a position to close the sale more quickly – in effect shortening your sales cycle. The financial solution offered to your customer keeps interest in your offering high, and at the same time allows you to get one step up on a competitor who isn’t in fact able to offer the financing.

When you partner with the right firm or individual to offer such a program its essentially at no cost to yourself, other than your time commitment in promoting and putting together the program.

And by the way, you or your sales for don’t have to be ‘ financial pros’ – your partner firm or individual is fully prepared to step in an consult with your customer on the basic elements of such an offering; they of course are things such as term of lease required, monthly payment, possible ownership at end of term, credit approval, etc.

By investing some time in such a program you can have different… let us call them ‘ flavors’ within your offering. They might include shorter term rentals, the proverbial ‘ don’t pay a cent event ‘, below market interest rates that could be subsidized by your firm in order to increase sales, or allowing customers to pick and choose their own monthly payments by providing them with a rate chart – with of course your firms name at the top . In effect your customer finance vendor program has allowed you to be a total solution vendor.

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor to find out how you can beat your competitors through the use of a financial option.