Published May 3, 2018 | Updated May 24, 2021
If you make your equipment easier to pay for, more people will buy it.
The previous sentence is not a famous quote. It’s not a parable or the end of a tale spun by some unrealistic self-help book. It’s a truth. A fact. It’s like saying the sky is blue. Leading with a payment is the undisputed key to ensuring more equipment sales. But…
Only 9% of all commercial equipment sales teams lead with a finance conversation.
NINE PERCENT? The research company that did this survey reached out to more than 2,100 commercial equipment sales professionals. And when the results came back, they expanded the research to another 1,500 sales pros because they simply couldn’t believe it. When they finished? Still nine percent.
Let’s leave the world of commercial equipment sales for a minute and take a look at what car sellers do. In 2015, Chevrolet needed to boost sales in their struggling European market. They built an ad campaign for the European version of the Chevy Cruze that led with a monthly payment amount.
Three months later, they saw a 24% increase in sales. Excited, Chevrolet moved to a 0% financing initiative over the next three months. Three months after that, sales dropped 11%.
They moved back to the low payment campaign in the following quarter. Guess what? Chevy saw a 21% sales increase. And here’s the kicker…the absolute payment amount was more expensive than their closest competition in Europe. But those competitors didn’t lead with a payment and that made the difference.
What does this all mean? For one thing, people are not finance experts. They don’t understand the real impact of interest rates, residual creation, or secondary market implications, but they do understand the amount of money that comes out of their bank account every month. And, here’s the hard pill to swallow: this biggest problem might be you. Nine percent of sales teams not leading with a conversation about finance is crazy. The most impactful way to demonstrate how easy it is to own your equipment is simply being underutilized.
When people are afraid of doing something, they make excuses. Facts get lost, things get emotional, and they let fear and lack of knowledge drive behavior. So, let’s clear that up.
Now more than ever, one thing is pretty clear: to sell more, especially when budgets are tight, it’s important to talk about financing upfront. It simply makes your equipment easier to buy in any economic cycle. And we can help even more.
At LEAF, we make your equipment easier to buy with customized finance solutions that solve real problems – like making it easier and more impactful to have a financial conversation early in the sales process.
