Researching options for finance as part of the purchasing process has become the ‘new normal’ for consumers.
This is an excerpt from our free white paper, Winning More Business: Offering finance to your customers. Discover how the White Oak UK Partner Programme can help you increase sales, reduce your cash conversion cycle and protect your margins.
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In an ideal world, your customers would be in a position to purchase without cost or budget barriers, creating a smooth and consistent sales cycle. The stats opposite show that more and more customers are reaching a buying decision before they even make contact with a vendor.
This makes the inclusion of a finance offering much more than a nice to have for equipment suppliers, it is an essential value add, especially if your competitors are already offering a solution. Without it, you could be losing leads that you didn't know about, as your potential customers require finance to facilitate a purchase.
Equipment or Vendor Finance is an excellent enabler for suppliers. It has been shown to increase average transaction values, as customers are much more likely to increase the level of investment when there is an option to spread the cost.
Key Stats
- 57% of the purchase decision is complete before a customer even calls equipment suppliers.[i]
- Over two thirds of buyers wait longer to initiate contact with vendors than they did two years ago because they are doing more research themselves.[ii]
- More than 50% of buyers consult third- party sources before consulting a company’s salesforce.[iii]
Research shows that customers choosing to purchase with asset finance will often spend up to three times the amount of those not purchasing using finance.
When used tactically, finance can provide an excellent selling tool, allowing the creation of high margin ‘bundle’ deals that offer warranty and added services for a fixed monthly fee, demonstrating benefits to both you and your customers and creating an overall more attractive package.
Overcome objections with asset finance
By introducing equipment finance early, many of the financial objections to purchasing will not arise, however, there are some key objections that finance will help to overcome:
* For further information surrounding taxation, please consult your Accountant.
[i] CEB - https://www.cebglobal.com/shl/images/uploads/BO1C-The-Challenger-Sale-LINK13.pdf
[ii] SAP - http://www.komarketingassociates.com/industry-news/informed-b2b-buyers-pose-new-challenges-digital-marketers-1971/
[iii] Avande - http://www.avanade.com/~/media/documents/research%20and%20insights/the-new-customer-journey-global-study.pdf