What does it really mean to “control the sale”?

“He who has the money, has the power.” In business, these words resonate loudly. Yet commercial equipment sales teams often spend most of their time talking about everything but…money. Interesting. More and more customers are haggling with price, shopping relentlessly, being indecisive, and delaying decisions. Equipment sales teams often feel a bit out of the driver’s seat in the process. So let’s get you back there.

62% of indecision in commercial equipment purchases is related to financial uncertainty.

There you go. Whether these people are telling you or not, most of them are stalling because they are unsure, uncomfortable or generally unconfident about how to pay for your equipment. “Well, you can’t give them money they don’t have.” Sure you can. It’s called financing. And most of you have some type of finance program to offer.

78% of business owners will not ask if a dealer has a finance program. If you are assuming customers will ask about your program, barely more than 2 in 10 will. The rest will say no, fade away, say they are calling their bank or go to your competitor. And if they go to their bank, guess who has the power now. Banks fund equipment sales team deals an average of 31.3 days slower than equipment finance companies working with equipment vendors. So, while your customer is waiting on the long maybe from a bank, what if your competition proactively offers their equipment with their finance program that will fund in a week? The answer is simple. You’ll lose the deal.

Leaving the finance part of the process to banks or other customer relationships is an open door for competition and other factors like buyer fatigue to run through—killing your sale. On the other side, equipment sales teams that lead with a finance program that can dive in with pre-approvals, personal service to handle the hard financial conversations and delicate matters you don’t want to get into will keep the door for competition closed.

Leading with payment from the right finance partnership helps you control the sale and address the unsaid financial matters that lead to indecision.
Close more. Increase sales and control your pipeline. At Key Credit, we help equipment sales teams execute this way with a simple process and competitive financing. Tired of the indecision in your pipelines? Let’s talk.