Welcome to the world of Vendor Leasing – Guest Blog

How can you maximise the products and the talent within your leasing company? Read our first guest blog from Mike Ramsay, Director of Persona Sales Training. The last 3 years have presented opportunity for change in the leasing and finance industry. The products are more in demand than ever before but the potential payback can only be fully realised if our delivery system is perfectly designed.

The tired old benefits of leasing can and will continue to suffice for partnerships that consider below 25% lease penetration, with marginal reactive growth, a success

Let me pose a question “How many companies would invest in and introduce new CRM software without fully and comprehensively training their staff to use it?”

Surely it would be crazy not to maximise the return on investment! Indeed, how much money and time [in £ 000’s] will a company invest in customer service back office systems and methods in total? Consider the ££££’s invested in total in leasing and back office software and technology over the last 10 years?

We understand that the critical benefits of these investments of time and money would only have been realised once all the staff understood totally how, why and when to use the main elements of the system!

Let’s compare this with the time and money typically invested in the Sales Aid or Vendor partnership in their CFRM [Customer Facing Relationship Management] operation?

Many ‘front end’ staff get very little training in how to maximise the REAL benefits of leasing for and with prospects and customers. But never mind, they know how to complete a leasing document accurately and how to enter and save details on the software! After all, they have completed a test of their knowledge and been repetitively trained to be effective day to day.

Maybe I am being slightly cynical and maybe this doesn’t truly reflect some partnerships but in my experience in the last few years it IS typical of many.

It is time to empower and excite some of your partnerships with the NEW sales benefits of leasing. When these are successfully installed with the sales teams all the OLD benefits of leasing will follow!

The coaching and training to make the system work efficiently has to be just as comprehensive with the only people who MEET the customers! Sales and customer service teams!

And what benefits will they [and subsequently all] gain? Salespeople are motivated by a limited number of ideals; recognition, money, success and security [for some].

The NEW benefits of leasing to salespeople are only accessible with thorough and complete sales coaching and training. There is no point holding up a bunch of pound notes as an incentive when we are only showing them how we calculate that incentive!

Sales people can achieve the following benefits to varying degrees when they are shown and coached in how to use rental selling skills practically in this downturn economy:

• How to prospect more effectively using rental perspectives [and stop wasting time!]
• How to be more effective at cost justification and creating strong business cases
• How to be more effective selling price differences against other suppliers
• How to prevent more sales from going to ‘No Decision’ than are ever lost to other suppliers
• How to be more effective at selling with and through key influencers as well as decision makers
• How to continually increase profit and average order sales values [working smarter not harder]
• How to be more effective at selling services and consumables [the lifeblood to many partners]
• How to Pre-handle, manage and prevent PRICE OBJECTIONS!
• How to be more effective at selling all solutions with any form of finance [Lease, rent, HP etc.]

Salespeople will not risk their own integrity. They will only use skills and techniques that they are confident and competent to use. This takes time, repetition and experiences. Invest in the only real connection with the customers!

These benefits of using leasing effectively will result in sales success with the result of a more stable and successful sales team, an increase in lease penetration, winning of additional sales for the vendor partner and an increase in profit.

These skills and techniques can be integrated with and support all existing sales processes with equally positive effect.

The benefits of leasing for the Vendor – cash flow, reduced debtor days etc. will logically follow this customer facing investment. The benefits to the Lessor will be huge.