How Can I Get A Customer Equipment Leasing Program In Place?

First of all, what exactly is a customer equipment leasing program?

In the most simplest terms, you as the business owner or manager have a pre existing relationship with one or more leasing companies that you can introduce to your customer that require financing to purchase equipment from you.

Why Can’t The Customers Do This Themselves?

They most certainly can and do in many instances.  In fact they could potentially end up working directly with a lease financing company that you introduce them to.

The difference with a customer leasing program that’s already in place is that the customer will immediately be dealing with a leasing company that provides equipment leases for the type of equipment in question and will be assisted with the financing application process to make the process go as fast as possible.

Aren’t All Leasing Companies Basically The Same?

In a word, No.

Unlike the large banks that most people are aware of and potentially used to dealing with, leasing companies tend to be smaller financial entities that are going to be focused on a certain slice of the equipment financing market place.

Each equipment leasing company will also have leasing criteria related to applicant credit, size of transaction, time in business, industry, and so on.  So there can be considerable differences from one company to another.

Taking it one step further, some of the more prominent leasing companies do not market directly to business owners and only work through broker networks so to gain access to them you would have to work through an approved brokerage arm of their business.

Don’t All Leasing Companies Provide Customer Leasing Programs?

Most do, but this can also be a tough one to figure out for any given business.

If you are only providing a vendor financing program through one leasing company, then you are limited to not only their credit and leasing policies as they may relate to your customer, but also their appetite for the type of business you send their way.

For instance, if you sell medical equipment to doctors and the leasing company one day says they can’t provide any more financing to your customers because they have reached their limit for that category in their portfolio, then you’re going to need to replace that source of financing in a hurry or potentially miss out on sales.

In our opinion, the best customer equipment leasing program is one that is administered through a broker who has access to a broad range of relevant lenders that collectively can provide the financing requirements for most of your customers, regardless of an applicants individual credit profile.

For more information on customer equipment financing programs, please give us a call and we’ll get all your questions answered right away.