A customer equipment financing program, or vendor financing program as it can also be referred to, provides your customers with immediate assess to equipment financing and/or equipment leasing programs that are capable of providing financing for the type or types of equipment you sell as well as the type or types of financial and credit profiles of your typical customer.
Basically, your business and offering has been reviewed and qualified by one or more lenders who would be interested in receiving applications from your customers.
Without a customer equipment financing program in place, lenders or leasing companies are basically entertaining one off applications which will each have to go through the process of validating your credentials as a dealer or reseller, how long you’ve been in business and your track record with your customers, as well as your financial position.
You may wonder why any of your information is important to the process.
Because the equipment financing process is going to be relying on the equipment as the primary security, the lender or leasing company will want to know that the supplier of same provides quality equipment and service and will be around for the foreseeable future to service the customer and potentially the equipment.
This becomes even more important for any equipment items that are not pure commodities in the market place where the resale market is not well defined or yet developed.
In order to strengthen a customer financing program, the dealer or reseller may also provide potential lenders with a form or recourse where by they will re market or repurchase the assets financed in the event of default. This type of scenario is not typically a requirement of a customer equipment financing program, but it does reduce the risk of the lender and therefore increases their potential to grant a financing approval in favor of your customer.
The other thing to keep in mind is that each and every customer must qualify with respect to their own credit and financing resources. Just because a lender or leasing company is ok with the equipment being sold the seller still does not guarantee by any stretch that financing will be provided.
The reason for going through the process of getting a vendor financing program in place is to simplify the financing process as much as possible so 1) a positive lending or leasing decision is more likely, and 2) the process is completed as fast as possible so as to reduce the risk of the sale not closing due to delays in the processing of a equipment financing application.
If you would like to get a customer equipment financing program set up for you business, or want a review of the one you already have, we suggest that you give us a call so we can go over your business model and customer profile and provide relevant vendor financing options for your consideration.