Saturday, January 9, 2010

Copier Sales "Friday Night Lights II"



Here I was in the office on Friday afternoon; we had just finished having a few vendors in for a lunch and learn. We finished up about 1:30PM and at 2PM I had a webinar schedule with an existing client for 2PM. After that I was off to a 4PM appointment for a new customer interested in a wide format system.


A little back ground on my 4PM appointment, I had called a few weeks ago about a wide format product. The DM had expressed interest and we set an appointment for later that week. I arrived at the appointment a few days later and the DM was not able to make it, so I figured I would make the best of it and ask as many questions as possible with the DM's assistant. After about 30 minutes I was done and was on my way to the next stop.

Now, with my appointment on Friday the DM gave me his cell phone number and expressed that I give him a call before I came out. Well, I made one call with no answer, 20 minutes later made another with no answer and then 20 minute later called the office to see if the DM was there and the DM was not there. The time was now 4PM and since I had to travel towards the client’s office to go home, I figured I'd give his cell number one more ring a ling. Well, the DM picked up and I stated if he had time we could still meet, I could be there in about 4 minutes, the DM agreed and off I went. I arrived sometime after 5PM by the way I had filled out an order form and a lease earlier that day, just in case, need to be prepared eh?

While there, we discussed the features, advantaged and benefits, and then we got down to the dirty which was the finance part of the system. Initially the client had balked at the 60 month lease and asked if he could put money down to lower the interest. I agreed, and we went over a few scenarios and then he dropped a bomb by asking "well if I went ahead with the order" can you hold the machine for me? His objection was that he may be building an addition. To say the least this wasn't going to help me, I explained we needed to get this placed this month, and suggested that we install the hardware and leave the network connection for a later date. He mulled it over and then asked about us financing the equipment. Ok I thought, here we go, I stated we could do that but would only be able to do a 30,60,90 and before he could answer I pulled out the "bakers dozen" lease, this is where you can offer a 13 month lease and the customer owns the equipment at the end for $1.00. You take the purchase price of the equipment divide by 12 and that's the payment to the customer.

Keep in mind that when doing a "baker dozen" lease the leasing company will take 5% of your invoice. I had explained that in order to this type of deal I would have to increase the cost by 5% top cover what the leasing company takes from us in order for him to have such a low lease rate. Well, he agreed and we signed all of the paperwork on the spot. By 6:30PM on a Friday night I was on my way home with and order and feelin good for the weekend.

So, what can we take from all of the this? Well, the objection was the interest that was paid on the initial lease. Most of the time, we sales people believe the customer wants the lowest payment which goes hand in hand with the longest term. In this case, not true! Remember there are many different leasing programs available from leasing companies that we tend to forget about, such as bakers dozen, step leases, 90 days with no payments and I'll be there are a few more out there. Go over these programs with your leasing companies or lease administrator and you may be able to close a few additional deals on Friday Nights!



-=Good Selling=-


-=Good Selling=-

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