Skip to main content

In this highly competitive marketplace, equipment sales teams can easily become frustrated with pressure on price. Sales gurus will tell you, and correctly so, that we should all be focused on selling value over price—that a “total solution” approach often allows you to win more business and more profitable business. And while they are correct, some people are just about the price. But what if there was an easier way to overcome the price objection?

There is. But first let’s examine why price is such a common obstacle in commercial equipment sales. Most commercial equipment in revenue generating or efficiency producing at least. With obvious benefits to their business, why are your pipelines filled with so many “maybe laters” or “if onlys”? Simple.

69% of business capital equipment acquisition happens in the break/fix moment. That means nearly 7 out of 10 times the business is really not planning on replacing the equipment they have, they are actually forced to. And while this is a problem for all businesses, for small businesses this is a real killer. Why? Because they haven’t set aside the money to pay for the now broken down equipment. This cash deficiency, though, should not hinder the process

71% of business owners will not negotiate purchase price if they are offered a monthly payment that easily fits their cash flow needs.

Behold, the power of the monthly payment. Leading with a monthly payment is the single most effective action you can take to stay away from purchase price objections. It allows far easier break/fix decisions and equipment additions are easier because they can match the new revenues or cost savings to the cash flows or savings stream. Sounds obvious right? Here’s the real problem though: Only 6% of commercial equipment sales team lead with a payment. Most only offer when the customer asks for financing. And while that approach might work, it doesn’t work well enough. If you lead with the payment you can avoid purchase price objections, if you wait for the customer to ask for financing…you might lose them entirely.

Too many equipment sales teams get frustrated with having to learn the financing game, deal with turn downs or approvals that feel like turn downs and as such, only offer financing when they absolutely have to. And while that’s understandable, it’s also pretty short-sighted. Most of that frustration happens, not because those things exist, but because they handle the process wrong. If you lead with the payment and a pre-qualification process–all completely run and managed by an experienced equipment finance company–you allow the finance company to handle the hard stuff and make your equipment incredibly affordable with less cash up front. Or more simply…you’ll sell more and avoid those ugly pricing conversations.

At SLS, this is what we do. Competitive finance programs that make the lives of commercial equipment sales teams downright uncomplicated. If you’d like to see how you might avoid more pricing negotiations, give us a call.

Leave a Reply