Your leadership team signed up for APPROVE because they recognized its value as a powerful conversion tool that drives more equipment sales. However, like any tool, it can only help you if you put it work.
APPROVE comes with a lot of cool features and functions. Most APPROVE users are taking advantage of our embedded website plugin that presents financing payment estimates next to your online products and prices, and enables your customers to apply directly from the product pages in 60 seconds. The APPROVE plugin is awesome for driving effortless sales through your website.
But APPROVE is way more than just a website plugin - it includes tools specifically for you, the sales rep, to grow your sales and your commission checks too! We’ll review those tools in a moment, but first let’s reveal the one 30 second action you can start taking today that will result in increased sales and bigger commission checks:
That’s it! If you do this you will increase your sales…and here’s why…
Most industrial and commercial equipment (63%) in the US is financed.* This means most equipment buyers (your customers) prefer financing over all other payment methods, and if you’re presenting finance payment estimates proactively, you’re going to appeal to a wider customer base and gain an early competitive advantage.
Financing enables you to maintain margins on otherwise discounted sale prices.
Financed sales have higher average ticket sizes because when buyers see how affordable the monthly payment is, it’s very easy to upsell them to more expensive models or additional units for just a few more dollars each month.
You can also easily cross-sell by bundling soft costs like accessories, maintenance and repair packages, and shipping into the financed amount.
Some buyers have deep pockets and will typically pay in full for equipment, but presenting financing has no negative impact, and may make you the vendor of choice if they ever choose finance in the future.
Some buyers are proactively seeking financing. In fact, they absolutely require it because they simply can’t afford to lay out the capital for expensive equipment.
Some buyers simply prefer financing so they can conserve cash and align monthly expenses with equipment utilization and revenue generation.
Some buyers aren’t even considering financing as they begin the sales journey, but realize how affordable it can be when they see it - but they have to see it!
Regardless of a buyer’s mindset, proactively presenting financing estimates gives you an immediate sales advantage over competitors that are not selling the affordability of financing early in their sales process.
We understand that establishing a new habit (like including a finance payment estimate on every quote) can be hard at first - but we’re confident that once you see the sales conversion power of the APPROVE financing platform, you’ll want to leverage it on every relevant equipment quote ($2,000 or more). We’ve also created some incredibly quick and simple tools to create and share monthly finance payment estimates in 30 seconds or less. All of these tools enable you to do the same thing, so we encourage you to choose the one that best meets your needs and get comfortable with it so it becomes a natural part of your quoting process. The tools include:
APPROVE Application Link Generator: Log into your APPROVE account and select the APP Link Generator. This tool (our most popular and most used) enables you to enter the equipment model, quantity and price, and it will automatically generate a link to a custom, pre-filled, digital application. Click “copy” and then paste your application links in quotes, texts or emails. Now your customers can click the link and complete each application in about 60 seconds. Click here for an explainer video.
APPROVE Website Plugin: If your company installed the APPROVE Website Plugin you can create and share links to digital applications right from your website product pages. It works just like the App Link Generator, only you can access it from your website without the need to open/login to your APPROVE account. Once the equipment information has been entered, click the “Share” option and choose how you want to share the application link.
APPROVE Application Link Generator Website Landing Page: Designed for companies that do not have the APPROVE Website Plugin, this pre-designed landing page can be easily installed on your existing website by copying and pasting a single line of code. This is basically just placing the Application Link Generator on your website as its own landing page. Again, you can easily share links that your customers can click on to apply on a hosted digital application. Click here for install instructions.
APPROVE on the Move Mobile App: We highly recommend downloading our FREE mobile app (available on Apple and Android). This slick mobile app enables you to easily calculate finance payment estimates, create and share links to finance applications, track the status of every application and receive notifications of application approvals and closed deals. And you can take this selling power with you everywhere you go. Download the free app on the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android).
APPROVE Chrome Extension: If you use a web-based quoting tool, such as Quickbooks or Salesforce quotes, the APPROVE Chrome Extension overlays onto your quoting tool and enables you to easily transfer product information directly into your quote in seconds. Download at the Chrome Web Store.
Copy your APPROVE AE on EVERY quote: If you don’t want to use any of these tools, you can also simply copy (CC) your APPROVE Account Executive on any quote you email to your customer. Just make it a habit - before you hit send, just remember to CC your APPROVE AE, and he or she will create and share the custom app link on your behalf.
Creating applications takes about 30 seconds or less.
Customers can complete applications in about 60 seconds.
50% of approvals come in the first 2 hours and 75% come in the first 24 hours.
Our lender network can approve more applications than any individual lender because we have lenders that specialize funding businesses of all sizes and credit profiles.
As soon as your customer selects an offer and it is funded by the lender, your company gets paid up front and in full - so you get commission checks just as fast as a regular, non-financed sale.
Please do yourself a huge favor and take an extra 30 seconds to include an affordable monthly finance payment with every sales quote you send out. Your bank account will thank you!
If you have questions about one of the tools, please don’t hesitate to ask your APPROVE AE. They are here to help you grow your business.
Thanks for being an APPROVE User!