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“Implementing the right payment strategy in your business … can make a tremendous difference for your overall revenue and profitability.”
—Jesse Davis, GreenSky
To Maximize Profitability, Offer The Right Financing
Jesse Davis, Senior Vice President of Sales and Partner Programs at GreenSky, hosted a webinar during ServiceTitan’s annual conference, Pantheon, on having the right sales strategy for your home and commercial services company.
“Offering the right payments and having the right financing for your customer base is one of the — if not the — most important things any home improvement specialty trade contractor can do to really maximize their opportunity in the market,” Davis said.
Here are some key takeaways from his Pantheon webinar:
1. Don’t let your individual biases get in the way of offerings.
Many business owners are steadfast in their desire to pay cash for everything, Davis says, but many consumers can’t operate in that way.
“Don’t let your own biases get in the way of how you implement a payment program,” he says. “It’s about making sure people have options and the freedom to operate without fear of the cost. That’s super critical.”
2. Educate yourself, and your techs, on the best approaches.
Technicians can fear that they’ll insult customers by asking if they need financing, or fear the questions they could get about fees and terms. Education can allay those concerns. And if a customer can’t can’t afford to pay cash and can’t get approved for financing, they likely weren’t a customer anyway.
“If the fear of rejection prevents you from offering (financing), how many people are you not giving it to who need it and would be approved?” Davis says. “That bias prevents you from having success in the first place.”
3. Being able to talk about financing options with consumers will drive close rate.
It’s important not to judge based on what you see, but rather let the consumer know what’s available in terms of financing. Some people you assume wouldn’t need financing do, and some you think would definitely do not. Not offering could prevent a sale your company could have had.
“A promotion like zero interest for six or twelve months might get that customer to buy now at a higher price point,” Davis says. “Understanding how consumers buy is critical to picking a payment strategy for your business.”
4. Don’t miss opportunities.
Customers who need financing won’t always tell you, because it’s uncomfortable. They’ll just let you walk away and call someone else—when a financing option with an affordable monthly payment or a no-interest option might have even led to an upsell.
“Do they really need cheaper, or do they just need affordable?” Davis says. “If you show them that affordability up front and take that embarrassment away, they can just take you up on the offer. Now, you did them a service.”
5. Build your financing options right into your quote with ServiceTitan.
GreenSky’s partnership with ServiceTitan makes it easy for technicians to put financing options into every quote with just a few clicks.
“It’s super easy to click your plan menu and add that to your quote so it’s in the forefront as an option,” Davis says. “Make sure your technicians are talking about it. Nothing is going to sell the customer or get them to buy from you like proactively talking about it. You can’t wait.
“That’s why GreenSky is here. Our job is to help you find your opportunity for growth by leveraging payment options.”
