IT Equipment Leasing: Five Questions Your Clients Are Sure To Ask
There are many compelling reasons to offer your clients financing. It speeds up the sales cycle, reduces discounting, and fuels larger, more comprehensive deals. But the number one reason is that your clients want it! Almost all IT decisions today involve some kind of financing. That said, while your customers will be very happy to learn that you can offer them flexible financing and payment options, they will also likely have some questions for you.
So, to help make sure you’re prepared for the inevitable, here are five common leasing questions that you can expect from your clients:
1. What does it take to get credit approved?
While all financing organizations need to run a credit check before approval is granted, IFS can review and approve transactions up to $500,000 on an application only basis. At this level, IFS runs the credit check through publicly available sources and doesn’t require financial statements, which means you can provide fast turnaround for your customers. For larger transactions, greater than $500,000, IFS requires the industry standard, two years of audited financial statements and current interim financial statements, for credit approval.
2. Do you require down payments or charge application fees?
Leasing through IFS does not require a down payment or involve application fees on standard credit approval. While other sources of financing, such as banks, typically require a down payment, IFS believes that it is important to allow your clients the ability to maximize the benefit of financing. Without down payments or fees to budget for, your clients don’t have to worry about disrupting their cash flow.
3. Can non-equipment items be included in the lease?
Yes, IFS can roll in non-equipment items including related software, support and maintenance contracts into your customer’s lease. We can even finance transactions that are 100% intangible such as software or services. By bundling the entire solution, with all associated costs combined into one monthly payment from one source, your customers can easily manage and streamline cash flow.
4. Can the lease be cancelled?
While contracts are non-cancellable for the specific term of the lease, IFS does provide opportunities to buy out a lease before the end of term if necessary.
5. What term lengths are available? And what is the lease payment frequency?
IFS offers standard 12- to 60-month terms to align with the useful life of the IT assets we lease. Terms in this range have proven to be most effective in maximizing spend for customers leasing IT equipment.
With regard to payment frequency, your customers should know that the most common payment frequency is standard, monthly intervals. However, quarterly, semi-annual and annual payments are also available. It is important to note that IFS also has the ability to creatively structure a payment plan that suits your client’s budget.
Because IFS is an independent leasing organization, it has the resources to create a payment solution to fit a particular budget. Deferred and step payments are good examples of ways we provide the ability to push back or step up payments to take advantage of certain situations like paying down interest early or holding onto cash flow longer.
As a trusted IT equipment leasing partner, we are committed to making it as easy as possible for you to offer the flexible financing that is right for your customers. For more information, please contact IFS today at info@ifsleasing.com.