Business Products - financing companies/contacts?

[Frimley111R]

We are looking into offering financing for our products which typically retail for £3-4000. Its the first time we are trying this and it could open up a bigger market for us and so we need to talk to companies which could help us. If anyone does this or has any contacts could they please let me know.

[S26VE P]

No entirely that much help but it might assist,

We were in talks with a machine manufacturer to purchase a new 40k super automated timesaver. when i spoke with them we would prefer to finance a small amount to not put too much pressure on us. They advised i speak to lombard, so a few enquiries later i think ill speak with our bank who in turn send me to Lombard.

Might be worth a shout as not directly involved in the finance just advising where to go.

[insurance_jon]

depending on the product, hitachi, close brothers or lombard

[jonby]

We deal with dozens of finance companies

It's not uncommon for them to partner with a manufacturer/distributor over a specific product, especially something a little more niche

The advantage for you is of course that buyers concerned if they can get finance or how they go about it have a few steps removed. Despite the fact it's less difficult than the customer may realise

Also, you can ensure that you are instructed to sell on behalf of the finance companies for any agreements that are terminated, which means you have a degree of control in the used market of your product - that can be part of the quid pro pro you agree with the finance company in return for introducing work. You may also get some kind of commission on each policy sold

So IMHO it's a really good idea and there are loads of finance companies that you could speak to. Not really sure why any one should be better at this than another other than suggesting that you would be better with a small, hungry, flexible firm than the likes of a Lombard or Close (although we do business with both those firms !) who are very large and may therefore be a little more inflexible

If going for a small firm, makes sense to find someone local

[Frimley111R]

Thanks. We'd like to offer it at '0%' as that makes it a nice offer too but from my investigations the best way forward is to, as you say, do the finance through a finance partner who manages the loan and simply pay us £X (the total cost minus their commission/costs) in one go but doing it this way, I think, means we can't technically offer 0%.

Blimey! Just did a bit of Googling, not easy to find anyone obvious.

Edited by Frimley111R on Monday 24th August 17:56