Payment Plan – A while ago, I was sitting in a classroom with about a dozen and a half small business owners. We were in the process of bouncing ideas off each other on different topics of business. I love this kind of setting. There is a palpable buzz with the creativity and overall energy that exists when small business owners get together to help each other. Thinking outside the box is always the result. Woje is all about thinking creatively. I have a feeling this is why, when they came around to asking me, “What is it that Woje does?” The questions and creative thoughts of others expand like an explosion of excitement.
Woje turns businesses into super banks. Banks, Merchants, Credit Cards, and Collection Agencies make money from small business sales and customers. All this money is being taken from your pocket. It doesn’t matter how big those goliath companies are when you can take them out at the knees as a comparatively little company. Woje gives you the simplest way to remove their pipelines and cut them down to size.
As you can tell, when you have something special to share, you get excited, especially when others get the buzz as well. The best byproduct is those businesses are now capturing that money back.
So, let’s get back to all the exciting questions and pick one.
Payment Plan
The question I was asked that I want to refer to is, “How long is the best payment plan…two years or three years for the terms? I have never really thought of that question with all the things people have asked me, plus all the contracts and financing I have done. I have done very long and very short terms. When I was presented with this question, my thought process made me realize that the answer was not what they expected. To me, that’s a banker’s question or the ideology from someone in one of the credit card companies or corporate lending agencies.
Woje is a paradigm shift from the standard questions. We look for the route questions that help small businesses focus on their highly valued customers and meet their needs, instead of wasting time on outdated lending principles.
Still, this is a question that needs to be answered. I just know there is a better question that should be asked which negates the former question of “2 years or 3 years payment plan.”
Ask a better question
Let’s look at it this way. It’s a great day for business, and you as a business, are about to have some of your customers purchase your product or service. It is a higher-end sale, and they are curious if they can afford it. You offer them an in-house payment plan (Don’t think you can’t! That is an archaic and old-school way of thinking!). Let’s assume you were doing a term of 2 years at $300 per month. They ask you to step away while they talk in private for a moment. Which of the two do you think they would be discussing, the term of two years or the monthly payment amount? The question we must ask ourselves is, “Should the term length dictate the payment amount, or what the customer can comfortably pay per month dictate the term length?” Switching your attention to the customer’s needs is always the best way to close a sale.
We must turn customers into clients
“Customers into Clients” means taking your attention and thoughts from how many years the term needs to be to ask the question, “What can this customer comfortably afford?”
Who cares about the length? Isn’t your potential client the key factor? Aren’t their needs the priority? What are the two byproducts of asking these questions of, “What can they comfortably afford?” Either their payment amount may dictate a shorter payment plan, like seven months. “What do you end up with as a result?” A non-discounted sale where you keep the 3.5% merchant fees and collected interest and your profit quicker than the stagnant standard of 12 months or 18 months. I have had this happen before. I have a client that we would put on about a 16-month term, and they said, “No. We can have you make five auto withdrawal payments.” On the other hand, they may need a smaller monthly payment that creates a longer-term, like forty-three months. Who cares if it is precisely on the year mark or not? The byproduct of time is more money. You still didn’t have to discount, you kept the 3.5% from the merchant, and you made more money from interest, along with having a long-term client who will probably purchase again. The most significant benefit is that you matched the needs of your client.
In Conclusion
Notice these benefits are the “byproduct” and not the focus. We should always focus on turning our customers into comfortable long-term clients and not focus on the archaic standard from the terms of the sale. Your customer should always be the focus. So sitting in this group watching everyone’s eyes on me, anticipating the answer to this question of two or three years for the payment plan length, you can surmise the answer I gave. “It is the client’s comfortable payment that dictates the payment plan length on a sale. So the question of “Which is more important, the payment plan’s length or payment?” At Woje, we say your client.
