These services lead to a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties.
Make
your life easier:
With your approval we will work with your client to get the necessary
credit information. We will interface with the financial side of your
company. We speak their language. We will work through the credit
due diligence and then work with your client on any credit issues
that may arise. We will email them the documents and then go over
them to ensure they are executed quickly and properly. We will have
client fax and overnight the documents back to us. We will ensure
that the purchase orders and pre-funding is done ASAP. We realize
that the time involved with this step of the sales process is crucial
and is also where the competing vendor can come in with a counter
offer and “steal the deal”. We hustle to help you get
your transaction off the street.
We realize that the previous 50 steps of the sales process
don’t mean ANYTHING until the purchase order and pre-funding
is completed.
We work with your accounting team to ensure that we anticipate the
installation timeline and that we have the delivery & acceptance
document from the client and the proper final invoice from the vendor.
We make sure that the final funding is done as quickly as possible
and that vendor funds are either wired or overnighted the same day.
We do these things so you can waste less time managing the leasing
process and spend more time selling. That is what you get paid to
do. We are not a bank we are a sales organization that sells money.
Help
you sell more equipment:
Presale
- Background work - Our vendors often ask us to perform preliminary
credit due diligence on a prospective client early on in the sales
process. Using our network of available credit resources and service
bureaus we can often create a credit profile on a client without receiving
one piece of credit information from the client. This often can help
a sales representative with their sales strategy and alert them to
any credit issues ahead of time. Have you ever spent time on a transaction
and in the end not be able to get it finished because the prospect
had no money and no credit? That is painful - we understand that.
In some
cases this pre-qualification process enables us to credit approve
a client without getting any credit information from them. All prospects
appreciate this and it often will help differentiate you from your
competition. Like you our people are typically very competitive and
do everything that they can to ensure that they contribute to a successful
closure. We think it is OK to win.
Sale:
This is where we can help you the most. As you may know, most banks/funding
sources simply fax you a rate sheet and then sit back and wait for
you to fax them a transaction. While this might be nice it really
doesn’t help the vendor. We know how difficult it is for you
to win a transition and frankly we would feel guilty about doing nothing
and getting a deal faxed in to us.
When
asked we liked to get involved with the customer and help contribute
to the successful closure of a transaction. Our dedicated account
managers are customer focused and realize that your technical recommendation
may not be selected by the client if the financial requirements of
the client (i.e. the controller/CFO/president) are not addressed.
These days the CFO often has a significant vote in which vendors recommendation
is accepted.
Ideally
we speak the CFO at the same time you work with a different contact
within the company. With another advocate pushing your agenda your
closing percentage will increase. Most vendors either do not know
enough or do not care enough to bring in a financial consultant. This
is something that can very much differentiate you from your competition.
Most
CFO’s have one big problem. They don’t have enough money
to address all the needs of the business. One thing most vendors don’t
have an appreciation for is that they are not only competing against
their known competitors - they are also competing against the other
cash needs of the business. In other words you might loose a transaction
because your technical solution is $10,000 more than vendor B although
in the long run your solution is more appropriate for the needs of
your client. Often the CFO will vote for the less costly alternative
regardless of merit. Typically the CFO is not very technical but they
do understand that $82,432 is $10K less than the other vendors configuration
that is $73,611. Often the operations folks are paid to manage the
business so if runs more efficiently (quality) and the financial folks
are paid to manage the business so it is more cost effective (quantity).
In other
words - as a vendor you are not only competing against your known
competitors you are competing against the other cash needs of the
business - you are also competing against things like:
- the
CFO’s bonus
- the
Presidents new Lexus
- the
two new people that need to be hired in accounting
- the
parking lot that needs to be re-paved
- the
new accounting software
The
dedicated account managers in our Vendor Services Group can help with
this problem. We can be introduced as your financial consultant and
initiate a dialogue with the financial side of your client. The CFO
will appreciate you for introducing us to help them solve a problem.
We discuss
the following topics with the CFO:
- what
are operating budgets for this project
- what
is the capital budget for this project
- what
is your tax appetite
- what
is your useful life expectation for this asset
- what
are your cash flow objectives/strategies
Most
vendor account executives can not address these topics any more than
our Vendor Services Group account managers could address the technical
topics associated with your equipment. We have found over the years
that a good appreciation of this five elements will enable us to put
together a financial solution that enables the client to move forward
with our vendors technical recommendation. It works.
This
two pronged approach of you working with the operations/ technical
side and Atlantic Capital working with the financial side often creates
a synergy that helps the client conclude that your offering was the
most comprehensive and addressed more needs of their business.
Post
Sale: At this stage we make sure we stay on top of the delivery
timeline and anticipate the installation date so that we fund you
as soon as possible. We make sure that the client has returned all
documents and is anticipating our call so that we can fund the transaction.
We often get a list of alternative contacts that can help get the
final delivery and acceptance document faxed back to Atlantic Capital
for final funding.
We
help you manage your client base:
During
the course of the lease Atlantic Capital touches your customer once
a month with our monthly invoice. We can sometimes print messages on
the invoice about additional requirements because clients needs often
change over time.
We also
place a maintenance call to each lessee at least once a quarter. At
least once a quarter we mail out marketing information. Often this dialogue
will produce opportunities for add-ons and upgrades for our vendors.
We also
let our vendors know when leases are about to expire (90 days prior)
so that may be in position to work with the client again. These are
real nice.
Vendor
Tools: Some of the tools/services that help us help you include:
- Proposal
development
- Private
label programs/co-branding
- Discounted
cash flows
- Joint marketing
initiatives
- Lease
vs. buy analysis
- Tax
savings calculations
Summary:
Hopefully you can sense our passion for our vendor channel. The support
of our vendors is the single most differentiating factor between Atlantic
Capital and most funding sources. It is not a mistake that this is by
far the longest section of our website. This is very important and as
such needs to be outlined in detail. The best thing about this partnering
with our vendors is that it doesn’t cost our vendors a dime. This
is truly a win/win situation for both parties. It is a tough sales world
out there. By working together as partners we can make it a little easier.
Atlantic
Capital, Inc.
6851 Oak Hall Lane ~ Suite 105 ~ Columbia, Maryland 21045
Phone: 410-799-3330 ~ Toll Free: 1-888-799-3330
FAX: 410-799-3331~ Toll Free FAX: 1-888-799-3708 |
