Who strictly is the customer in the
leasing sector? The broker who supplies lease deals to the finance
company and invoices them for commission, or the finance company
that has a broker-based sales model?
An interesting conundrum, tested even further
when you take into account end-of-lease title options in which the
finance company invoices the broker.
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In my quest for the answer, I turned to the
Collins English dictionary.
Its definition of “customer” is a person who
buys goods or services. By this definition, as brokers raise
commission invoices to the finance companies, the finance company
should be the customer.
However, the opposite can be argued, and has
historically been the case. Over the years, it has always been the
lessors that have the large marketing budget, and look to wine and
dine their brokers.
Back in 1990, Woodchester [an Irish leasing
company] ran an incentive for its introducers, the £1 million prise
being a trip on Concord and lunch in Paris. Various other
incentives have been witnessed by us brokers, always keen for a
freebie.
One of the better known was when Sovereign
Leasing ran an incentive based around a murder mystery theme. It
sent a postcard out to all its brokers with a picture of a bottle
with the words “Poison” on the front.
After receiving so much bad press, the apology
letters went out a week later and the incentive terminated. They
were followed up by offering a scratch card with every paid out
deal.
I asked my colleague about a huge pile of
Bonus Bonds received from Sovereign. “Simple” she said, “the light
from an LCD projector shows up the numbers on the scratch
card.”
But over the years the incentives have been
getting smaller and less frequent.
The trips to The K Club just outside Dublin
have been replaced with one day golfing events in the UK. Bonus
Bonds are a thing of the past, Fortnum and Mason hampers are
getting smaller and broker lunches not as frequent.
But, alas, this is all wrong. The face of
leasing is changing. It is now the lessors who are the customers
and brokers the suppliers. At present there are a few holding
golfing events, and some have a policy of always buying lunch,
while others are generous with Christmas presents.
So look out all of you who are still lending,
2009 will be your year for a free lunch at Claridges and a case of
Dom Perignon when we hit your sales target.
The author is the founder of
Wyse Leasing and CEO of WestWon Capital
