When times are tough, how resellers offer finance solutions becomes critical to securing sales. I have frequently alluded to the old-fashioned attitude that point-of-sale finance is sometimes viewed as an ‘eleventh hour’ last resort only to be used when affordability issues are raised. But it has never been more important to talk to customers about their financial requirements from the earliest possible stage in the sale.

The most usual scenario is that those resellers who sell using finance will have a preferred finance provider, to whom they introduce the customer. But in some cases, customers may not want a third-party financier to be involved. It is certainly true that a one-stop shop approach ­ where resellers provide the solutions and the financing ­ is a compelling proposition for time-pressured customers. Where this is the case, the major ICT service providers either create their own (captive) finance arm, funded from their balance sheet or they white label the offering of a financier.

While the former option is often beyond the means of all but the very largest global players, white labelling is suitable for any firm.

Financiers can guide channel players in defining precisely how this arrangement would work ­ from branding documents to
setting up a finance company in the reseller’s name, but it is far less complex than one might imagine.

Taking the example of SAP, we have worked with them since 2005 to operate SAP Financing, providing specialist financing solutions for SAP customers. White labelling a finance solution through the channel is a tried and trusted technique to simplify an enterprise-sized sale and build a close customer relationship.

As the channel faces the prospect of increasingly cautious clients, any approach that can differentiate a reseller from its peers has to be worth considering ­ particularly given the success stories evident in the market.

Peter Austin is general manager at Siemens Financial Services