Article Archive — Brokers
Make Peace With the Process
It’s Time to Stop Procrastinating
Linda Kester writes, “In 2002, I signed a contract with Leasing Power Tools Press to write a book on equipment leasing sales. Four years later, there was no book. I tried. I’d write, criticize myself, crinkle the paper up and throw it in the trash. I’d sit down with the intention of writing and then any other activity that popped into my mind would take precedence. Clipping my toenails suddenly became urgent!”
Read more...
From Goodwill to Concrete Skills
Five Reasons For Continuous Sales Training
From Linda Kester’s point of view, sales training generates goodwill and concrete skills that forge a path of excellence for your sales reps to follow. In the following article, she supports her viewpoint with five reasons for continuous sales training.
Read more...
Vendors & Social Media
Part of the Marketing Mix
With the advent of social media, every customer is a potential reporter, and leasing companies need to stay current. Yet, most businesses are afraid of social media. They think that it’s just for consumers not for business-to-business transactions.
Read more...
De-Activating the B-Shield
A Lesson Learned for Equipment Leasing Brokers on a Crowded Flight
In her inimitable way, Linda Kester correlates a lesson learned on a crowded flight to Philly to making effective sales calls to vendors. And from Kester’s point of view, her moment of self-actualization can lead to new ways of communicating and building relationships. But first, you have to find your own B-Shield…
Read more...
Risk Management for Salespeople
Since risk is a part of virtually every aspect of living, Linda Kester shares some advice from her friend Ted … rather than running from risk, learn to embrace it. From Kester’s perspective, the end result is frequently less important than what it takes to build up the courage to take unfamiliar actions.
Read more...
For the Love of Leasing
Get ‘Loud and Proud’
Discouraged by some of the negative connotations associated with being a leasing professional? Linda Kester ends the year with three simple steps on how to rekindle your love affair with leasing. After all, Kester contends, when you fall in love with what you’re selling, you can become much more than a sales rep — you become a force for good.
Read more...
Using Your Ethical Compass
The Right Thing To Do
Businesses are built upon integrity, reputation and the ability to provide value to their customers and other business partners. As such, business ethics are of paramount importance. Having strong ethics does not mean that individuals won’t make mistakes. However, strong business ethics can be measured best by how individuals react to difficult situations
Read more...
A Practical Discussion of Credit Bureaus and Their Scores
For a Change of Pace
For this year’s Fall Conference Issue, Linda Kester offers Monitor readers a change of pace. Kester takes a look at the credit bureaus and their scores, and since understanding credit is essential to success, it’s a topic that should be near and dear to every broker’s heart.
Read more...
Is Your Business in Need of a Technology Transformation?
There’s an App for That!
Today’s marketplace continues to expand and evolve. As it does, your customers, employees and partners demand more. Providing employees with information, devices and gadgets they need to function effectively and training them to stand out in front of technology and build real relationships can go a long way.
Read more...
Sales Reps
The Joys of Prospecting Make for Productive Days, Restful Nights
Do you lay in bed at night worrying about your bills? Are you barely meeting your monthly volume goal? Salespeople who continually prospect have less anxiety than the average salesperson. They also keep a steady stream of business coming in the door. While all sales reps know that they have to prospect, many do everything they can to avoid it.
Read more...
Turning Approved Transactions Into Booked Deals
It's All in the Questions
Have you ever looked at a list of your approved deals and hoped that at least one of them would fund in the next couple weeks? It seems like some lessees play a game called: “String Out The Leasing Company.” They avoid calls from both you and the vendor and use every stall tactic imaginable. Here are some thoughts in moving those deals forward.
Read more...
Equipment Leasing Brokers Stay Focused Despite Fractured Funding Environment
Picking Up the Pieces
It’s not easy being a equipment leasing broker these days. With the financial services industry trying to restructure as it sees fit — including dropping broker programs — this year’s roundtable participants are finding sources of funding few and far between. To survive, they are shifting their focus and niches in order to shuffle through these bad times with thoughtful outlooks on the future.
Read more...
To Broker or Not to Broker?
Amid funding constraints, a growing number of leasing companies are deciding that they will no longer originate business through the broker channel. Leasingnews.org lists no fewer than 70 organizations that have discontinued or cut back on broker business. Still others are simply closing up shop or have sold their leasing portfolios after suffering losses. Last [...]
Read more...Date Posted March 1, 2010
A New Sales Outlook
Five Simple Ways to Defeat Negativity
To be a truly productive, healthy salesperson, you need to stop feeling victimized. Replace negative reactions with a plan to keep you in a solid, peaceful state of mind, regardless of any drama going on around you. Linda Kester offers five simple ways to defeat negativity and create a new sales outlook.
Read more...
Certified Leasing Professionals
Rough Waters Make Skillful Sailors
Adversity is the springboard to achievement. Although the state of the economy and our industry may be sounding Mayday, the call to action at the Certified Leasing Professional Foundation is to sail before the mast. Now is the time to prepare for the opportunities that will surface after the storm.
Read more...
Today’s Vendor Market for Brokers
Serving the Underserved
Many leasing sales professionals are focusing on the negative events of this difficult time. The sales reps who use this time to build and deepen vendor relationships will be the ones who have the biggest book of business when the economy turns around.
Read more...
The Sweet Smell of Success in Equipment Leasing
Turning Desperation Into Inspiration
Ah, the sweet smell of success… It’s a sensation everyone is striving to experience more of these days. Linda Kester returns to remind us that in selling equipment leasing, success often requires a lot of hard work and sometimes, a bit of inspiration.
Read more...
Attention Salespeople
Eight Steps to Gain Satisfaction
Frustration is a normal emotional response to being unable to fill a need. It’s a feeling of dissatisfaction, often accompanied by anxiety or depression, resulting from unresolved problems. Linda Kester provides eight steps to alleviate the frustration many salespeople experience.
Read more...
A Funnel Full of Sales Prospects
Top Three Ways to Obtain Sales Leads
Building a high-quality list of leads takes a lot of time and resourcefulness but after a while, it takes less of both. And while it’s not easy, it’s well worth it. Linda Kester returns to remind us of the sense of satisfaction one receives by connecting with their top ten prospects on a regular basis.
Read more...
Falling in Love Again With Your Existing Lessees
Remember the Captain & Tennille song, “Love Will Keep Us Together?” That could be an anthem for turning one-time lessees into multiple transaction customers.
Read more...
It’s All About Getting Out There & Networking
Making the Most Out of a Leasing Convention
As convention season rolls around this year, it’s important to remember some key aspects to getting the most out of the annual leasing conventions and that means networking, networking, networking. Linda Kester offers some helpful tips to finding and securing new prospects.
Read more...
Brokers Are Feeling the Pain But Facing Realities ‘Head On’
Last year, those interviewed for the Monitor’s annual broker roundtable were optimistic even during an economic downturn that hit the industry hard in late 2007 following the collapse of the subprime markets. But what most didn’t realize, at the time, was that more hardship was ahead, and 2008 would be even more surprising and worse for the economy than anyone feared.
Read more...
Battling Hopelessness for Equipment Leasing Brokers
Making Progress in a Declining Market
In times like these, it’s easy to be negative — especially when prospects may seem to be drying up. In this edition, Linda Kester presents four ways to reinvigorate both yourself and your business
Read more...
Why Some Things Shouldn’t Change in the Leasing Business
Thirty-Five Years of Good Ideas
While reading an issue celebrating Monitor’s 35 years of publication, it’s a good time for us to reflect on what gives a business staying power. Successful modern companies embrace the technologies and sales fashions of the day but only to the extent they allow them to build on timeless values. Gerry Egan applies this “timeless” philosophy to the business of leasing.
Read more...
Online Networking…Expanding Your Social Footprint
Who can deny in this time of Internet dependency and social networking that it doesn’t pay to get yourself out there? Here Linda Kester explains why it’s more important than ever to connect socially to contacts online.
Read more...
Brokers, Let’s Talk About Leads
You can’t complete a deal without a good, usable lead. But if you’re not generating your own, are you really closing the transaction you want to? In an effort to bring together a vendor and lessor in a more beneficial way, brokers need to take responsibility for lead generation. This, of course, can lead to closing deals that are better for all parties while also saving some sweat, blood and tears.
Read more...
Brokers: Ignore the Doom & Gloom
Keep Your Chin Up in Tumultuous Times
Given the turmoil in today’s financial markets, many equipment leasing sales professionals are feeling discouraged. It’s hard not to be when the media is bombarding you with negative information. Now more than ever it’s vital to keep a positive attitude.
Read more...
Attention Brokers!
One Change That Can Increase Profits and Productivity…
Can changing one aspect of your business increase profits while decreasing the time it takes you to get a deal funded? Yes it can. Garry Egan explains how one transition can change the way you run your broker business.
Read more...
Zen & the Art of Leasing
Using the Law of Detachment to Become a Successful Sales Professional
Can you be Zen-like in sales? Of course! In analyzing the seven types of salespeople, Linda Kester discusses the value of going Zen when trying to capture new customers, and what it means to use the Law of Detachment in Zen leasing.
Read more...
Change
From Discomfort to Growth
Everyone has habits and patterns that determine their actions and interactions. And when change disrupts those things, it can cause fear and is rarely, if ever, fun. While it isn’t always easy, change can lead to growth, progress and even confidence. Monitor columnist Linda Kester explains why.
Read more...
Funders, Take Note
Insure Your Broker’s — And Thereby Your Own Success
Every individual has insurance, whether it’s a signed and paid for document for your house or car, or just a way to ensure your business partners are working with you toward a common goal. Monitor columnist Gerry Egan brings a simple yet profound principle to consider that may be just what your business needs.
Read more...
Even in Shaky Markets, Brokers See the Silver Lining in Their Businesses
Although the economy’s taken a turn for the worse, the brokers profiled for Monitor’s Annual Funding Source edition recognize the issues at hand, yet deal up a positive view. Instead of wringing their hands, all are concentrating on the core principles that keep them in business while focusing on other ways to continue to grow.
Read more...
The Risks and Rewards of Healthcare Leasing
Weighing the Pros & Cons
If you’re thinking of entering the healthcare leasing market, you might want to talk to a doctor first. This market is not for the faint of heart. All kidding aside, any doctor will tell you that the financial rewards are not what they once were. You won’t find any easy money in the medical field.
Read more...
Treasure Hunting for Vendors
Using Geocaching to Boost Prospecting for Brokers
Geocaching — it’s a new craze among outdoor enthusiasts. But what do geocaching and prospecting have in common? You might be surprised. And it may just be the answer you need to offer a fresh perspective on prospecting, not only to yourself, but also to your co-workers and vendors.
Read more...
Leasing Brokers ‘Size Up’ Their Industry for 2007
In speaking with leasing brokers for this year’s issue, our participants brought many themes to the table. One common thread: Know your funders, know your customers, and above all, let them know you. From their perspective, that’s the only way to sew up the deal.
Read more...
Is There A Vendor Market Left For Independent Brokers?
Yes, But You’ll Need to Re-Think Your Business
The following article provides solid arguments and the payoff for brokers who try to think outside the box when working in the vendor market. Those who refresh their thinking and make changes on how they work will be able to find success even in a somewhat sluggish market.
Read more...
