Knowing Your Channel In Order To Generate Business
Within equipment finance, lenders/lessors use various channels to generate business. When looking for a position within the equipment finance industry, understanding channel fit is critical.
This edition of Talent+ will focus on the direct bank channel and provide our opinion on the equipment finance go-to-market strategy of banks and the type of skill sets required for sales roles in this channel.
We have summarized three approaches commonly found within the bank channel:
1. Product Partner
In this scenario, equipment finance is viewed as a product by the bank (usually a larger bank) and treated like other products offered. Equipment finance salespeople within these banks are a product partner and spend most of their time working with commercial bankers to provide leases and loans to their clients.
These roles tend to exist in markets where the bank has a strong commercial presence and — likely —branch locations.
Sales skill set required:
Significant experience in equipment finance. The candidate should be comfortable working with larger clients and have a demonstrated ability to structure/tailor transactions to meet the needs of the client while also having a solid credit background to understand complex credits.
Strong interpersonal/relationship management skills. These are a requirement for working with many internal and external clients.
New business development/prospecting. Most business in these roles tends to come from internal referrals from bankers. To the extent the salesperson has performance goals for self- generated business, he/she must be adept at new business development.
2. Hybrid
There are similarities to the product partner, but the equipment finance salesperson clearly has significant performance goals for self- generated business. The hybrid salesperson is a combination of a product partner, who receives internal referrals from bankers, and a hunter, who must generate business externally through his/her own efforts. This salesperson may also provide introductions for commercial banker colleagues to facilitate discussions about a customer’s banking needs beyond equipment finance.
These roles tend to be with significant regional or multi-regional banks. The salesperson may cover geography where the bank has a commercial presence, but may also cover areas where the bank has a limited commercial presence.
Sales skill set required:
Significant experience in equipment finance. This would include working with mid-size and larger clients, a demonstrated ability to structure/tailor transactions to meet the needs of the client while also having a solid credit background to understand complex credits.
Solid interpersonal/relationship management skills. This person works with both internal and external clients.
New business development/prospecting. While some business in these roles comes from bankers, this person needs a combination of strong new business development skills and existing relationships to be successful.
3. Out of Footprint
In these roles, the salesperson is simply representing a bank (usually smaller to mid-size) and provides equipment finance to commercial clients. These tend to be pure hunter roles in areas where the bank does not have a commercial presence. The salesperson will need to be stronger in new business development/prospecting, have existing relationships and be very self-initiated to be successful.
Other skill sets are like those shown above but with more emphasis on strong credit knowledge as the clients they would be bringing in would likely be new to the bank. This person would need to establish strong credibility with the underwriting/credit and risk management functions to facilitate the approval of transactions.
I hope you have found this edition of Talent+ to be interesting and informative. We plan on covering additional channels in future editions of Talent+.