tracking your client’s asset finance needs

As a professional finance broker, have you ever wondered what it would be like if you had a crystal ball?

Well, we both know that’s not reality, but what if you could reliably predict when a client is going to have a finance need? What if you could know when they will need finance before they do?

Knowing your client is an essential part of being a broker. Interpreting the data and collecting the right data which can benefit both your business and theirs is literally a super-power you can’t afford not to possess. One valuable set of information you should be tracking is relevant dates.

9 tips to know when your clients will need finance before they do.

depreciation schedules

Various assets will be depreciated over various timeframes. This is something you can discuss with your client and/or with their accountant. You can start by documenting this information as well as the relevant dates aligned with when the accountant would be recommending your customer to upgrade the asset. Search for residual value balloon payments as a key milestone to contact your client base.

age of vehicles

This is an important question to document especially when customers purchase used vehicles, equipment, and machinery. Work out, or find out, what the replacement life of the asset is, and map it into your calendar and follow-up protocol. They will likely have finance needs.

replacement or upgrade timeframes

As a slight variation of the above questions, understand and map out when the customer tends to replace or upgrade each asset. This may be different to the depreciable life and the replacement life of the assets.

refinance habits

Different loans have different terms. For example, a 2 year fixed home loan is going to be refinanced or restructured at or before the 2 year mark. Also, typically, most homeowners refinance every 2 – 4 years (it can vary). Know and map these dates from your discussions with your client and your knowledge of human habits.

business growth indicators

Take a keen interest in the performance of your business clients. There are finance opportunities when businesses are both growing or contracting. You need to be aware of the performance indicators to know when your clients will likely need finance.

range of finance products your clients need or will need

Use their financials to understand the lay of the land in terms of assets and liabilities. With your product knowledge, you can now map out a range of finance products the client is, might, or should be using to meet their goals, and solve their problems. Don’t forget to diagnose their problem before you prescribe finance products or solutions.

client goals/timeframes

The most important questions you can ask in any client appointment is about their goals and needs. Map out their long-term, medium-term, and short-term goals. Overlay this into your calendar. This can also include future job or business plans. Different goals will have different finance needs and timeframes you should track.

Nurture & follow-up system

Every great broker has a nurturing system to follow up and stay in regular communication with your clients. Using the above data, you can align relevant follow up content to these mapped out dates, amongst your nurture sequencing.

Market conditions and personal circumstances

Rising or falling interest rates, rising housing prices can all influence clients to take action with their financing plans. You should also keep an eye on their personal circumstances – many personal events, positive or negative can also influence your clients’ finance timeframes. For example, a birth, death, change of job, and many other factors can change a clients plans in a heartbeat.

Use the above information to build a solid asset finance roadmap to ensure you know exactly when you need to be in communication to provide asset finance solutions when your client will most need them.

If it’s time for you or your clients to purchase a new business vehicle, or upgrade your equipment or machinery, get in touch with one of our friendly and helpful BDMs to make this process easy and fast. Thornmoney can assist you with asset finance solutions or invoice finance facilities for loans of between $10,000 to $2,000,000