New Technology 

You’re probably aware of the significant drop in consumer spending in the last 30 months along with the changes in consumer behavior in the United States. The rules and tools of selling at the kitchen table have changed. Businesses that don’t adapt to the new climate and start selling to their customers in the way that places high value on their customer’s economic situation based on macroeconomic conditions are doomed to fail. It’s time to evolve or die.
When you implement the technology to finally sell to the 58% (according to CNN) of Americans without enough credit or cash to make a $500 purchase today, you change the game in your favor and you can easily beat any competitor without the same Reverse Layaway Technology. First mover advantage in a given market is powerful.
American consumers absolutely hate debt and credit card usage is down 25% year over year from 2007-2008 (Source: Javelin, “Credit Card Spending Declines” study, March 2009). Americans are watching what they spend and they are far more likely to pay cash or use a debit card and if not given the proper flexibility, only the most well-to-to prospects will do business with you. That’s all well and good when times are flush, but in a market where competition means something and pricing can mean the difference between earning your customer’s business or going out of business, you need every advantage you can muster.
This article is going to be focused on the in-home salesperson. It doesn’t really matter what you sell: roofing, siding, windows, plumbing, flooring, HVAC, landscaping, concrete/blacktop, decks, skylights, or any number of home products and services–you can sell more fast with Reverse Layaway. Reverse Layaway is perfect for the automotive, medical, dental, furniture, wheel & tire, plastic surgeon, and any specialty retail or B2C business that sells a product for $500-$5000, but this article is about the in-home salesperson selling a product or service for the home.
As you are probably already aware, things are tough out there for people with unemployment being where it is and many still feeling the heat from the real estate bubble–there’s a million+ people being foreclosed on this year. Credit isn’t like it used to be. It is not as useful as it once was and some banking experts predict that only 20% of consumers that have credit have good enough credit to be approved by most banks in 2010.
With Reverse Layaway there’s no credit check. Reverse Layaway technology examines a consumer’s check-writing history among numerous other factors at the point of sale to determine approvals. Reverse Layaway is approving 92% of applicants on average–far higher than any bank or credit card program.
The main reason businesses love Reverse Layaway is: once a customer is approved, the total amount of the purchase is guaranteed to be deposited in the merchant’s account electronically. There’s no trip to to the bank with Reverse Layaway technology.
In order to understand the power of Reverse Layaway, here are a few of the program parameters you need to know before we illustrate an example closing scenario. Reverse Layaway requires the customer to have a job, an ID, and a checking account. The customer must put at least 15% down and sign a simple 1-page agreement outlining their repayment schedule. It’s so simple a teenage clerk can do this. Once they are run through the system and you are given an approval, you simply keep a copy of the customers documents in a file while their payments are ongoing, then shred it.
For illustration purposes, we are going to use a furnace salesperson as an example, but it could be any of the above trades outlined above, and the same concepts of features/benefits/efficiencies over time apply almost universally: the more you spend on a furnace/water heater/windows/insulation/etc, the more it should save you over time due to higher efficiency, so a higher up-front cost can be justified in lower ongoing maintenance/operating or energy costs. If you’re in sales, you know what I mean.
Here’s how to upsell with Reverse Layaway technology.
The scenario: Mr & Mrs Homeowner have an old, old furnace and need a replacement at some point in the near future and they have received a number of bids and have an idea of what it costs now and are very price sensitive. Price will play a big part of their decision but they want to sell at some point in the next 5 years too (but aren’t because of the market being down), so resale value is a point they have brought up. This is a good situation if you have Reverse Layaway implemented. Here’s how it goes down:
Salesperson: ” So it’s obvious we need to spend some money to get this problem fixed, right?”
Homeowner: “Yep.”
Salesperson: “The …