#SalesStrategies: Payment plans with upgrade paths lead to recurring pipeline

In our #SalesStrategies series, we’re exploring the real challenges B2B sales leaders face and sharing sales strategies that can help solve them.

As a Program Manager on our Healthcare Team, I work closely with B2B sales professionals in the health and medical field. It’s my job to know their market landscape, products, buyers and sales cycles inside and out—they’re my partners. I strive to learn about my partners’ business goals and challenges—and offer sales and financing strategies to help them grow.

Market challenges

As businesses tighten their budgets and bring in additional “decision makers” to account for a more volatile macro-economic environment, my partners are increasingly seeing much longer sales cycles from their buyers. That means businesses are holding onto older equipment and technology longer. Instead of buying new equipment every 3-5 years, they may buy every 5-7 years.

To be more specific, in the medical field, hospitals and outpatient centers may not be gaining access to the latest equipment and technology. However, patients are doing their homework and making healthcare provider decisions based on who offers the most advanced technologies.

At the same time, another trend I’m seeing is the shift from ownership to usage. In many cases, healthcare and medical buyers no longer want to own their equipment due to the rapid evolution of technology. And that is compounded by their challenges to afford the latest technology.

Overcoming challenges

Flexible payment options and leasing can offer a more affordable solution for buyers with tighter budgets, seeking access to state-of-the-art equipment and technology without the burdens of ownership. For sales teams, leasing can help strengthen your sales strategies when bringing a new product to market and shorten future sales cycles.

I recently worked with a partner on their launch of new medical equipment. The sales strategy consisted of two key elements:

1. First, the partner created an extended warranty to help set them apart from their competitors and put their customers’ minds at ease in adopting new equipment.
2. Second, to help their customers afford the new equipment, we offered a low-payment agreement (lease) with an equipment upgrade option at the end of term, aligned with the warranty.

Sales impact

Within 6 months of implementing this new sales strategy, we saw proposals increase more than 40% for the payment agreement with upgrade and extended warranty’ offer.

This offer enabled buyers to obtain new equipment under warranty, with an affordable payment, and an easy way to upgrade to the latest equipment at the end of the warranty.

This type of competitive offer can lead to faster sales, more dependable pipelines, and reduces the opportunity for a competitor to take your customer’s future business.

If you have a similar business challenge, let’s solve it together. You can connect with me here.

For buyers that don’t want to own:

Consider a Fair Market Value (FMV) Offer
An FMV agreement is an usage-based approach where the customer defers the decision on equipment ownership until end of term, which lowers their monthly payments over the life of the lease. At the end of the term, they can decide to upgrade, purchase the equipment at the fair market price, extend beyond original term, or return the equipment. Learn More