Consumer financing helps businesses boost sales and increase customer satisfaction, and thorough staff training is essential for successful consumer financing adoption. When sales staff are trained correctly, they can more effectively introduce financing, guide shoppers through the process, and promote monthly payment plans to close more sales.
Businesses partnering with United Consumer Financial Services, the nation’s trusted financing partner offering comprehensive staff training, reap the benefits of end-to-end financing, thorough staff training, and a customer-centric approach that increases sales and revenue. Read on to learn more.
Why Businesses Must Prioritize Consumer Financing Training for Sales Teams
Sales staff and team members are ambassadors for your business. Properly training your staff to offer consumer financing positions your employees as trusted advisors to customers. Effective training produces helpful, confident, knowledgeable teams that shoppers can trust. And when trust is established from the first touchpoint, consumers are more likely to have a positive experience with your business and complete their purchase.
For many shoppers, consumer financing can feel overwhelming or confusing. They need reassurance that payment plans are affordable and accessible. Sales teams must help customers see that financing is a better option than a lump sum cash payment or charging the product or service to a high-interest credit card with revolving interest fees.
The sales team is often the first point of contact with potential customers and is best positioned to communicate the many benefits of consumer financing to hesitant shoppers. They must understand the financing options your business offers and how to guide shoppers through the application and, ultimately, purchase.
Key Elements of Effective Staff Training to Offer Consumer Financing
Offering sales-enablement workshops and POS demo training empowers your teams to provide consumer financing that increases sales and revenue. By offering consumer financing, businesses can
- Attract more shoppers across generational and economic demographics
- Better engage budget-conscious consumers
- Increase the affordability of products and services
- Boost sales and average order values
- Create positive brand experiences that foster long-term customer relationships
These things are critical to a business’s long-term success, and they’re possible when organizations train staff to promote consumer financing options. Below are the key elements of effective staff training that help retailers, merchants, and businesses maximize their financing programs.
Consumer Financing Platform and Product Knowledge
Employees must have a complete and practical understanding of the financing programs you offer so they’re able to present payment options to shoppers –– and then use those options to close the sale. Customers can quickly sense hesitation or uncertainty, so staff should be able to answer financing questions with confidence, including explaining
- Financing terms
- Interest rates
- Application and approval timelines
- Consumer eligibility
- Payment plans
Well-trained staff can help customers understand why (and when) financing is a good fit.
Consumer Financing Regulatory Compliance and Transparency
Consumer financing is a state and federally regulated, so accuracy and honesty are critical. Consumer financing training must instill the importance of clear, transparent communication. This includes:
- Knowing which terms and disclosures must legally be shared
- Presenting financing as a straightforward choice without burying details in jargon
- Avoiding overpromising or pressuring customers into financing
- Understanding the boundary between providing information and giving financial advice (staff should inform, not advise)
When staff operate with integrity, customers are more likely to trust both the financing option and the business.
Communication and Sales Techniques to Increase Consumer Financing Adoption
Even when employees understand your financing options, they must also know how to talk about them effectively to increase financing adoption and sales. Effective communication and sales techniques can maximize financing programs, helping retailers, merchants, and businesses boost their sales.
Training should emphasize
- Presenting financing as a benefit: Frame consumer financing as a way to make purchases more accessible, not as a last resort for customers who don’t feel like they can afford it. By making financing the go-to option for big-ticket purchases, businesses can empower shoppers to make their purchases sooner while simultaneously upgrading products or services.
- Sharing consumer financing success stories: Use relatable customer success stories to illustrate how financing has helped others. Provide specific examples of how low monthly payments can increase affordability, e.g., a $3,000 purchase broken down into affordable installments.
- Role-playing to address customer objections to financing: Consumer objections will always crop up, no matter what industry you’re in. Facilitate role-play sessions where staff can practice conversations around common objections:
- Customers’ fear of debt
- Rejection of credit cards, especially among younger shoppers
- Concern with hidden fees or fluctuating interest rates
Create objection-handling scripts that educate sales teams and guide them through addressing shoppers’ hesitancies.
- Timing the financing conversation: Introducing financing early and often is key to normalizing payment alternatives, especially for customers who might be on the fence about taking advantage of your payment program. Train salespeople to naturally integrate consumer financing options into their conversations without overwhelming shoppers with information.
Adopting Customer-Centric Mindset
Effective training for presenting consumer financing goes beyond facts and scripts; it teaches employees how to genuinely understand and respond to customer needs.
This includes:
- Active listening to shoppers’ financing needs: Paying attention to cues that financing might help a customer (e.g., hesitation at price, concern about budget).
- Empathy toward customers’ position and need for payment flexibility: Acknowledging the customer’s financial concerns and offering financing as a supportive option.
- Building long-term trust: Ensuring customers feel supported, not pressured, which encourages loyalty and repeat business.
A customer-first approach ensures financing feels like an empowerment tool rather than a sales push. Consumer financing aligns with consumer purchase behaviors. When sales teams are trained to operate with a customer-centric mindset, they are better able to
- Recognizing buying signals
- Match financing options to customer needs and budgets
- Build trust through empathy and support
Merchants of all types – retailers, home improvement businesses and service providers must establish trust with consumers to gain and maintain their customer base. Training sales teams to place high value on the customer incentivizes them to offer financing as an accessible, affordable means to purchasing big-ticket items.
Choosing UCFS for Consumer Financing Training
Proper training to promote consumer financing is essential for businesses and merchants to maximize the potential of their financing program. Partnering with the right financing firm helps ensure your teams are equipped with the strategies and knowledge to increase financing adoption, customer satisfaction, and sales.
United Consumer Financial Services, a Marmon company and division of Berkshire Hathaway, offers financing solutions to help your business execute a successful consumer financing program, beginning with comprehensive training.
We welcome every new merchant with one-on-one training via Microsoft Teams, during which we cover every aspect of our conversion-driving consumer financing solutions. You and your team are encouraged to ask questions and clarify the best way to implement and execute financing for your consumers. We provide documentation, videos, guides, and other resources for regular review, ensuring your team and new employees are confident in using our program.
Our thorough consumer financing training can be completed in under an hour, allowing you to quickly and completely learn the ins and outs of our platform and implement your consumer financing program almost immediately.
Conclusion
Your financing partner plays a significant role in training your staff to promote consumer financing options effectively, which has a direct effect on financing adoption rates, customer satisfaction, and your profits. When you partner with UCFS, you gain the backing of more than 45 years of financing expertise and the resources and talent of Berkshire Hathaway. Becoming a merchant is simple, and you can get started today. Contact our team to learn more.
