Have You Turned Your Company into a Can of Beans?

Today I began my marketing push for my new finance company. I did not get to see as many lenders as I would like to have. But, I spent some quality time with the ones that I did visit. I took this opportunity to listen to their feedback.

Most of them seemed astonished that I would do this. 

When I asked why they were surprised that I would sit and listen to their concerns, as a business partner. I was informed that nobody had taken the time to listen to them and that most representatives simply came in promised the moon, left a tri-fold and left. I made it a point not to introduce my product offerings at the onset of the conversation. 

I simply listened.

It's amazing the things that you can find out about your competition, if you take the time to listen to your common prospects. 

Most of the vendors that I talked to today, you most finance companies as a commodity. They do not care which finance company does or deal as long as the finance company is willing to pay participation to the vendor and that they purchased the paper as nonrecourse.

So, due to lack of relationship building, finance companies have now become a can of beans and your average truck vendor will use whichever brand of beans are on sale.

By taking the time to develop a relationship over the past 10 years, most of the vendors were eager to start sending the business. And some were even willing to invest capital in my new venture. This experience has really brought home the fact that a relationship is a business requirement.

My biggest fear is that Spotlight Financial may become a can of beans in the same fashion that my past companies have. I guess that's why I am very leery of partnership opportunities and the main reason that I will not sell this company. 

Back to the point of the blog, it's amazing what you can learn from your prospect. If you have the patience to just shut up and listen. Nobody cares about how good you think your product is. Every vendor wants to know what you can do for them and without a solid business relationship in place they will simply use you as they would a can of beans and move on to the next one when you're can is empty.

Thanks,

John