How we make it easy for your customers to lease your products

We’ve posted before about why suppliers should partner with Utility Rentals, but in this blog we’re going to show you just how easy it is for your customers to sign up to our compliant leasing agreements – and what you and they stand to gain.

Schools and the cashflow issue

If you sell products and equipment to schools, you’ll be very familiar with the cashflow issues that plague this sector. Capital budgets are tight, and often schools just can’t come up with the money to pay for equipment they need and want.

Leasing can make that problem go away – and we’ve spent nearly 40 years helping schools finance everything from sewing machines and dishwashers to iPads and interactive screens.

Instead of demanding all of the money upfront, we help schools spread the cost of their equipment over its useful life. Often, this helps them order in larger volumes than they might have done otherwise.

Take a look at this example showing how a school with nine classrooms could obtain a screen for every room via leasing, despite only having the capital budget to buy three screens per year:

So, not only does the school benefit from getting all the equipment they need straightaway, you as the supplier also benefit from a higher sales volume.

A simple 7-step process

There are seven easy steps for you and your customer to follow in order to sell your equipment to schools via a compliant lease:

Step One: You issue a quote

Most new suppliers come to us because they’ve invested time and resources scoping out a school’s requirement and issuing a quote, but they’re struggling to close the deal. The reason is almost always a cashflow problem on the school’s end. They want the equipment, but they can’t work out how to stretch their limited capital budgets to pay for it.

That’s where we come in. We’ll help you turn your quote into an affordable finance proposal for the school, with the financial responsibility of paying your invoices transferring to us. The school would then enter into a contract with us to lease the equipment (more on that later!).

If you supply IT equipment, you can register as a supplier through our sister company Classroom as a Service (ClaaS). 

All other equipment types are handled directly by us at Utility Rentals, so please send us the quote you sent to your customer and we will put together a lease proposal for you.

Step Two: We turn your quote into a leasing proposal

This is where the magic happens! Using our proprietary quoting tool, you can transform your quote into a fully costed leasing proposal that is emailed to your customer. The best part? This only takes about 30 seconds!

There’s even a built-in response form to make it easy for the school to accept the proposal. 

Step Three: The school accepts the proposal

Using the built-in response form, the school can instantly say yes to the leasing proposal. There aren’t any hoops for them to jump through, because all UK state schools are automatically pre-approved for our finance.  

Also, as a direct funder, we don’t need to liaise with any third parties to set up and structure our leasing agreements: we simply deal directly with you and the school.

Step Four: The school enters into a leasing agreement with us

At this stage, the school becomes a customer of Utility Rentals. As specialists in the sector, we understand how schools operate, and we don’t impose cumbersome and bureaucratic steps to provide them with finance. We’re aware that it’s our job to speed up your sales, not slow them down by running ID checks and other unnecessary measures.

Instead, we present our busy headteachers and business managers with a short and straightforward leasing agreement which they can sign electronically.

Step Five: You supply the equipment

With all paperwork and finance taken care of, we will place and order with you on the school’s behalf. 

You will then supply/ install the product(s), just like you would if the school were paying you directly. 

We typically only work with established suppliers. Start-ups come and go, but we need to know you’ll be around if our schools have any issues with, or questions about, your products.

And, just as our track record and reputation are central to our business, we’ll look for evidence of the same in your business.

We also ask that you are able to commit to a leasing arrangement of up to 5 years, depending on the product.

Step Six: Acceptance certificate signed

We’ll issue the school with a Delivery & Acceptance Certificate to sign on the day of delivery/install and once that is signed, the project is accepted and considered to be signed off.

This marks the beginning of the rental term for the customer, and we send them their first invoice.

Step Seven: We pay your invoice

We will pay your invoice within 72 hours of project sign-off – guaranteed!

If that sounds like a process that would appeal to your cash-strapped school customers, we’d love to talk! To explore opportunities for getting your equipment into schools, contact our expert team today.

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• Leasing school equipment

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