In an age when middlemen are coming under more and more under
pressure from companies looking to sell direct, vehicle leasing
brokers continue to buck the trend. Indeed, for the SME sector,
brokers are increasingly welcomed as a useful sales channel that
can add real value. Big organisations are often unwilling to focus
on small leads that could only make a small contribution to their
massive sales targets.
In truth, the broker approach makes them the ideal sounding post
for the hard-pressed director of a small or medium-sized company
looking for a cost-effective way of acquiring new vehicles. Few
SMEs have either the need or resource for a full time finance
‘guru’ in-house, so, with no ties to the original provider, the
broker can frequently offer business users a far more rounded view
– both of the products on offer and the benefits of these to the
individual customer.
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Apart from their knowledge of the products available across the
country at any time, they also add an all-important layer of local
knowledge. This can involve the local markets and trading
conditions, the customers themselves and, often, the types of
vehicles they run. With current conditions in the finance markets
so volatile, this type of ‘guiding hand’ can be a highly valuable
asset to any business – almost regardless of size.
Right now, the UK vehicle leasing broker market is enjoying a
generally solid market place in which to operate. There are
currently around 1.25m enterprises that employ staff and over 95
per cent of these employ fewer than 50 people – the prime SME
heartland. Take out the percentage of those that routinely purchase
outright and there are still well over half a million SMEs to
cover. That isn’t the whole story either, for, using the same
statistical patterns there are around another 1.5m enterprises with
just a single director/proprietor/manager.
Brokers are, by their very nature, entrepreneurial themselves,
so understanding the SME business base is a simple transition for
most. Add their often encyclopaedic knowledge of the supply sources
for both vehicles and lease options, and you have the potential for
‘a marriage made in heaven’ – a committed and commercially
‘intelligent’ broker industry and an SME community ever-keener to
find the right finance options for the future.
The author is director-general of the BVRLA
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By GlobalData Motor Finance Issue: 43 – May 08
by John Lewis , Director general
Published for the web: May 23 08 12:18
Last Updated: May 23 08 15:7
