Conversations around credit and finance can be scary.
But with Ingram Micro’s financial solutions process, partners have nothing to fear.
In this episode of B2B Tech Talk, Keri Roberts sits down with
Heather Kopp, a financial solutions executive at
Ingram Micro, and
Matthew Bookspan, the CEO of
Blacktip, a business and technology consulting firm to chat about what it’s like to talk financial solutions with Ingram Micro.
They also discuss:
- How the financial team helps onboard partners into the SMB Alliance
- What initial conversation and training is like with the Ingram Micro financial team
- How Microsoft Surface as a service benefits partners and customers
- Where technology is headed
Credit and finance: A daunting conversation
When you go to make a big purchase, a lot of times you get that knot in your stomach … you know, the one that comes from questions like, “Can I really afford this? Will I be approved?”
Ingram Micro’s partners often get that feeling too. They want to make sure they can support their clients’ needs, and financing can be a daunting conversation if they don’t know where to start.
In the past, partners may have thought of credit as a potential show stopper to getting the deal done. But over the last 5 years, Ingram Micro has worked to change that image with the various offers that help get our partners to “yes” for their clients.
How the SMB Alliance helps Ingram Micro partners
With an Ingram Micro SMB Alliance membership, partners gain access to valuable benefits and business-building resources they can't find anywhere else.
The Ingram Micro financial/credit team helps give partners peace of mind by clarifying what our capabilities are from a resource perspective and diving deep into financial solutions. We also train partners on how to have better conversations with their clients. By helping our partners recognize different ways to deliver technology solutions, we give them a way to wrap solutions into a neat financial package that benefits both the partner and their customers.
How Surface as a service benefits partners and their clients
Another way Ingram Micro focuses on getting partners what they need for success is through as-a-service programs like Microsoft Surface as a service.
Surface as a service with Ingram Micro gives partners a flexible way to pay for and acquire the latest hardware at a manageable cost while remaining flexible. The end client will pay less over the term, and the program provides a predictable refresh and gives partners a way to enhance existing service offerings. Ingram Micro makes the process easy; there’s little friction, and both parties are able to get solutions quickly. Everybody wins: partners are rewarded financially, and clients are rewarded from a productivity standpoint.
New offerings for 2020
Through the end of the year, Ingram Micro is offering a 90-day payment deferral option on all of our leasing programs, which helps our partners bring in business, and gives them the ability to get technology they need immediately.
We’re also working closely with HP, Microsoft, Dell, Apple and Lenovo to offer less than 0% financing on their leading laptop models so clients can get the laptops they need, which have become more imperative in the work-from-home and remote learning environments.
Where is technology headed?
In the long term, people will keep going more mobile. Because mobility is significant to business continuity, Ingram Micro and partners need to continue to work to enable clients to truly be able to work from anywhere and have all the needed capabilities with them wherever they are.
Alongside the increasing need for mobility, artificial intelligence platforms will continue to grow and become more of a staple in businesses, especially to help manage and interpret larger and larger amounts of data.