Sales aid leasing can transform businesses by making purchases easier for customers. Offering financing options reduces customers' upfront costs and allows them to spread payments over time. This helps drive sales and improves cash flow for suppliers. However, as businesses grow and change, their financing needs may also change. It's important to periodically review financing options to ensure they keep pace with the business and allow access to new markets and customer types. Conducting a gap analysis by comparing business goals to the capabilities of current financing partners can help identify any limitations and ensure financing continues fueling growth.

1. PAGE 1
Continuous transformation
Unlocking the surprising power of sales aid
leasing – and keeping it unlocked.

2. PAGE 2
INSIDE THIS
PAPER...
03. Introduction from Peter Alderson.
04. The path to growth for YO Telecom.
05. YO are not alone.
06. The different types of asset finance.
08. Finance and the cash cycle.
10. Without offering a finance option.
11. Offering a finance option.
14. Mind the gap.
16. A Final story from the flipside.
18. The result.
19. Why choose White Oak UK?

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I
n today’s highly competitive business world, two things
matter above all. First, providing the right products for your
customers. And second, making them easy to buy.
Sales aid leasing makes what you sell easy to buy. It can
transform purchase decisions: for suppliers it results in quicker
payments and smoother sales; for buyers it spreads the cost
of significant business purchases over time, reducing initial
capital outlay. It’s no wonder that leasing is growing so quickly
– by no less than 9% in the 12 months to November 2017 1
.
But success is an ongoing project. Once you’ve transformed
your purchase offering, and enjoyed the success that comes
with it, it’s natural to want to chase more success. And that’s
where you’ll need to keep an eye on your sales aid solutions,
to make sure they keep pace with your sales plans.
In this white paper, we’ll look at how sales aid leasing can
transform a business’s fortunes – including taking an in-depth
look at the success stories of two of White Oak UK’s own
partners.
We’ll also highlight some of the things you should be looking
for to help your leasing offering keep up with your business
success.
We hope you find this paper interesting and informative. If
you have any questions, or would like to contact us about
any aspect of sales aid leasing, just call us on 0333 305 4570.
In the meantime, happy leasing!
Yours sincerely,
Carl D’Ammassa
Chief Executive Officer, White Oak UK
Sales aid
leasing makes
what you
sell easy to buy
“
1
Source: Finance & Leasing Association, November 2017

4. PAGE 4
Sales aid leasing:
the path to growth for
From day one, Yo Telecom knew that they needed to offer
vendor finance.
Yo Telecom offers telecoms solutions for small and medium
businesses. But telecoms with a twist – they don’t stop at a
phone line, but offer full-scale communications solutions to
their clients, giving small businesses the communications
clout and efficiency of much larger organisations.
Entrepreneurs Ryan O’Carroll and Nathan Hanslip launched
Yo Telecom in 2013. Since then they’ve grown from 2 to 60
employees, and have over 1,000 customers nationwide.
A key ingredient in their success? Being able to offer asset
finance through the White Oak UK Partner Programme.
For many businesses, small and large, investment in telephony
is a financially significant decision, making payment flexibility
vital.
Offering no capital outlay upfront and the ability to spread
the cost of purchase, White Oak UK’s Technology Leasing
Solution is a highly competitive fixed-term finance lease
solution that makes it much easier for customers to purchase
from Yo Telecom.

5. PAGE 5
The White Oak UK Partner Programme
makes it much easier for our customers to
purchasefromus.Itgivesusacompetitive
edge and our customers welcome it.
“
Nathan Hanslip, Director, Yo Telecom

6. PAGE 6
YO are not
alone.
in the 12 months to
to November 2017
financed
using Sales Finance
in 12 months November 2017
in the 12 months to November 2017
£322017
9%
9.4
10%
billion
There was a record
level of annual asset finance in
Plant and machineryBusiness
billion
equipment finance grew
finance grew
Sales aid financing is big business in the UK – and getting
bigger. Whether they’re using Hire Purchase, Finance Leases
or Commercial Loans (see guide below), companies of all
kinds are embracing sales finance:

7. PAGE 7
A solution where you are able to rent the asset over an
agreed period of time, up to a maximum of 5 years. At the
end of the lease you have 3 options:
FINANCE
LEASE
Hire Purchase (HP) allows you to benefit from the immediate
use of the asset over an agreed term, while repaying the cost
in instalments.
HP enables you to acquire the equipment you need by
White Oak UK purchasing the equipment on your behalf. We
maintain ownership until the final payment is made and at
the end of the agreement you can choose to keep the asset
or return it to us.
HIRE
PURCHASE
We understand that many small businesses may struggle to
access the relevant finance, especially when considering
options for business development and growth. To support
these opportunities, White Oak UK’s commercial loan
is tailored to meet these requirements with terms from
3 to 12 months.
COMMERCIAL
LOAN
The different types of
asset finance.
• Purchase the asset via a third party for an agreed fee
• Return the asset to us (there will be a cost incurred to
you for this)
• Enter into a secondary lease period over an agreed
amount of time
• Equipment leasing transfers all the rights and
responsibilities of ownership to you throughout the
agreement.

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Finance and the
cash cycle.

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We’ve seen what makes finance attractive to your customers – it lets them
reduce their initial capital outlay and purchase the right products and
services more flexibly.
So offering finance options makes suppliers and resellers more attractive.
But cashflow benefits don’t just go to the purchaser – the sellers get a huge
boost too.
Sales aid leasing can knock a whopping 25 days off your cash cycle
without even trying, helping you manage working capital more effectively
and freeing up cash for other projects. Here’s how it works:

10. PAGE 10
Without offering a
finance option.
You buy equipment
AverageStockHolding=90days
AccountsPayable
Cash cycle = Avg. Stock Holding + Avg. Receivables - Account Payable
Cash Cycle = 90 days + 30 days - 30days + 90 days
CASH OUT
CASH IN
AverageReceivable
=30days
You sell equipment
You receive payment
You pay supplier
from supplier
from customer
from customer
for equipment
DAY 0
DAY 90
DAY 120
DAY 30

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Offering a finance
option.
You buy equipment
AverageStockHolding=90days
AccountsPayable
Cash cycle = Avg. Stock Holding + Avg. Receivables - Account Payable
Cash Cycle = 90 days + 5 days - 30days + 65 days
CASH OUT
CASH IN
AverageReceivable
=5days
You sell equipment
You receive payment
25 DAY REDUCTION
You pay supplier
from supplier
from customer
from customer
for equipment
DAY 0
DAY 90
DAY 95
DAY 30

12. PAGE 12
Keeping pace with
your success.
My firm is entering
new sectors and
markets.
Our average order
value is likely to
change.
We’re selling to
different kinds of
customer.
We’re going to
concentrate on our
current sweet spots.
When offering sales aid leasing can have such an impact on your business, you should
give serious thought to how your needs will transform over time – ideally before the
transformations happen. Changes in areas as diverse as new sector opportunities,
average order value or even the legal structure of your customers can require changes
to your leasing offering.
In our experience of clients who come to us from other providers, there are five main
areas to watch out for:
It’s important to liaise with your leasing partner to ensure
that their solutions can accommodate your sales plan,
without any impact to your existing sales processes.
Ideally, they should also have the capability to view
any new opportunities with the same appetite as your
existing markets.
Fluctuating order values can impact leasing by raising
the processing requirements for things like credit
proposals, underwriting, documentation, invoicing and
pay out. The risks here are underperformance on SLAs
and a slower cash cycle.
Increasing order values alter the credit underwriting
model even further and can result in the need for
a more granular assessment and potentially the
requirement for more customer information. It can also
result in underperforming SLAs, since decisions are likely
to take longer, and/or result in increased declines.
Many leasing providers have strict credit policies that
may exclude certain markets and business models – for
example, start-ups, partnerships, charities, sole traders
or corporates.
It’s likely that you already know of opportunities that
may be being missed or are not fully explored due to
restrictions with your leasing solutions.
Concentrating business in one specific sector can
potentiallyplacetheleasingprovideratriskofincreased
repayment arrears or bad debt. Ultimately, this may
result in rate increases for your clients, heightened
credit assessment processes leading to more declines
and even the possibility that funding to this sector may
be withdrawn.
“
“ “
“

13. PAGE 13
Leasing solutions are typically agreed on products that you already
regularly sell. As technology advances you may want to launch new
products, so it’s important to understand whether your leasing solution can
accommodate them.
Changes to hardware, software or other intangible aspects can affect
your leasing solution, and some leasing providers may have limitations on
the level of product intangibility of the product which in turn, may have an
impact on your leasing opportunities.
We’re extending
our range.“

14. Mind the
gap.
PAGE 14
So how should you navigate the leasing transformation of
your business?
A gap analysis is always a good place to start – comparing
your current leasing solution provider and your sales and
business goals. Here are some questions to ask:
Once you have asked your supplier the above questions, you
can identify any gaps and, if necessary, begin to speak to
alternative suppliers who can help you plug them.
• Company types and/or sectors it doesn’t
facilitate?
• Any products limitations around hardware
and intangibles that restrict opportunity?
• Understand their credit processes: are they
manual, partially or fully automated?
• Are their SLAs acceptable to you, are they
met, and would it help if they were reduced?
• Does your provider have capacity to grow with
youwithoutimpacttoservice,cashfloworsales?
Are you at risk if your provider withdraws from
the market, and is your model scalable?
Do you engage directly with an influencer to
make things happen quickly?
• Is your provider flexible? Can it deal with the
unexpected?
• Does your provider regularly help you to get
to your numbers, and view the relationship as
a team?

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This doesn’t necessarily mean switching your finance supplier
completely. You can continue to use your existing supplier for
the business you have previously been using them for.
However, you may require an alternative supplier, who is
flexible enough to meet your new plans, rather than reverting
to direct debit payments that tie up your cash flow and
increase your risk.
At White Oak UK we believe that no reseller/dealer really
requires more than two leasing solution providers on their
panel – one a competitively priced offering, and the other
an independent funder with full brokering capacity.
Why two?
Because while the provider that focuses on price is likely to be
able to cover much of your business, it is likely to have many
limitations to opportunity due to its pricing model. The second
funder can remove all opportunity limitations because it will
likely have fewer restrictions. It is likely also to offer improved
SLAs and a more personalised approach, where influence
exists to minimise missed or lost opportunities.
You may require
an alternative
supplier who is
flexible enough
to meet your new
plans.
“

16. PAGE 16
Leasing is a crucial part of your sales plan and should play a
major part in your planning.
You may well have dealt with one or two leasing providers for
many years without exploring other options. But the market is
constantly evolving, and so are the financial providers who
support it. Today you can secure a leasing solution partner
who will provide solutions to cover the whole of the market.
It makes sense to evaluate the opportunities that alternative
partners could provide to your business.
At White Oak UK we see all the time how leasing solutions
can help transform businesses – whether suppliers, resellers or
customers. (We call it ‘the flipside’ – where businesses find out
what is really possible with a modern finance solution).
We’d like to leave you with a look at one more of our partners:
the wonderful rijo42. (And since they supply coffee vending
solutions to 20,000 UK businesses, you might well be drinking
some of their coffee as you read this).
And finally, welcome to the flipside.
Conclusion: the leasing
transformation.

17. A final story from
the flipside.
Businesses now demand the perfect combination of technology, quality,
design and of course, a great cup of coffee to delight their customers at
the push of a button. As demands and tastes change, rijo42 realised that
they needed to go beyond simple convenience and supply a superior
vending solution. However, these vending solutions can amount to a large
outlay for many customers, rijo42 needed to provide a finance solution for
their clients.
PAGE 17
With machines in 20,000 UK businesses, they have an impressive and
fast-growing client base.
The Problem.

18. PAGE 18
The Solution.
rijo42joinedtheWhiteOakUKPartnerProgrammeandusedourTechnology
Leasing Solution to promote finance as an option to their customers. The
benefits of finance are simple, as Amy Marsden, New Business Manager
at rijo 42, explains:
“Not only does it give them the option to spread what can be a significant
outlay into more manageable repayments, especially for businesses
investing in multiple machines, it also makes it simpler to upgrade their
machines.”
And finance isn’t just for smaller businesses, “It’s really a myth that finance
is only suitable for small businesses”, Amy continues. “It can often be a
sensible solution for larger companies to help manage cash flow. We
certainly see a real mix of businesses opting to spread the cost.”

19. The Result.The Result.
PAGE 19
WE’VE BEEN
REALLY PLEASED
WITH THE
OPTIONS AVAILABLE
AS PART OF THE
WHITE OAK UK
PARTNER
PROGRAMME,
IN OFFERING A
SIMPLE FINANCE
SOLUTION TO
OUR CUSTOMERS,
“
rijo42 will celebrate their 30th anniversary in business next year, a milestone that they are
very proud of. With over 70 staff, they are currently installing around 30 machines a week
nationwide, demand is ever increasing and White Oak UK will continue to support them as
they continue their journey.
Amy Marsden New Business Manager

20. PAGE 20
Why choose White Oak UK?
Testimonials
Find out more about TLS, our sales aid leasing solution at
whiteoakuk.com/tls
O
ur mission is simple: We’re here to help smaller businesses get the finance they
need with as little fuss as possible.
Established in 1986, we’ve been making money work for smaller businesses for over
30 years and provided UK SMEs with £511m in funding in 2017. With over 200 employees
spanning across 5 UK offices, we are committed to ensuring you get the right finance –
every time.
That’s why White Oak UK brings money into your business, not bureaucracy.
Our Partner Programme and Technology Leasing Solution (TLS) enable you to use sales aid
leasing to maintain and grow your business margin, increase your sales by overcoming
purchasing barriers, whilst improving your cash flow by ultimately shortening your sales
cycle. TLS from White Oak UK:
• Accommodates all stages of business tenure
including new starts and non-homeowners
• Uses Faster Payment to improve your cash flow
• Offers simple rate structures providing autonomy of
sale
• Enables trust - 8 out of 10 of our customers would
recommend us to their friends
• Gives you a dedicated transaction process, support
team and account management
The White Oak UK partner programme
makes it much easier for our customers to
purchase from us, it gives us a competitive edge
and our customers welcome it.
Ryan O’Carroll, Director
We promote White Oak UK’s finance to our
customers. Not only does it give them the
option to spread what can be a significant
outlay into more manageable repayments,
especially for businesses investing in multiple
machines, it also makes it much simpler for
businesses to upgrade their machines.
Amy Marsden, New Business Manager

21. PAGE 21
“We’re very proud of our 4.9 star rating, reflecting our
commitment to service and customer satisfaction.”
CONTACT
0333 305 4570
sdrteam@whiteoakuk.com
whiteoakuk.com/tls
www.whiteoakuk.com
White Oak UK is a trading style of LDF Operations Limited (Reg No: 02029122), LDF Finance No.1 Limited (Reg No: 04893877), LDF Finance No.2 Limited (Reg No: 08822802) and
LDF Finance No.3 Limited (Reg No: 08822799), incorporated in England & Wales and having Registered Office at Dee House, St David’s Park, Ewloe, Flintshire, CH5 3XF. LDF
Ops Limited (Reg No: SC198910), incorporated in Scotland and having its Registered Office at Sixth Floor, 58 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 7DA. Authorised and regulated by
the Financial Conduct Authority for credit-related regulated activities (including hiring).