You may have your sales routine down to an art, but there’s always room for it to evolve to help you achieve your greater business goals — such as a higher close rate or increasing the size of the sales that you do close.

Studies show that offering payment options to your potential customers significantly improves your chances of getting the job, along with growing the average job size, eliminating the need to use discounting as a closing tactic, and reducing cancellations. That’s probably not news to you. But the trick is knowing when to talk about payment options. Turns out there are three times that are key to making payment options work for you.

1. In your advertising. Bring in more leads from the get-go by letting all your potential clients know that when they work with you, they can get the project they want without money being an obstacle. Include a reference to two payment options in all your marketing materials: billboards, flyers, showroom signs, on your trucks, social posts, web banners, and on your website.

   Those two choices should be a same-as-cash option and a low monthly payment loan.

   “Offering payment options helps us close about 25 percent of our work.,” said Larry Sinn, owner & CEO of 5 Star Plumbing Heating Cooling. “It’s responsible for $1 million in sales per year. We’ve been experiencing steady growth of 20 to 25 percent per year, and a big part of that is definitely due to advertising payment options.”

2. Setting the appointment. When you first set the appointment with a customer for assessing the job or for going over the estimate with the customer in advance of closing the sale, that’s the second opportunity to talk about your payment options. Start by providing a brief mention of your promotional payment options, including — you guessed it — a same-as-cash and a low monthly payment loan. You might say, “Don’t forget to ask your sales rep about our special 12-month same-as-cash promotion.” Plant those seeds to prime the customer ahead of time, so when it’s brought up again in the home, it won’t be something new.

   “There’s no way to compete in the world today without offering financing,” said Sinn. “And it’s always best to figure out upfront how the customer plans to pay for the job.”

3. At the sales appointment. It’s show time…as soon as you’re in the client’s home, open the conversation with something like, “Before we get started, I want to let you know about our easy payment options, such as our same-as-cash promotion. Now, let’s talk about your project.” This takes price out of the equation from the start, and shifts the focus to value. Now they can think about the job they really want instead of worrying about how to pay for it. Once you do get to talking about pricing, objections over price are not even an issue. At that point, remind them of the payment options you previously mentioned, and give some more details about how using an unsecured loan means there’s no collateral needed, as well as talking about no-payment periods, low interest rates, and explaining how quick and easy it is to apply using an app, with approvals provided in minutes.

   “Offering payment options has been key to the growth of our company,” said Keith Uhde, General Manager of A+Derr Heating & Cooling. “It’s helped us grow 30 percent year-over-year for the last few years. You’re missing out on a huge opportunity if you aren’t using financing.”