You think about it. You talk about. Heck, you even believe it. Sales is the art of conveying your product or service's benefits, not its features, and certainly not its cost.

Communicating product benefits is what you do all day long. Lower payments mean more monthly income; wider credit guidelines mean a higher chance of your customers getting the equipment they need; leases often mean a nice tax deduction.

You sell benefits - until it comes to your lease proposal.

Your lease proposal has your logo, lessee's info, equipment description, amount due up front and amount due each month. Where did those benefits go? This is the proposal - the piece of paper your potential customer is going to stare at, share with his/her advisors, send to his accountant, etc. This may be the most important document in the whole deal, which is to say this is the most import single piece of communication in the sales process.

Instead of sending a lease proposal (or financing proposal), consider sending a business proposal. Include all that juicy background information you gathered, like how much the customer is going to gross each month and his associated costs. Then put in the monthly payment and calculate the monthly income. Now you are back to selling benefits - the monthly income. Try the process again with the up-front amount. Start with the customer's current available capital, include your up front requirement, and then the arithmetic shows how much capital you have saved him/her. Repeat the process with the customer's annual tax burden and the tax advantages you can offer (be sure to work with a tax professional).

Of course you'll want to use asterisks, fine print and what-not to avoid the appearance of guaranteeing anything you can't guarantee, like the gross income or non-lease expenses.

Now when your customer shows the business proposal to his/her spouse, business partner, vendor or whoever, he/she is presenting net income, retained capital and tax advantages - the benefits. And, the business proposal approach should help you in competing with traditional lenders, as maximizing monthly net income, retention of capital and tax advantages are some of leasing's biggest selling points.