He’s bringing sexy back….financing sexiness that is.
This week, Dos Marcos hosts Vice President of Sales for Koalafi (pronounced like “qualify”), Craig Leffew. Koalifi is a company set on delivering simple financing options that are not only innovating, but offer a stress free experience for both the retailer and the consumer.
In this episode, they discuss the origin of the Koalifi name and its spelling (it’s the most epic dad joke that lives on), their “never say no” motto and how every customer who wants furniture, should be able to get furniture; the biggest mistakes retailers make (hint: offering too many options and not discussing financing early and often throughout a transaction) and the footprint they are leaving in the industry.
Plus, if you want to see what all the interest is about, visit Koalafi at the following link and they are going to give you $50 to keep just for taking a meeting. They value your time and are willing to pay you for it!
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Mark Kinsley
I would like to make an argument that financing is a sexy topic. And it’s gonna be fun financing can be fun, especially when you have Craig left you with how do you pronounce the name of your business Craig qualified Quinn How did you say it to me the first time they
Mark Quinn
read it. Kinsley
actually more suited to me.
Mark Quinn
Sorry, is the Craig he’s mercy. We said it was marsupial? It’s like Winnie the Pooh. Yeah. Yeah. So Kinsey, are you asking me how I pronounced it the
Mark Kinsley
very first time that you said the name of the business to me? How did you pronounce it? It was co lafay.
Mark Quinn
I don’t even think I remember her. Yeah.
Mark Kinsley
Like, what does this mean? Cusco. lafay.
Mark Quinn
Cool. You know, I have to tell you, Craig, in all due respect to your company, I did not understand it. And I’m like, wait, Koba it and then they said, No, it’s called wala phi, you know, like the marsupial? And I said, Oh, I get that is, and I thought that’s the dumbest thing ever. And then after I thought about it for a while, I’m like, that is so freaking clever. Because it’s a play on words. And I’m assuming you’re gonna have a really cute fun koala, like, marsupial mascot at some point.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s what our retailers are clamouring for it’s to get that quality out of the gate. But we’re going through some marketing initiatives right now to do that. But yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s funny how it actually started, we were going through a big rebrand, you know, we used to be West creek for the last five or six years. And our CEO Jean Burke, had made a joke about it. He’s like, Well, if they qualify for it, and you know, it just kind of stuck from there. And so he gets credit to this day. You know, similar to the gecko with Geico and so on and so forth.
Mark Kinsley
Well, hey, Jean, nice job on the on the pond. Bad joke that actually stuck. Because it is, you know, I think about financing and I’m like, it’s a very like, rigid, sweaty palms moment for people. But a koala is the softest, most cuddly, most wonderful, calming, soothing animal I think I’ve ever seen. And so and then the play on words is really cool. And so hey, we’re super excited to have Craig with koala phi on the show today to talk about something that just I can’t believe it hasn’t ever come across this show in any meaningful way. And it’s something that every retailer across the board does pretty much every day, which is some sort of financing. So people can walk away with adjustable beds and complete living room sets and all the things they need not have to pay for it all at once. And so it’s a huge part of our industry. So Craig, you’re the VP of sales with qualify, and I got to start right here. What what is the biggest mistake or what are the biggest mistakes? Business Make when offering financing?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, I mean, I think I think there’s a couple things I think the main thing is, is that they don’t bring it up early and often. Many times, you know, we want to get that customer qualified, and figure out what their budget is and figure out what they’re spending that way. You don’t you don’t necessarily waste time showing them stuff that’s too expensive. Or, you know, you don’t you don’t you don’t undersell yourself, right? You don’t, you know, find out they’re approved for five grand, and you only sell them 2000. Figure out that there’s more opportunity there. So we like to recommend the businesses talk about it early. And often. You know, whether it’s on the website, and then you know, right there when the when the RSA is talking to the customer when they come through the door. And I think, you know, there’s some, there’s some caveats in there. But a lot of a lot of companies offer too many options, or they don’t offer enough. Enough. Right. So there’s a fine line there as far as what the what the right mixture is. And then, you know, unfortunately, some of our inhibitors are salespeople who don’t necessarily understand it, oh, are able to speak it, speak to the customer about it and tell them what it’s all about.
Mark Kinsley
We talk a lot about training, when it comes to product knowledge and sales process. Probably not as much conversation around training when it comes to financing everything from when and how to introduce it in a way that dovetails nicely or merges with our selling process. Do you have to go in and do a lot of sales training for RSA? So they understand how to use it, how to talk about it, just the dynamics there?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, yeah, I mean, especially in the least own space, we’re trying to reduce the, the, the stigma around it, or how it was taboo maybe 10 years ago, how it’s not taboo anymore. I mean, we, one of the cool things that we do is we sit down, we want to be strategic partners with, with our retailers, we want to make sure that we’re emphasising their training message, but also, you know, making it easier for that RSA to transition, you know, into financing and the different types of financing and see how that relates to the end consumer. Whether it allows them to throw an adjustable base on there. Either way, I think you guys know, like, when you finance tickets, they’re almost twice as much. Right? So average tickets around 1500 bucks. If they use financing, it’s around 3000.
Mark Kinsley
Wow, boom, you want to make more money? offer financing?
Mark Quinn
Yeah, bigger tickets more private. Craig. i So one of the things when I was talking to you guys, that just blew me away. And I hadn’t really thought of it this way. And Kinsey, you’re right? That the fact that this hasn’t come across our path in a meaningful way in the past is surprising as it is now we’re talking about it’s such a big part of, you know, a retailer’s business. But Craig, when a consumer comes in, I call it that moment of truth. So they’re there at the desk, and the retail salesperson has been working with them to your point, if they don’t handle it up front, then you’re left to dealing with this app that, you know, moment of truth where you’re left to pay for this stuff. But when they when they submit an application that consumer does to try to get approved that retail salesperson has, in most cases, they have to look at the consumer and go, Okay, you are, this is how I see you as a credit opportunity, either you’re high risk, or, you know, I think you’re gonna be able to qualify for top tier financing. Either way, that retail salesperson has to judge that consumer and then and then put an application in for the finance vehicle that best suits what they think the, you know, the pro the the investor profile is on that on that consumer. The problem is if they get it wrong, then the consumer gets rejected. It’s embarrassing, it’s an issue, there’s a negative thing to that, and then you get to go back in and they get dinged on their credit, right for the application, then they have to go back and you guys have to find another vehicle for them. The cool thing about what you guys are doing is that you’re you’re able to say to the retail sales associate, hey, we got you one application, one process, no matter what the the risk or the end of the finance profile is for that consumer, we’re going to cover it, there’s never going to be a no answer. Did I paraphrase that correctly? Yeah,
Craig Leffew
yeah. I mean, there might be a no at the end, but it’s a very small percentage of the population. So right. You were basically basically taking the guesswork out of financing through frictionless application, so we can approve for both loans and leases in our application. And to your point, you know, you deal with one, one rep from our company, one customer service. One, you know, one, one dealer customer service, you know, so it’s, it’s, it’s really efficient, it’s really seamless, and really helps lead to more conversions.
Mark Quinn
So just one follow up question on that. So from the reach Tell sales associates perspective, Craig, I know and we want to get into your background. I know you’ve had time in this industry, you’ve been in it for a long, long time. But can you paraphrase for Mark? And I? Like how does the RSA normally look at this part of the sale? Where they, they they have to go in and get their guests are their consumer financing? How did they look at that? And then, based on that perception, talk about how qualify kind of eases some of that stress or pain?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, I think they look at it as a means to an end, right. I think the good ones are talking about it early and often. But most of the time, you know, depending on the the guests or the customer experience, they’re taking back to a desk. They’re they’re made to fill out a paper credit application, they take a behind the desk, they input a bunch of information, they either get an approval or denial. And you know that the the RSA is essentially waiting on pins and needles at that point to figure out what’s going on with their customer. And so the way that we relieve a lot of that is to put everything into one application.
Mark Kinsley
I love this because Quinn and I talk all the time, if you’re a retailer, and you can, number one, reduce friction, you’re gonna win. But there’s also this idea of winning or losing in the transitions. And I’ll tell you, one of the biggest, most clunky, most fearful, sweaty palms transitions that can happen is that moment that you’re talking about whenever the consumer is waiting, and the RSA is waiting, hopeful that this consumer is going to get approved for the financing, that’s going to lead to that sale. And potentially, if they did an introduction of financing early in the process, maybe even more of the sale. So bigger tickets, but I tell you, if you can figure out how to reduce friction, in all of these transition points, you are going to win with consumers. And that’s what they expect these days. And I I just love hearing you describe this, Greg? Because it’s like, I remember like, you know, back in the day, like the paper application and waiting and punching into the computer, people were like, great, what do I do with my hands? Where do I sit? You know, am I am I going to be a pariah on the other side of this because I have terrible credit. But but now you have just like this easy, like, punch it in, everything flows through. And I think I heard you say at one point, like 92% approval ratings, so better approvals, bigger amounts, all that stuff. Man, if there’s not a horrible feeling that people have, that can be relieved from improving that experience. This is one of them.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’re trying to make it as seamless and as frictionless as possible, right? And the more that you can do that, the more conversions you’re going to get. And ultimately, the higher average ticket because you’re using financing.
Mark Kinsley
Craig left view is with us. He’s the VP of sales would qualify. All right. Take us into your background. Tell us about the real Craig.
Craig Leffew
Yeah. So I started 2007 With Kingstown. I was there a couple years, worked up in New York City on the sleepies account and then transitioned into TempurPedic. Worked for TempurPedic for six and a half years. During that time we acquired Seeley which is now temper Seeley. And in 2016 I went to work for West Creek which is now qualified so roughly 15 years in the industry completely love it and excited about about where we’re headed. So Craig Kinsey, here’s
Mark Kinsley
a question. Where is the industry headed? You said you’re excited about where we’re headed. He’s talking about qualifier the industry I mean, I love it. If you can look into the crystal ball.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, no qualifier in general. But also, you know, the furniture industry, I mean to think I was actually going through, I do listen to the DOS Margot’s podcast. And, and I feel like every time there’s more talk about how like, this industry is like an old old boys club. But I feel like we’re breaking that stigma every day, right? So I’m excited about where it’s going.
Mark Kinsley
When you talk about love that love that to
Mark Quinn
create, so we talked about, so your I mean, how beneficial by the way, if you’re with sleepies back in the day on the east coast with air, you cut your teeth on a tough account. I know that was the that was a hotbed for a long time. And those guys were difficult to work with. But you you got a good education.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we we actually worked for Kingstown. So they have the the I don’t know that system, right. Yep. See? Yeah, that was that was really interesting, but I did cut my teeth.
Mark Quinn
Well, it helps that you know, the business right. You’ve been on you’ve been on that on a different side of it. So I know that’s very helpful when it comes to your conversations with retailers, but so we talked about the the cool part of qualifying in terms of being able to come in, you want to give us a little bit of how the sausage is made on how is qualified able to do what you’re doing, versus what the competitors doing. Can you explain that to this audience so that they might have a little bit more comfort in terms of okay, got it? And yes, we could use that. Yeah,
Craig Leffew
yeah. I mean, I’ll, I’ll do a humble brag here. I mean, I think we’re the only company that’s been able to do that, because of the talent that we have. On our executive team. When you look at Rob Finnegan, who’s our CEO, you know, he, he was former head of Decision Sciences to Capital One, he’s got credit policies for RBC for Bank of America for Pay Pal for, you know, a lot of the really, really big banks and big companies. And so when he had this vision, roughly 18 to 24 months ago, you kind of sit back and you think, Hey, why is nobody done this before? And I think it’s because, you know, he’s one of the top five credit minds in the world, right? Arguably. So, you know, that’s when we started taking on this task, like, Hey, this is possible, hey, there is a need here. And so we started to put together things right, so we start, we had to go get a charter, if you want to offer loans, let me had to start going through that arduous process of, you know, putting, putting that product together, putting our systems in place, you know, testing applications, so there was a big effort between our executive team between TAC between product and then ultimately with sales, you know, to go out and to be able to sell it right, and to be able to say, hey, this, this works, it’s, it’s efficient, it’s going to help make the retailer more money, it’s going to lead to more sales, so on and so forth. So it’s now there’s, there’s a lot more behind that, and our product is getting better every day. But I think that’s kind of where were started. Because there’s obviously waterfall companies out there, right. And we are integrated with with a lot of them, right. But I think, you know, there’s room for improvement as far as how, you know, how the customer is taken through the process. And I think we solve that.
Mark Kinsley
Craig, I love whenever you kind of get behind the scenes, just like you did, and help people understand what goes into this. I mean, because so often, you know, you look at financing options, and you’re just like, Okay, does it work? Am I gonna get more people approved, or the amounts gonna be high enough, but you have real intention behind the business, and you have a team of incredibly talented people that are pulling this together, you talk about your products getting better, you’re out in the wild, you’re out in the world currently qualify is in 10,000, plus, furniture, mattress, retail locations. So it’s not like, the industry hasn’t adopted this. And still yet, there are a lot of people out there that are searching for good, frictionless solutions. What do you want to say to them?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, so when I, when I came to the company in 2016, I think we had roughly 45 doors. And, you know, obviously seen explosive growth going to 10,000, the FMA space, and then probably another five 6000 in the tire space. You know, I think it’s, we provide the best holistic option, right. And so when you look at other providers, they might do something a little bit better than than what we do right in one in one silo. But nobody does everything that we do, meaning we have a 24/7 365 direct customer service, we have 12 and 24 month terms, we go up to $7,500 on the lease product 10,000 on the on the loan product, we will report to TransUnion on a monthly basis, right to help build that customer’s credit, which is something that that a lot of customers are looking for. And then we have an open to buy, which is key critical, as you guys know, with with CAC being where it is, you know, everybody wants to go out and get new customers, right, but what are we doing to take care of the customers that we know like qualify and also like the retailer, right? So we’re focused, hyper focused on on driving those customers back through the retailer’s doors and aligning with them on on promotional events, you know, their their memorial days.
Mark Quinn
Craig, you mentioned you mentioned waterfall can you take Mark and I threw the dummies and the dummies on this call Mark and I can you take us through the difference because is so you mentioned waterfall is qualify a waterfall? Is it a water Fall solution or if not, how is it? For
Mark Kinsley
anybody who doesn’t know just what is a waterfall? You got to start there? Oh, don’t go chasing
Mark Quinn
waterfalls and under no water comes down over
Craig Leffew
times. Great. Yes. Happy to explain it. So people call it a cascade, depending on the route that they take, but really a lot of businesses now look like this. You’ve got a tier one product in there. I’m talking like a well, as far as we can name drop on here, right? Sure, okay. Like a Wells Fargo synchrony a TD? You know,
Mark Quinn
when you say tier one, that’s for really good
Craig Leffew
credit, right? Yep. Yep. And then you have your, your tier twos, you’ve got your, your Genesis, your fortiva, your tide waters, you know, and then you’ve got your least own options, which would be you know, your qualifies. And then I forgot the names of any other lease options, but just kidding. So yeah, typically, what they would do is you come out and you’d plug them all into a platform, and then the customer could apply in that waterfall, and it would take the questions that are asked for the tier one. And then it would whatever, you answered that with it, but if you didn’t get approved for tier one, it would waterfall to tier two. And that would take the information you put in for that and put it in the tier two application, any additional information they needed to approve you, you would have to provide. And then the same thing would happen. If you didn’t get approved for tier two going to tier three, it sounds Uber exciting. But you know, it’s it’s just as clunky sometimes as as me explaining it, you know, and then the customer is there and pull time staring at the RSA. And so, you know, we we believe that if you take all that out of it, you know, we can
Mark Quinn
be Craig, can I can I pause you there real quick. So when you say it takes whatever the information is from tier one and drops it to tier two, is that a manual thing? Is the is the retail sales associate. Now, it just automatically happen?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, which is, okay, it’s better than doing like three different applications, right? So that,
Mark Quinn
but it populates automatically, but the RSA is still required to go in and hit submit a second time or submit a third time. So that’s not automated. It’s literally them having to say, Okay, that didn’t work. Let’s go here. Yes, and
Craig Leffew
more importantly, is getting enough in that process. Right, you might prefer this. But we can try this. Whereas system, they don’t get to know unless they’re not approved for anything.
Mark Quinn
That’s a big difference.
Craig Leffew
We think from a customer experience standpoint, it’s it’s revolutionary.
Mark Kinsley
What are your what are people saying to you like after they go from the old way to the qualify way? What are some of the things you hear? What’s the feedback?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, I mean, you’ll get your typical, like, wow, that was that was really easy. Like you’ve really simplified the process. You know, I think one of our, I don’t think one of our core values is being radically transparent. So we are, you know, overly communicating with that customer about what type of product they’re getting into, whether it’s a loan or lease, people really like that about us. And they really like the fact that we’ll pick up the phone and help to help talk to them. And I think customer service in general is lacking these days. And so if they know that we’re going to pick up the phone, and under 20 seconds, you’re going to you’re going to talk to a live person to help resolve the issue. I mean, all those things help go into, you know, that one application where we’re going to generate an approval, and ultimately help you close the sale.
Mark Kinsley
I gotta go back in time here. But let’s back up for a second. Because before I forget, you had mentioned, if you get a customer who is now a customer that’s financed, there are ways to bring them back in the store all the time talking about foot traffic, and also talking about how do we maintain a relationship and make the sale the beginning of a relationship? How does that work?
Craig Leffew
I mean, typically, what we’ll do is we will, if the customer is approved for $5,000, but they only spend 2500, we will organically target them to come back into the store. But what I like to do is is I like to sit down with our retailers and put CO branded marketing campaigns together, right? So hey, here’s XYZ retailer, oh, by the way, here’s their Memorial Day ad and oh, by the way, you have $2,500 to spend there. I mean, I think that has been the most effective across our portfolio. Roughly 15 to 20% Come back in but at the ones that are doing the CO branded efforts, which are extremely cheap, right, I mean, we don’t have to put these grand marketing plans in place we can do We can, you know, send letters, we, there’s a lot of things you can do. But we can really do this electronically, which is what customers prefer now to help drive them back in the store. So and then we’re seeing a heavy amount of obviously conversion rate on that is super high. So tapping into different ways that you know that we can utilise customers that love that dealer in that in that love qualify.
Mark Quinn
Mark, I was gonna ask you a question earlier, I mean, for you, and I think you’re gonna answer the same way. But imagine if we were retail sales associates. And we had to go through the process of bringing people to the desk to write up the deal. And then you had to go through a clunky like finance thing where you’re like, you know, hit him with one and then hit him with another and then like, all the awkwardness that has to be like happening in those in those moments, versus the confidence we would have, knowing if we had qualify, and all we had to do is put it in one time, and it was going to give us the answer that we needed, and all that other stuff. Like how much more confident would you have going into that final moment? Kinsley?
Mark Kinsley
Yeah, it’s a no brainer. I mean, it’s the worst nightmare to get to the very end of a sale, and spend a tonne of time and lose a sale, because that customer didn’t have the cash or the funds and needed to access financing. And that didn’t fit into that top tier. And when they miss that top tier, they’re like, I’m embarrassed or I’m uncomfortable, I’m going to walk you. I mean, I would be interested to see the figures and how many people actually stick around for like those non waterfall solutions and actually get down to tier two. And if you eliminate that you eliminate the friction, you give people confidence. You maintain a friendly, congenial atmosphere between the salesperson and the customer. All those things add up, they compound and look, I mean, you’re talking about competing with somebody who’s shown clear intent to buy, who can who can go online or go home and pursue something else. So I love all the boxes that it checks for sure. Because otherwise I’d be learning like magic tricks to keep them distracted during the transition.
Mark Quinn
It reminds me of this time Kinzie when I went up to Amy, this girl I really wanted to date like I had my sights set on her. She was beautiful. She was the one and then went up to her and I’m like Amy, like, this has got to be right. Like I’m feeling this for you like what do you think and we go out to dinner. She goes, You know, you’re not really right for me, but I got like a couple other friends that maybe you would reminds me of that moment.
Mark Kinsley
Did she introduce you to them?
Mark Quinn
No, no, I never got that. I got turned down from the top tier Kinsey. That’s what I’m trying to tell ya. And she passed me off and it broke my heart. Okay, the
Mark Kinsley
good news is how did you get? What was previously the top tier and then you found a level above that, and her name’s Bridget.
Mark Quinn
Got that? Right. I didn’t settle for that. Third Tier I didn’t have. Hey, so Craig, as soon as you can get them being my counsellor. So who is qualify? We Kinsey mentioned 10,000 People 10,000 different retail doors you guys were working with? Can you hit us with a couple of the names that maybe some of the retail partners you guys are working with? Or is that a question we shouldn’t ask? Yeah,
Craig Leffew
no, I think it’s fine. I mean, we’re working with roughly 150 Plus, Ashley licensees. We’re doing business with the mattress firm franchises. Not all of them, but a good amount of them. You know, the the Miss Kelly’s of the world, the Bob mills of the world mattress warehouse is a great partner of ours. So yeah, I mean, Bernie and Phil’s as well, exclusive furniture down there in Houston. So yeah, I mean, we’ve we’ve got a lot of dealers who are we’re super passionate about financing just as much as we are. And they love it.
Mark Kinsley
Craig, so many retailers are trying to go Endless Aisle, they’re trying to have an E commerce presence. They’re trying to make sure that that visibility in the search phase leads back to them and potentially leads to purchase through their website. How does this How does qualify How do you interface with EECOM? World?
Craig Leffew
Yeah, that’s a great question. Especially, you know, Pope while Dare I say post COVID Or I don’t even know what stage of COVID are that we’re in. But as econ becomes more and more I mean, if you’re not an econ now, like you’ve completely messed up, right, like if, if you haven’t started econ, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re out of, you’re out of it, but yeah, so we have we can either be on the retailer’s website, right so we have a lot of convenient things on the store as well where you can text message, the application, we’ve got QR codes and things like that. But one of the things that we like to be like to be on the website, and the customer can apply sitting there on the couch, and take in their approval to the store and know what they’re shopping with ahead of time. But the other cool thing that we’re developing, and this is just got an email this morning that we are fully integrated with a certain platform, we’ve got a full spectrum ecommerce experience. And so you’re really, really targeting that. I mean, essentially, your E commerce. And you guys, can you guys probably know better about this. But if if you’re $100 million company, you got 10 stores, your eCommerce store should be doing around $10 million dollars, I mean, you should treat it as a completely separate store. That might be a little high, I don’t know, Cohen’s chicken’s head there. But so we are helping facilitate that. Right. So before nobody had really been able to offer that any commerce, the loan and lease together, and we’re going to be the first company that’s going to be able to do that as well. So we’re super excited.
Mark Kinsley
Talking about the lease to own world. I mean, nobody’s really talking about it. But is this is the lease to own world. A big opportunity.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, I mean, to put it, to put it bluntly, it’s, it’s the the biggest opportunity out there facing retailers, if they want to grab onto it. When I, when I came over from 10, persily, I really didn’t know anything about it. I was shocked to hear who the least own customer is. And what I mean by that is, if you take I mean, so we did a big study a couple years ago, and our customer, if you look at that least own customer, a lot of people thought, or at least, you know, I thought it was somebody living in a van down by the river. That’s absolutely not the case. Like in our customer base, you know, 52% on their own home, or 62% on their own home. 52% are college educated 85% of them make between 30,080 $1,000 a year. So these are, these are our neighbours, right? These are people that have been through real life situations, bankruptcy, divorce, medical bills, student loans, like life has happened to them. And you know, they’d still need to get furniture, right, they still need to get furniture, they still need the appliances, they still need a place to sleep, they still want adjustable basis, right. And so what I was set out to do was kind of bridge that gap and say, Hey, top 100 retailers like this is a huge opportunity, if you will just turn on the green light. For these consumers that want to shop at your store. versus you know, a lot of the rent to own locations, it’s not a great experience, they want to shop at the top 100 locations, you just got to turn the green light on to let him know that they can come in there, I’m not asking them to put up a gorilla on top of their ability, you know, huge inflatable gorilla on top of their building or anything, right? We just want some information on the website wants some information in ADS. But I think it’s a massive opportunity for small business or top 100 retailers.
Mark Kinsley
I love hearing you tap into that a little bit and talk about who that customer is because we get in our echo chamber and customer profiles and personas and this, that and the other and you forget, oh my gosh, there’s tonnes of people that may just want to use financing, they may have had something come up at this moment in their life, and yet they’re moving right now. But the thing the financial event came up at this moment in their life, or they’re recovering from some of those different scenarios that you outlined there. So it’s a good reminder, just like we talked about not profiling people when they come in to shop for furniture matches, this, this being very much in line with that. And I have heard from people who have found these other kind of businesses within a business that I think is a really creative way to generate revenue and, and tap into some some business that’s out there, they may have otherwise not attracted, whether it’s you know, getting into being the furniture store that supplies the commercial businesses like banks and things like that, or tapping into a lease to own model or even tapping into you know, I heard about this business in Dallas that you know, they’re going and furnish your entire home and it’s essentially a lease to own model but they made it higher end because you had to Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s there’s so many lines of thinking out there like this. I think if you tease out with a good team, it can lead to some meaningful service lines for for people but you got to have that financing piece in place.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, I mean, like it is it is a it moving forward is a necessary part of your of your financing portfolio. You like a lot of bless them, but a lot of people that I meet with they’re like, Hey, that’s not my customer. I’m like, listen, that’s that’s your customer. They have literally just shifted into this category. Over the last three or four years, right, like, it’s still your customer, they’re just need to use a different vehicle to finance things with. And so, you know, that’s what I spend my day doing.
Mark Quinn
And that’s the answer from them. It’s so interesting to me, because it’s like, how do you know what’s not your customer? Like, you’re not trying or you’re not doing it. So give it a shot, man. I mean, you never know. And by the way, our research and data says differently. So, alright, and as we kind of move out of this, that tell us like, so you’re launching something that was innovative in very cool and different. So I know you guys aren’t ever standing still or wrestling? What’s next? Like? What’s the next big thing for qualify?
Craig Leffew
Yeah. So I think it’s truly being able to have our full spectrum ecommerce, out in the wild and active. I mean, it’s right now you can get, there’s a lot of companies that do e commerce loans, but not that do e commerce, loans and leases. And so if you think about the approval rates in E commerce loan products, they’re super low, and they’re 30 35%, right? So us being able to offer lease to own in that space, as well as is truly a game changer. And it’s, I mean, you guys know how conversions look on ecommerce, right? They’re just not great at all right? So the opportunity out there to help convert those and help offer financing to people who, you know, just want to shop through E commerce, which is more and more prevalent every day, I think it’s a massive opportunity, we’re in the process of integrating with all the platforms. And so yeah, I’m super excited.
Mark Kinsley
I love that too. Because we often preach, you need to make sure that your in store experience matches your online experience, whether that’s an extra fee for delivery outside of a 50 mile radius to you can buy remotes or extended legs on that adjustable base to mirroring the financing, or the lease to own options that are going to happen if you’re standing there in store for those worlds, just I mean, the clicks and bricks have to hold hands these days. So kudos to the team at qualify for putting together kind of that full spectrum. It’s so important in the retailers, they’re doing it right that we’ve seen want that mirrored experience, it gives continuity between the two because people are gonna fade in and out. They’re gonna start online, they’re gonna finish online, they’re gonna go into the store, it’s not the super clean path to purchase that people sometimes think it is.
Craig Leffew
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’ll we will effectively be able to work with, I mean, Omni channel is a big buzzword right now. Right? Like, we’ll be able to handle every phase of that omni channel process for the retailer. Right. And I wholeheartedly agree about, you know, your your website is the is the front door to your business. And so if you’re not taking that third thing that you mentioned, and putting putting financing on there, allowing the customer to have financing on there, you’re doing your company a disservice.
Mark Kinsley
Well, hey, we Craig, it’s been great having you take us through this because I’m always like, how are people going to save more time? How are people going to make more money. And those are some of the ideas we try to surface here on the DOS Marcos show because you got retailers out there fighting tooth and nail can try to compete, many of them do very well. But some of those ideas in the technology stack needs reevaluated and reoriented as times change. So love the products that qualifies coming up with and you did a steady here. So thank you for this. If you go to qualify.com/fam FM, you can book a meeting and when you guys can think of tough people 50 bucks just for saying hey,
Craig Leffew
yeah, yeah, I think it’s a I mean, it’s a very non invasive way to figure out what we’re all about and get paid for it so
Mark Kinsley
nice and qualify by the way koala, like the koala bear and then fi FiOS and find that so Koala phi.com forward slash fam and Craig Hey, like it or not brother, you’re now a member of the fam we’re happy to to bring you into the fold.
Craig Leffew
Nice man. So I’ve been itching to get on here for a while so super excited to talk to you guys. You guys are both legendary. So really appreciate it.
Mark Kinsley
Quinn slightly more legendary
Mark Quinn
that Adrian I don’t think so. I was gonna say Adrian, our executive producer is like listening in the background on all these shows. So make sure you grab that soundbite from Craig I don’t think anyone’s called this legendary so we got to really like grab that like push it out into every place we can so Thank you Craig. Craig You know, I just want to thank you too because you know Mark and I value innovation and guys that are you know doing stuff different than market if you’re listening to this show, my hope for you is that I know it’s a pain in the butt to go through and you know like even with your home insurance and like you know every now and then you gotta you got to put that stuff up for bid and if you’re with State Farm go with Allstate. You gotta you gotta check everybody to make sure that You know you’re in the right spot but so take Craig up on his offer, take that 50 bucks, got and have a good lunch or dinner with it and learn your way into the coolest newest stuff in the universe in the finance space. And the other thing I guess I would say is if you’re listening to this show, it’s so important that we build the fam and so please share, go on like it, you know, review it, we’d love that too. But it’s a campfire. We said all the time. We want more people at it and we love it, Craig, love you is a great example of that. He’s part of it now. And we just want to keep building it out and bringing people to the table that are doing cool and unique stuff. So Craig, I can’t thank you enough man. You guys are doing a great job to everyone to qualify thanks for the innovation and thinking differently and can’t wait for the next time when you come back.
Craig Leffew
Absolutely. really grateful to be here and looking forward to it as well.
