If you’re an aircraft lessor, you already know that delays in each stage of a marketing or trading deal decreases the chances of your firm being first to the finish line. Delays in delivering the client the information they need open the door for a fast moving competitor to take the opportunity away from you!
Let’s break it down.
Here are some of the circumstances that put deals at risk:
- Accelerate gathering deal requirements
- Quickly match assets
- Streamline process and approvals
Accelerate gathering deal requirements
One of the most significant challenges in placing or trading aircraft is the time-consuming process of gathering deal requirements. These delays can slow down the entire transaction, causing you to miss out on valuable opportunities.
For commercial teams, time is of the essence. Structuring the information flow well can help you centralize all the key information in the right place at the right time. When that process is digitized, software systems can alert for missing information, automatically notifying colleagues who may play a supporting role in moving deals forward.
By utilizing a software product like AerisMATCH, lessors can streamline their deal process, ensuring that critical information is centralized and there is 100% transparency around what it takes to move deals forward. This starts even before making contact with a customer. For example, understanding customers’ fleet structure, leasing affinity, and existing lease expirations can save lessors time by narrowing down their best prospects for aircraft and making sure deal team members are in the information flow in real time.
Quickly match assets
In aircraft leasing, customer requirements are often bespoke. While engines may be more uniform than aircraft, there are still considerations of thrust settings and remaining green time, among other aspects. This puts lessors in the necessary position of finding a match within their asset portfolio or analyzing the feasibility and cost of modifying an existing asset to meet the needs of the deal, which is a time-consuming process. Having a deep understanding of the assets in the portfolio, including specific characteristics and availability, provides key insights to lessors’ teams.
LeaseWorks has a widget that lets lessors select any aircraft variant in their fleet and then generate a chart that shows the degree of match with each of the world’s airlines. This allows lessors to quickly visualize the “magic quadrant,” where the degree of match is strong and the share of leased aircraft in customers’ fleets is high. Additionally, the analytics help lessors find white space opportunities (airlines where that aircraft is not currently marketed, but could be good homes for them).
On the flip side, lessors may be starting with the customer requirements and trying to find the closest fit within their fleet. LeaseWorks’ asset finder lets lessors search their fleet, or even the global fleet, for available aircraft that can be modified or even purchased to meet the need.
Streamline process and approvals
Approvals are simply a series of check boxes that all required information has been gathered. Often an approver is tasked with making sure that “all the boxes have been ticked” but has to chase many people in different departments to ensure information integrity before approving a transaction or LOI. By eliminating the time wasted with incomplete requests, managers and executives can save valuable time and costs.
Digitizing and automating the sales process spawns the possibility of streamlined approvals
When “ticking the boxes” digitally, lessors can let their systems ensure information integrity and approve or deny a request, and send out notifications before a human can even finish reading an email subject line. It can also verify that numbers are within a prescribed range, that assets in the deal are available, and even calculate projected revenue or profit. Many LeaseWorks customers have built these “validations” into their implementations. One customer has every single phase of their deal process ending in a validation that allows the user to move the deal along to the next step or sends them back to flesh out the details.
Digitizing the sales process also provides an opportunity for automated alerts whenever action is required from any team member, including management. With LeaseWorks, lessors’ teams can send alerts by email, through the mobile app, within the desktop app, or through Slack.
Management dashboards are another aspect of enhancing lessors’ digital process. They provide a real time overview of what needs to be done in the near term, and what is critically late. Dashboards offer on-demand visibility and insight. Instead of waiting for weekly meetings or monthly reports, they deliver up-to-date information to instantly track progress and changes in operations.
Dashboards save time and resources. Immediate access to information allows lessors to make swift decisions and take prompt actions. They let lessors’ teams monitor portfolio performance in real-time, and help them track progress, meet goals, and quickly detect portfolio performance issues.
Time. Kills. Deals.
In the competitive world of aircraft leasing, time is a critical factor that can help you win deals. Streamlining deal requirements gathering, matching assets, and navigating the approval processes can all significantly improve the success of a transaction. Leveraging advanced tools and integrated data sources, such as AerisMATCH from LeaseWorks, can streamline these processes, providing lessors with the agility and efficiency needed to stay ahead of the competition.
By automating routine checks and validations, lessors can reduce bottlenecks and ensure that deals progress smoothly and quickly. Understanding the importance of timely actions and utilizing the right tools can help mitigate the risks associated with delays, ultimately leading to more successful outcomes.
In the end, the ability to act swiftly and decisively can set successful lessors apart in the market. By embracing digital transformation and data integration, lessors can improve decision-making and help win deals faster in the market. Remember, in this fast-paced industry, time really does kill deals—so make every second count.
