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UAEL Elects First Female President Oren Hall, emeritus member, former president of the United
Association of Equipment Leasing (UAEL), made the motion from the floor,
and President Bob Fisher, CLP, made the announcement, “ In the first 26
years of our association, we now
have a female president, Bette Kerhoulas, CLP. “
Also elected were vice-president Jim Coston, Coston &
Lichtman, Secretary/Treasurer, Terey Jennings, CLP, Financial Pacific
Leasing , Peter Eaton, CLP, Pentech Financial Services, Bob Baker, CLP,
Wildwood Leasing, John Donohue, Direct Capital, Dwight Galloway, CLP,
Republic Financial, Brent Hall, CLP, Pinnacle Capital, Victor Harris,
Law Offices of Victor Harris, Marci Kimball, ACC Capital, John Kruse,
CapitalStream, Jim McCommon CLP, Brad Peterson, Manifest Funding Services
Bob Teichman, CLP, Teichman Financial Training. Taking the microphone, Bette Kerhoulas, CLP, president of
Pacifica- Capital, promised to continue the theme of “ education, networking,
and involvement.” “Get together, see what is happening, and be involved,” she
said. She also announced the next two conference, Palm Spring,
California,. the first week of May, 2003, and Portland, Oregon, second
week of October, 2003. Her theme she said centered around “R’s” 1) resilient 2) Renew, redirect, realign, recapture, restructure, readjust—all to go forward. 3) Ripple, as in the ripple effect, through an rock into
the water and the ripple, the effect it has. She also discussed the California Tax Audit of her company,
that she felt would not only affect all lessors and discounters
in California, but other states, as she was now being audited by the State
of Texas. She said she was in contact with the Equipment Leasing Association. “The states are looking for fee increases and as the auditor
told us, leasing companies have been overlooked,” he said. “1.Sales tax on document fees ( in California mortgage companies and automobile dealership are paying taxes on document fees.) If it charged separately, in a separate document, it may
not be part of the sale and therefore not subject to sales tax.
I n California, they are going back three years on this and penalties. 2. True lease transaction or defined purchase options, if
they are part up the up front cost and not on the stream, if the assignment
transfers the title, whether master or separate assignment per lease, they
are subject to sales tax, even if you have a tax re-sale card, as the
taxing authority considers this another sale. We are contesting this. 3. Proof of assignee paying the sales tax ( if in the transaction,
the funder is to pay the sales tax or assignee, proof that it was paid---CMC,
MSM, and other situations exist where the sales tax was not paid,
and therefore is the discounters responsibility and obligation). The Top Gun Conference in San Diego was cheered by all those
who attended, including many accolades to chairman John Kruse and his committee.
High energy was experienced, including many very happy exhibitors
who were booked up during the entire time. One of the words used to express the feeling of the conference was “nurturing,” as members were “nurtured”
by each other. The budget was for 430 members, but chief operating officer
Joe Woodley, CLP, was very satisfied with the actual 330 attendance. Membership director Bob Grohe was also pleased at the turn out and member support,
especially in view of all the negative economic news. It was obvious
to him, he said, that members need to get together and talk to each other
about their experiences and learn from each other. President Bob Fisher in his speech let his hair down about
the changes in attendance at regional and other meetings, which matched
the economy and the state of the leasing industry. One of the highlights
of the business meeting was the photo’s of Fisher from being in the
Marine in Vietnam, to teaching, running marathons, and pictures of his
family and children during their vacations. Leasing News sponsored two workshops and due to this could
not visit the others, which were not repeated, so the news is
about the Top Gun Sales Men and Sales Managers. A report on other aspects of the conference is expected for tomorrow’s edition. The first workshop “Top Gun Sales Men” was standing room
only, with all 90 seats taken, and people standing as Jim Raider, Ignacio Sanchez, Tony Sherwin and Eric Sidebotham spoke. Basically, they do $25,000 to $75,000 transactions as an average, making eight points
( Eric said he would make less to make the deal and Raeder said
there were other fees, did not do any deals less than $10,000,
started work at 7:30am, made 50 t0 75 marketing calls minimum (although Tony Sherwin made this amount; he called existing clients
and vendors), all had lunch, left around 6pm, did not take calls at home,
nor did they work on weekends. All
at the beginning of the year decided how much money they needed to make, and set this as their goal.
They did a lot of research on industries to call, were well-read,
active on the internet, did a lot of market research on who to call,
used trade show lists published on the internet, had many innovations. They were all asked James Liston ten question that he uses
on Bravo’s “Inside Actors Workshop”* Jim Raeder was the most outspoken, bringing laughter from the audience (he enjoyed the attendance, meeting many ex-salesmen who were glad to see him, and was surprised by his popularity among them
), Igagio Sanchez favorite noise was the whinny of horses (he
owns five), Tony Sherwin was the most organized, determined, centered, businesslike, very serious, and Eric Sidebotham, a Top Gun
big money maker, did the less planning, he said, but worked long
hours and made “relationships.” The Top Gun Sales Managers workshop was very interesting
because there was obviously a difference between the East Coast and the West
Coast approach to hiring and training salesmen. A first for any conference to highlight sales manger, who each, by the way, considered themselves
a salesman first, rather than a “manager.”
Richard Baccaro was undoubtedly the wittiest (although comments
by Jim Raeder brought the most laugher ) humorous, and layback. He had his ex-bosses in the room, now owned
his owned company, where he trained salesmen, and his approach was quite
different than Brad Kissler, sales manager of Balboa ( his boss, and perhaps the mentor of all, Patrick Byrne was in the audience.)
Kissler worked more a 8 to 5 job, but traveled also to the various
branches, Mark McQuitty of Capitalwerks expected to have 100 salesmen
soon, and was the most intense, organized, and team oriented. A brilliant
person, it was also his first appearance at any lease conference.
He could have had another hour to speak.) He was up at 5am,took 18 of his
team to a noon workout, ate on the way back, than at 6pm, did another
physical workout with his team for an hour, then went back to work where
he and Jim Raeder were there to 8pm or later. (He said to “professions
other than your own would you like to attempt? Teach American history
at the college level.) No one worked weekends. There were organized sales programs, with mentors, except
for the East Coast, which evidently prefers to “steal” existing and “proven”
salesmen, then train people right out of college with no leasing experience, ( the West Coast Offense. ) All said that if a salesman was coming in early, making his calls, giving his all, even though his sales were down,
they would not let them go. By the
numbers, the training the mentor program, anyone who worked hard would make it, they all said. The sessions should have been two hours to cover the material,
especially since many of the panelist were just getting warmed up.
It was quite a unique appearance, which received applause from
the audience. |
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