Rental buyers think differently, marketing should too

Most equipment marketing is built for the buyer who is ready to own. That makes sense. Ownership is the big, shiny goal. But it also means rental buyers can get treated like a side audience, when in reality they may be the person with the most immediate need in the room.

On this week’s Little Talks, Sam and Roop talk about why rental buyers think differently and why the marketing should, too. These customers are not always dreaming about pride of ownership. Sometimes they have a machine down, a job to finish, or a three-week project that cannot wait for a long sales cycle to gracefully unfold. Romantic? No. Important? Very.

That changes the message. Features still matter, but reliability, availability, and confidence matter more. It also changes the dealer conversation. If someone walks up to the rental counter frustrated with another machine, the person behind that counter has a real chance to steer them toward something better. That only works if your brand has done the work to make the story easy to tell.

Rental can be a smart business strategy, not just a holding pattern before purchase. Get the right person on the right machine at the right moment, and you may be creating a future owner without trying to force the ownership message too early. That is the kind of marketing shift worth paying attention to.

See you next week for more Little Talks!

— Claudia, Roop, Chelsea, and Sam

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Little Talks, your weekly dose of marketing news, trends, and insights from Littlefield Agency. Grab your coffee, turn up the volume, and let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

You know, it's always nice to see you dancing in my peripheral. I have ideas. I'm focused, I'm ready, I'm I'm writing down notes. I just see a little sway to my left. And that's my old boy Roop. Hello. Hello, welcome back to another edition of Little Talks, the Littlefield Agency. I'm Sam Littlefield with me, is my sway and my dance in the moving. I'm Roop. He's Roop.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Hey, before before we start, can I get tell everybody about my Amazon idea?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Oh God, yes.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

This is kind of interesting. Prime Day is coming up. It's today, I'm not sure. Is it Bezos or Bezos? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Is it is it Jeff? I don't know. The guy in charge. Listen, Prime Day, I'm not all about it. I always am frustrated that it's showing it. Shocking to me, by the way. Yeah. I'm always frustrated showing me stuff I've already bought and that it's now it's on sale. My idea is for people like me, instead of just putting things on sale, you could say, hey, we know you bought this in the last, let's say, 12 months, and it's on sale today. We're going to put that difference back into a credit on your account.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

And then they'll lose billions of dollars.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

I think they can afford it.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Just while you're not in charge of Prime Day.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

I always want to feel excited about Prime Day, but I can't get into it. That would get me into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

I love Prime Day. Do you like Prime Day, Claude? Yeah. Yeah. Savings. I know I'm in the out. I'm capitalizing on savings. It's a great thing. So happy Prime Day to those who celebrate, minus my uh co-host over here. Um hey, we're coming off a big episode, Jay Schwedelson. We are so thankful that he took the time to do that. Yes. We hope you guys enjoyed that episode. It was uh it's entertaining, it's engaging, and it is uh it was a delight. You even said today it's truly one of our better episodes. Yeah, I I I think so. Especially from a virtual standpoint, you know. It is. It's it's always interesting having someone not sitting here, not having Trent or Mike or whoever sitting next to us. Um, but to have uh Jay engaged, um, God, he's just he's good, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

We had it, we we we you know, we we did have that one little hiccup at the end. But you know what we got out of it? Some great singing content.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Great content. If you have not seen that, it is totally worth a look. Yeah, it is just it's God, he's good, man. He's good. So, Jay, thank you. If you are listening to this, thank you from the bottom bottom of our little field hearts. Yeah, very appreciative. Last week was a big week for us. We had uh H. E. Williams in house from Carthage, Missouri. We were pumped to have him here at the agency. Well, it's supposed to be a three-hour meeting turned into a five-hour meeting. Really good conversation, very, very well, just overall engaged. We had Mike at the agency. We went up to Grasshopper in Mound Ridge, Kansas. We are just cruising and grooving. And this weekend, USA 250, it is big time. You know, I I feel like in honor of Chelsea Clement.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Oh, she this was her favorite holiday.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

This is her holiday, man. And maybe maybe we bring back the you know, the is it the salute that we have of her and the with the American if you ever asked Chelsea besides Gangsta's Paradise on her uh last uh episode what her favorite song is, it is truly the national anthem.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

That was an actual answer on questionnaire.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Actually, answer on a questionnaire, and everyone just and and by the way, your favorite uh animal, no, no kidding, by the way. Bald eagle. Not messing with you, give her a call, ask her, but she loves a good bald eagle. She loves a good uh What's the matter with you? I don't know. She likes the Pledge of Allegiance to National Anthem and USA 250. Um, this weekend, we will say it here at the uh at the end. Be safe with your family, um, you know, pop off some fireworks, have a beer, grill out, do it, you know, live the American dream here. Um, but just be careful and then have a wonderful holiday weekend. Um so we go off of Jay Schwedelson and we jump into today's topic, Claudia. Yeah. Something very different from Jay's podcast.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, we're back into our uh B2B marketing world.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

B2B marketing world, and here's here's the thing, right? Is is as experts in B2B marketing, especially those uh manufacturers that sell through dealer and distribution networks. Um Leslie brought this up and she was like, hey, have we ever talked about your target audience of rental buyers? Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Most B2B brands that we've interacted with generally have, you know, you've got a uh a can a consumer commercial rental. Yep. Um sometimes governments in there. Yep, for sure. So like there's always different audiences we're always talking to and attracting and wanting to interact with, and rental sometimes gets short-shifted.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Yep, no, for sure. And the and rental, what we're gonna talk the topic, the actual topic today is rental buyers think differently and your marketing should too. And that's very well said. Whoever wrote this, Rupe, was it you? Yeah, it was me. Was it Leslie or was it you? It might have been Les. She's not here to claim it. Um But the what we have to think through, right? Your rental buyers may not be future owners. Um we think about your dealerships, what are they incentivized to do to sell equipment? Um, but there's also money to be made in this rental audience. So we're gonna we're gonna walk through this today. We're gonna really focus on the messaging side of things and and also from the content. So I don't know if you have anything you want to open up with.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Um just that when we first talked about this, I assumed it was me renting stuff because I have gone to the rental, the big boy rental yard before.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Trevor Burrus, Jr. That's a great point of clarification. Um there's a by the way, if you hear if we like freak out on the podcast, there's a massive storm rolling through here and some big thunderclaps if we jump or not fidgety. Um but Roop, you bring up a great point. It's a Saturday, you need to go rent a skid steer, right? And you go and you rent a skid steer literally for the day, you got to move some heavy rocks.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

A lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

A lot of fun, and then boom, it's back at ABC um equipment rental.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

Yeah, my boys at ABC.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yeah, which by the way is a real equipment rental shop here in Tulsa, and it's it's great and they're wonderful. One quick uh one-stop shops. We're talking about the um, you know, the professional landscape crew, right? That uh literally needs a skid steer for three weeks. Maybe they don't have the money to buy, maybe they're starting a company and they don't have the money to buy a skid steer yet. Um it could be someone with down equipment. Hey, I need to rent equipment for the foreseeable future. Um so again, that's a very nice point of clarification of this isn't you know, Sam and Tara doing a fun little quick project. Um, it's people that need to rent your equipment. It's the people Sam and Tara will hire to cover the job. Hey, I'm hands-on. Doug, I'd love to pick up a good stick, baby. Come on. Um so feature matters, but reliability really does matter more here. Um in the and what we what we talk through with our with our customers, with our clients, is what is that rental buyer, but it's not buyer, that rentals renter's mindset. And I it is oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

Well, I was just gonna say, yeah, they're they have different priorities, different pressures, they're coming in with different needs. They gotta get work done. Yeah. And then you and there's some of usually some uh urgency to that.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yes, absolutely. They gotta they gotta get work done, they gotta have reliable equipment, and uh and then they're onto their next job site, or maybe their machine's ready, or maybe they've got the money to you know buy set equipment. Um but your rental audience is really important and and the in the messaging too, right? And we've had uh we've come up and talked to prospective clients before that we talk about this rental audience and we're talking about content strategy. Quite frankly, there really isn't there is not one. Well, sometimes there is. No, no, no, no, there definitely is, but I'm saying for prospective clients that I've talked to before. Oh, they don't have one.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Yes, yeah, that does happen a lot.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Yes, it does, it does happen. Well, you know, the the the they know that they can buy the equipment. Um, you know, they they know that they can rent the equipment. It's like, no, because what we're trying to do, the biggest thing that we found over the years, product demos. Oh, yeah. And we we've had clients, I'm I'm focusing on skid steer, so I'm gonna talk Ditchwitch today. Is um if you talk to this to the Skid Steer product manager at Ditchwitch, what he will tell you, if we can get their feet on the platform, they will buy a Ditchwich Skid Steer or rent a Ditch Ditchwitch Skid Steer immediately. Yeah. It's awesome, it's flexible, it's movable, but that you gotta get them into your door, your dealership door. Um, for those that don't have authorized dealers and sell an array of equipment, and that you go into a dealership and I've got 15 different options to purchase or rent equipment. How are we getting them in your door through a pull-through strategy of I want this equipment, I want to demo this equipment, I've heard about all the wonderful things about your equipment, Mr. or Mrs. Manufacturer, and you get it on them and they're sold and they walk out that door and they're back on the job site and they're ready to go with a rental mindset.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

And even if you know the the other guy in this in in this or or woman in this equation is the guy at the rental counter, you're the guy who owns the business. And if you've got someone coming in to get a piece of equipment because they've had one break, this is your opportunity. If um brand X just broke on them, they're probably not coming in to rent that again. They're probably might be in a moment of frustration. That's a good opportunity for rental guy to say, oh, have you tried this brand? You know, they don't have those problems. They don't, you know, if the rental guy can understand your product or your equipment better, they're gonna be able to better serve you and sell it and suggest it.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Well, and I think too, too, let's talk about AI search, right? Let's think about um paid media. And I'm looking, hey, a rental skid steer near me. Um just understanding the messaging and oh, this is rented equipment, it's not purchased equipment. Hey, a lot of people rent this ditch which set of equipment, this whatever what insert product name here. Um for them to come through to do their due diligence and then to walk into a dealership and say, Hey, I've heard great things about this, dealer affirms it, that's great. Um, okay, let me let me try it. Holy smokes. Yep, from I was hooked with the emotional benefit of the product, and then I worked my way down through the sales cycles of the rent cycles, what I should say. Oh, yeah. Um, but of those features, of those product features that really hit home with that renter is a is a huge thing. And just like I said, we it comes into the content. The content is so important as we think think through rental strategies for those that need it.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Yeah, marketing messages are focused on like pride of ownership, which we talk about a lot for equipment. There that is part of it if you're owning it. But when you're renting it, that kind of messaging is going to miss the mark because they're not owning it, right? They that's not what they're about. They're about um downtime is expensive. They're about this thing broke on me in my moment of need. Um they're focused on getting work done. So it's a very different message shift for that audience than probably what you're used to uh saying.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah, and I think about it too, right? If you're in that rental, you're in a place in your career where you really do need a rent, and then you fall in love with a piece of equipment, and if they're appropriate time you're ready to buy, it's a one-two punch. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah. So what we say is companies that can understand the rental buyer behavior, you can build stronger dealer relations, relationships, generate more leads, and create future owners. And again, creating future owners, that is the end goal. But when they're in a bind and when they're in a pinch, and you were there for them. You were rental ready. Yeah. Um and and I just I we don't want it to get be overlooked. We're not gonna uh beat a dead horse on this topic today, but it is important to keep in mind just as you go forward. Um and talk to and by the way, talk to your product managers. You know, they want to be part of these conversations. I think this we had uh when H. E. Williams was in yesterday, they brought up a great thing that said, Hey, as we start to get into 2027 planning, we want to have a bunch of our salespeople in that meeting, and they're gonna do basically like a series of um of sales pitches just so our team, our creative team, our media team, et cetera, to hear those things. So as you're as you know, you as a brand marketer, as you're think about this for your team. Um here it's probably timely here soon to start having our annual planning discussions here for the podcast. 2027 planning is coming. And for you to go to the C-suite and identify um, you know, certain target audiences, of course, we're going after those buyers, but hey, there's a there's a low-hanging fruit here, and we've got an awesome opportunity with this rental audience. I think it's a win-win. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

It's nice to see rental get some love.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

It is good. Yeah. It's it's and it's it's a viable business strategy, so especially in the interim sometimes. So there you have it on our uh on our uh perspective thoughts overview on on just your rental audience. Um and it's a thing, you know, I I think about a client that is still a client today, and they say, you know, 33% of our annual revenue, which is a big number, is um is parts and surface. And he's like, Man, no one wants to go sell parts. They want to go sell the big stuff, right? And and make the big commission. And no one wants you to rent, but some people have to rent, and sometimes that's their that pass-through to that ultimate buying decision. So a good reminder for us all. Yeah. Um, so like I said earlier, it is 4th of July. Are you doing anything fun? I think we're going to my parents to swim. Claude?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

I'm going to Nebraska.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Nebraska. She's our corn husker herself. How many times have you been to Nebraska this year?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

This will be my oh, this year.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Is this your second? Or is this your first?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

I mean, I've been three times.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Okay. She's heading north. Or this will be. You know what? Quite frankly, probably a beautiful time of year to be in Nebraska. Maybe. Six hours north of us. Maybe even further. Is it is it further than that?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

We just hope it doesn't rain.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Well, we hope it doesn't rain here, too. Because sunshine and 4th of July and uh and a good barbecue and some good fireworks, celebrating our 250th anniversary as a country is a cool thing. So, Claudia, you travel safe. Thank you. You be safe, my friend. I'll try my best. Your audience, be safe, have fun, love those families, love our country, and we'll be back to you next week with more topics, trends, and news from Littlefield Agency. Adios. See you then.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

And that's a wrap. We hope you found a spark of inspiration for your marketing strategy. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us at Littlefield Agency to keep the conversation going. Catch you next time.