How to Profit by Becoming
Your Customer’s Banker
Diamond Banc’s Easy-To-Use Loan Service Offers
Untapped Market Potential for Jewelers
She’s a customer you know well. She may come in regularly for repairs, the occasional gift or a nice, new diamond tennis bracelet. But every once in a while, when her monthly budget comes up short, she’s also a perfect customer for an asset-based jewelry loan. She wouldn’t think of going to the local pawnshop. What better place to discretely obtain the money she needs than with the jeweler she’s been doing business with for years?
The asset-based loan market is growing, and jewelers are just beginning to get into the game. Long regarded as a loan of last resort, Diamond Banc, the jewelry industry’s leading asset-based lender, is working hard to change that perception. With an easy-to-use online application process and a discreet, customer-friendly approach to business, it encourages jewelers to tap into this market potential, building new income streams and stronger customer relationships in the process. What’s more, jewelers can participate with no cash outlay as Diamond Banc supplies all the capital to fund the loans.
Ernest “Ernie” Perry, owner of Perry’s Fine, Antique & Estate Jewelry in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one jeweler who successfully offers Diamond Banc’s consumer services and plans on doing more in the future. In business for over 35 years, Perry says he was introduced to Diamond Banc at a national trade show and wondered why no one had marketed these services before. “I was very impressed with the concept and the team. Mills (Mills Menser, Diamond Banc’s founder) even flew out to see me. We started the program right away.”
Perry knows the value of offering services that go beyond jewelry repair. He’s been buying and selling jewelry for more years than he’s been a bricks-and-mortar jeweler. With 10 Graduate Gemologists on staff and eight private buying offices, he purchases a lot of merchandise outright and is one of eBay’s top ten jewelry sellers. Still, he wouldn’t offer jewelry-based loans on his own. “With Diamond Banc, we can offer loans without having to get a pawn license. They do all the paperwork and the terms are worked out quickly and easily. It’s been a win-win all around—for us and for our customers.”
Perry says that Diamond Banc has also kept business that might have gone elsewhere right in his store. “We’ve been seeing more and more ads for pawn shops in our local area, but we want our customers to stay here,” he says. Most inquiries come from a simple, small tent card on the store’s countertop—a “silent salesman.” Diamond Banc has also created customized print ads for the store, and offers participating jewelers a full range of marketing materials to promote their services. This includes a Diamond Banc landing page on their web site so customers can apply for a loan in total privacy.
It’s also easy for retailers to offer asset-based loans. Diamond Banc handles all the financial and legal aspects of the transaction, while retail partners are only responsible for evaluating collateral, assisting clients with loan document completion as well as the packaging and shipping of loan collateral to Diamond Banc’s headquarters. Diamond Banc is also happy to speak directly with clients to explain the process and negotiate values and rates if retailers prefer. After the jewelry is reviewed and a loan is offered and accepted, jewelers receive a monthly check for 20 to 40% of the interest fees collected until the loan is paid in full. Most loans carry an average term of six to 12 months.
With a trove of loyal customers, jewelers like Perry also like the discretion that comes with working with Diamond Banc. “We push the confidential aspect of the transaction,” Perry says, who also counsels customers when it’s best to take a short-term asset-based loan against some jewelry or sell it outright. Good times and bad. Gold prices high, gold prices low—what never changes, says Perry, are the changing needs of his customers. “Diamond Banc helps us to help our customers. You can’t get much better than that.”