5 Minutes with the Captive & Vendor Finance Chair

What’s happening in the captive and vendor finance sector of the equipment finance space? Equipment Leasing & Finance magazine caught up with Jayma Sandquist, Chair of the Captive & Vendor Finance Business Council Steering Committee (BCSC), to take the pulse of this sector. Sandquist, Chief Marketing Officer & Senior Vice President US/CA at John Deere Financial, is currently serving her second year as Chair of the committee, which engages financial services organizations providing sales-assisted financing and vendor and manufacturer support activities, either on a third-party or captive basis. 

How did you get involved with the Captive & Vendor Finance BCSC? 

I started to engage with the Captive & Vendor Finance BCSC when a colleague from Deere rolled off the BCSC and recommended my participation. After being involved the first year, I was asked to chair the BCSC. It has been an interesting time for our companies these last two years, as we’ve worked through great change. 

From your perspective serving on the committee, what issues are businesses in the captive and vendor finance sector focused on this year? 

Much like we did my first year as Chair, as a committee our first order of business was to understand what the members wanted to focus on in 2022.  We meet each month and try to discuss onHTMLe important item that is meaningful to our members.  The good news is that we are spending significantly less time on Covid-19 and return to office. 

There are several themes that emerged that we are spending time on this year and each of these topics are exciting discussions for us to engage in and learn from one another: 

• Talent: What challenges are companies facing with acquisition and retention and what tactics are moving the dial for how they improve the talent pipeline 
• Training: How are finance companies (captive or vendor) training their OEM counterparts to be a part of selling a full solution, inclusive of finance 
• Managed Solutions: While this was a topic in 2021, it continues to be an evolving and important area of focus for our members 
• Digitalization: What are the changing business needs and what are the expectations of customers and partners for improved capabilities 
• Data & Analytics: How is analytics changing the way our companies do business, what are companies doing, and what is next

2022 is shaping up with a lot of opportunities for learning from one another!