Ask to see the offer. A large share of the cheaper numbers merchants are holding are pre-underwriting guesses, offers on a shorter term that cost more in daily payment, or offers conditional on stips nobody has collected. Comparing the two on total payback and daily remittance rather than on the factor alone usually resolves it — and where the other offer is genuinely better, say so.
The instinct is to defend your number. The better move is to ask to see theirs, because the request is reasonable, the merchant usually complies, and about half the time the document answers the objection without you having to argue.
| What they were told | What it usually turns out to be |
|---|---|
| A lower factor | A shorter term — more per day, less total time |
| A number over the phone | A pre-underwriting guess with nothing behind it |
| A bigger advance | Conditional on stips nobody has collected yet |
| "No fees" | Fees present, deducted from the funded amount |
| A genuinely better offer | Sometimes. It happens. |
When it is genuinely better, tell them. A merchant who is told plainly that the other offer wins remembers it, and renewals and referrals come out of that far more often than out of a deal argued away from somebody. Ask to be called when they renew, and diarise it.
The version of this that costs you money is matching a number you cannot actually place. An offer you talk a funder into and then cannot deliver ends with the merchant funded elsewhere and your standing with that funder worse than it was.
Ask to see it. Then compare total payback, daily remittance, term and net funded rather than the factor alone. A large share of cheaper offers are pre-underwriting guesses or shorter terms that cost more per day.
Because the term does as much work as the factor. The same factor over six months costs roughly twice as much per day as over twelve, and the daily remittance is what the merchant actually experiences.
Only if you can actually place it. Matching a number you cannot deliver ends with the merchant funded elsewhere anyway and your standing with the funder damaged, which is a worse outcome than losing the deal cleanly.
Say so, and ask to be called at renewal. Merchants remember the broker who told them the truth against their own interest, and renewals and referrals come out of that more reliably than out of deals argued away.
Ask whether it was put in writing after somebody read their bank statements. Merchants know the answer, and the question separates the two without accusing anybody of anything.
We will tell you straight up if we cannot help you. No commission deals, no free trials, no chasing you for three weeks.