Access Plans Inc (fka APNC)

[MoneyMan]

Great article on Benefit Marketing Solutions in RTOHQ: The Magazine June - July 2008


http://www.rtohq.org/apro-rtohq-magazine-June-July-2008.html

Benefit Marketing Solutions

You might not think there’s much of a connection between University of Oklahoma football legends and federal rent-to-own legislation. But there really is a fairly strong connection—and its name is Benefit Marketing Solutions. BMS (www.benefitmarketingsolutions. com), is the rent-to-own industry’s leading provider of membership programs—rental addon products that allow dealers to extend benefits to customers for an additional fee. Benefits offered might include insurance protection on merchandise during its rental, warranty protection following its purchase or money-saving opportunities wherever customers might regularly spend, from the grocery store to the doctor’s office. BMS currently serves about 65 percent of America’s rent-to-own industry, marketing its packages through approximately 4,500 stores nationwide, via 200 or so dealers. Next year, BMS founders will celebrate a 20-year partnership with rent-to-own.

For the past 15 years, the company has been involved in legislative grassroots efforts at the national level, advocating for the RTO industry. Here’s where OU football comes into the picture: the business, originally known as Foresight, was co-founded by Danny Wright, still the company’s CEO, and Steve Owens, famed OU running back and 1969 Heisman Trophy winner. The pair worked together to persuade Republican U.S. Representative J.C. Watts Jr. to support the Consumer Rental-Purchase Agreement Act, federal legislation to protect both the RTO industry and its customers. Their in? Watts had been a much-celebrated quarterback for—you guessed it—the University of Oklahoma. “J.C. already knew us, trusted us and was open to what we had to say,” Wright recalls. “It wasn’t hard because we already had a relationship with him involving a great deal of trust and if what you’ve got to say is a good thing and makes sense, then it’s not difficult to get involvement.” Wright and Owens not only secured Watts’ support, but the congressman agreed to be the first Republican to lead sponsorship of a rent-to-own bill. Confident with that success, Owens and Wright traveled to Capitol Hill to lobby Oklahoma’s congressional delegation for a favorable definition-and-depreciation treatment as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

They were once again successful, perhaps due in part to a member of the delegation being— yep—another OU football great, Steve Largent. But BMS managers understand that such a soul-to-pigskin connection doesn’t always exist when it comes to gaining legislative yardage, so they depend upon other vital resources, such as good old-fashioned perseverance. “It is all about relationship,” BMS Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing Susan Matthews says. “In order to create that relationship, you’ve got to stay with it. I may not be one of the more outspoken participants in a large meeting, but my determination helps make sure the deal gets sealed—both on the job and on the Hill.” Matthews is clearly passionate about the important role rent-to-own vendors play in the success of the industry as a whole. “We consider our involvement in getting this legislation passed equally as important to us, as vendors, as it is to rental dealers,” Matthews says.

And she speaks from experience when it comes to the relationship between dealers and vendors; her husband, Dan Matthews, is a rental dealer and president of the Texas Association of Rental Agencies. “What’s good for this industry is also good for us.” “I think a lot of people in the rent-to-own industry don’t realize how much progress has been made by APRO membership going up to Washington, D.C., each year,” BMS Senior Vice President and General Counsel Brad Denison says. “This industry has achieved more than many bigger industries. At BMS, we know that APRO’s Legislative Conference and continuing grassroots efforts are a valuable way to support the industry; that’s why we’re there.”