4 Simple Steps to Grow Your Aftermarket Sales
The aftermarket industry offers an incredibly lucrative opportunity for recurring revenue.
In fact, in key industries such as automobiles, white goods, and industrial machinery it is estimated that the aftermarket sales of businesses have become four to five times larger than their original equipment business.
However, this market segment is lost due to the complexity of aftermarket sales and a lack of strategy focused on increasing these critical sales.
If your business is looking to grow your aftermarket sales and tap into the incredible potential of this revenue stream, we have four simple steps to help you grow your recurring revenue base.
1. Offer an Exceptional Customer Experience
One of the most significant barriers to growth in aftermarket sales is found in a poor customer experience. For example, when a customer needs to replace a part or requires access to vital information about their equipment, they are often faced with a cumbersome process involving copious amounts of time spent sifting through outdated product manuals. And, when they reach out for technical support, they are often met with long phone wait times and limited support availability.
While aftermarket sales and support are often regarded as secondary to primary equipment sales, the reality is that for equipment sellers, nailing the aftermarket customer experience is critical to long-term success. It is during these interactions that loyalty can be built. And if the quality of your documentation is poor, it can reflect negatively on your customer relationship.
As Hiperbaric’s Industrial Director, Julio Garrido, states, “Our after-sales service is essential for keeping equipment in operation and in safe working condition. It’s critical to us and to Hiperbaric customers that we keep costs down and make our service more efficient. I would say that after-sales service and spare parts operations are absolutely vital for Hiperbaric!”
An exceptional customer experience should be:
- Available 24/7
- Accurate
- Intuitive
- 100% Customer Focused!
A positive customer experience can quickly become a key differentiator in competitive markets.
2. Focus on Creating Accessible, Up-to-Date Parts Information
Proper technical documentation is imperative in increasing aftermarket sales. Customers need access to equipment information, where they can quickly look up parts, equipment updates, and essential technical details.
Unfortunately, in most cases, customers are left to rely on outdated information that is unwieldy and difficult to navigate. A large part of this issue is due to the cumbersome nature of publishing product manuals and updating parts information across every channel.
You can transform your publishing process by using one integrated cloud-based platform. For example, with Documoto’s technology, your teams can quickly create, enrich, and connect content — including parts, assemblies, books, tech docs, and more — all in one simple-to-navigate platform. This results in an incredible amount of time and cost savings when publishing and updating catalog information.
Take, for example, how Atlas Copco boosted their online revenue by providing customers with updated parts information distributed in real-time. By offering accessible, up-to-date information, they saw a 64% increase in online sales. Simultaneously, order processing times were reduced by 50%-60%.
3. Provide On-Demand Quotes
Customers do not want to wait around to determine how much a part replacement will cost. In many cases, when equipment or machinery goes down, a company is looking at a huge loss in profits due to downtime. Therefore, it is crucial that a customer quickly access on-demand quotes for replacement parts in these moments.
This is where technology, such as Documoto, makes it easy to provide automated pricing. By integrating Documoto with your existing ERP, you can provide customers with access to up-to-date pricing and inventory levels. Aligning this with all data systems will improve aftermarket sales procedures and accuracy in quotes. This is imperative to building long-term trust with customers.
4. Launch an Online Storefront
Finally, there is perhaps no better way to immediately boost your aftermarket sales than by launching an online parts storefront. Transform your electronic parts catalog into a sales channel that is accessible 24/7. Customers can search, select, and order parts the second they need them.
When launching an online storefront, it is essential to utilize technology that will allow you to integrate with existing ERP systems. This ensures accuracy in pricing and inventory updates.
How much will an online storefront help boost your aftermarket sales? If Fecon is any indication, it could be by incredible leaps and bounds. For example, through an online storefront, Fecon increased its sales of replacement and maintenance parts by $2 million over five years, and it did so without increasing its staffing.
Bonus Tip: Give Documoto a Test Run
Your company can achieve a monumental amount of growth by growing your aftermarket sales. If you are interested in learning more about how Documoto’s robust set of tools can help, request a demo! Documoto allows you to unlock your aftermarket sales potential through a user-friendly content ecosystem. Author and publish parts books quickly, launch a digital storefront, and provide your customers with an improved experience.
