Successful Management & Sales of Industrial Service Portfolios

Services already make a significant contribution to customer satisfaction and business success in the mechanical and plant engineering sector. Their importance will continue to grow in the future in view of declining margins in new product business and increasing global competition. To differentiate themselves from the competition and ensure their own success in the long term, companies must add data-based services to their existing service portfolio and develop them into comprehensive solutions.

Companies operate in a volatile environment in which external influencing factors change continuously. In addition, the requirements of users for the machines and systems used must be taken into account. This makes the development and provision of services a circular process for providers, which must be constantly scrutinized, evaluated and continued in the interests of a needs-based, customer-centric service offering.

The Service Sales Engineering specialist group supports manufacturing companies in further developing their service portfolio and successfully placing it on the market:

With our experts, we create the basis for a seamless transition between the development and sale of industrial service portfolios by analyzing the decisive levers for both areas and aligning both the service portfolio and the sales strategy in a customer-centric way. In this way, we shape industrial services and digital products and accompany the transformation into a solution provider.

The Aachen Service Sales Engineering Model

The Aachen Service Sales Engineering Model  is the starting point for developing and selling innovative services and solutions. The path to a service-oriented company leads through the five fields of action mentioned below. Within these, we deal in application-oriented research with the answering of e.g. the exemplary questions mentioned.

• Customer Centricity
  
  The first step is customer centricity. Currently, too many services are thought of in terms of the product and the needs of the customer are insufficiently taken into account. Yet this is the most important prerequisite for a needs-based and sustainably successful service offering. All stakeholders - such as users, but also purchasers - and their needs as well as other external influencing factors - such as the competition or technological developments - must be taken into account.
  
  What factors need to be considered in service development, for example internal and external stakeholders, infrastructure, but also competition?
   
• Service Portfolio
  
  Based on this, it is necessary to examine how the existing service portfolio can be further developed or supplemented. The aim is to transform the company into a solution provider and thus to analyze which additional services create added value for both provider and customer and enable long-term cooperation. Service level agreements (SLAs), for example, are suitable for this purpose, as they create the basis for a long-term partnership between provider and customer.
  
  How are services to be developed and integrated into a successful service portfolio?
   
• Business Models
  
  The newly designed service portfolio is transferred into a business model that optimally supports the overarching corporate strategy. This ensures that overarching goals and business success are achieved.
  
  Which business models are suitable for manufacturing companies to successfully market (data-based) services and solutions? What pricing approaches are there and how do they fit in with the strategic goals of the digital and service business of manufacturing companies?
   
• Sales & Pricing
  
  Sales and pricing as well as the marketing of industrial service portfolios and digital solutions are based on a mutual value proposition. The decisive purchasing criterion is not unique performance, but trust and transparency in the sense of long-term customer loyalty. This requires a radical rethink in both sales and marketing, among other things with regard to individual communication with the customer, value-based pricing of services, digital products or combined solution packages, the necessary skills of the company's own employees, and incentive and remuneration systems.
  
  What are the levers of a successful market launch and how can they be used? Which key figures are suitable for sales and performance controlling?
   
• Organization & Processes
  
  The operational and organizational structure must support a company's new offering. In order to integrate new service components, the organization and processes must be defined, adapted or, if necessary, newly established.
  
  How are processes and organizational structures to be evaluated and designed, especially with regard to necessary resources, personnel availability and existing infrastructure?