Survive COVID-19 & Grow by Service

Aug 13, 2020 • Features • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy

Ahmed Gharbaoui is a Global Subject Matter Expert in Business Growing by Service approach. Here he puts forward a three step plan for field service organisations to build recovery from the colossal impact of Covid-19...

Organizations in your industry have reported that their business is heavily impacted by the COVID19 outbreak, predicting it will take two more years to reach their Q1 2019 P&L levels again.

Long-term loss of market share or even disappearing from the marketplace are real concerns. In that context, a swift influx of cash Is often needed to stay afloat, but external sources of cash may not even be enough to survive the fierce competition.

If you are wondering what step to take to bring swift influx of cash AND address the quick changes in the market place, you may want to tap into Aftersales services and digital resources which proven to be one of the fastest ways to uplift profitability besides strengthening the relationship with your supplied assets end-users through increased customer satisfaction.

Being capital equipment driven for years can make that shift challenging, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right strategy and support, remarkable results can be achieved faster then expected.

Here below highlights of 100 days survival and lasting growth via the 3 pillars approach:

Increase Business Resilience :

It is about evaluating and increasing ratio of reoccurring stable profitable revenue.

Assess Aftermarket/Service share/ratio from total Business
Assess reoccurring business contribution from Aftermarket Revenue.
Example ratio of Service Agreements
Recommend priority focus and define road map taking into account digital support solutions, planning and operational processing.

Bring Aftermarket Operations Transparency:

Service Operations usually is considered as space where errors and quality issues are hidden.

By understanding space and setting improving plan. This would be a fast way to improve cash and profit to the bottom line.

• For example, Check existence and viability of returns/redos tracking
• Assess your improvement processes
• Set based on the findings and benchmark with best in class immediate quick-fixes and mid-long term sustainable improvement roadmap.

Boost Sales Efficiency by:

The level of understanding of an organisation’s aftersales people resources is an important step towards survival and sustainable growth. In following, quick highlight of priority actions.

For example, assess current aftermarket organization and level of importance in the leadership team.
Assess the profile and ratio of salesforce versus execution teams
Then, immediate and targeted actions can be set in terms of sales capacity planning and transformational strategy.

Here are a few short, mid and long-term success stories you may relate to by thanks to the 3 pillars approah:

North American Global leader of Compressed Air Systems OEM:

In order to improve business resilience and boost overall P&L, after first unsuccessful attempt to merge Capital Equipment Sales team with Aftermarket Sales representatives one Account Managers team, + 40% experienced sales team members left for competition. By practicing sales assessment tools the entity could increase its Service Sales share by +30% from first quarter of its implementation. And importantly transforming equipment sales team to solutions Sales organization, dealing with and users challenges and ready to face new future!

US Global engine and powergen OEM: Declining Engines & Powergen:

Aftersales Business Unit of +100 M USD due to heavy dependency on parts, swiftly grew their service business by +60%. Additionally Executive team were convinced to aggressively expand dedicated sales team from 3 to 10 headcounts in very tight P&L context. Bringing additionally + $1 M USD by extra headcount profitably.

European Global Compressed Air System market leader:

Despite declining economy due, they achieved notable uplift in Compressors aftersales revenue from $17M USD to $26M USD with enhanced Operational Efficiency and EBITA across multiple Countries. Additionally launched new digital service offering after connecting +1200 units which boosted Service Agreements revenue and profit reoccurrence.

If you’re an industrial goods manufacturer looking for cash oxygen in a less than 100 days and you’d like to set the foundations for sustainable growth beyond mere survival, we should talk. My email ID is growbyservice@gmail.com