Many industrial companies focus heavily on new product sales while neglecting the hidden powerhouse of profitability: aftersales. From spare parts pricing to service contracts and digital service tools, the service business holds untapped revenue and long-term customer value.
This article explores why OEMs need to stop ignoring aftersales and start optimizing their support ecosystem—especially in a market where spare parts, maintenance, and service are more strategic than ever.
Key takeaways:
Aftersales revenue is more resilient and profitable than product sales
Smart spares pricing and contract models improve margins and customer satisfaction
Digital tools help optimize workflows, pricing, and customer loyalty
In machine and plant construction, many companies prioritize equipment sales and treat aftersales as an afterthought. But service and spare parts revenue is generally more resilient, less tied to economic cycles, and far more profitable over time.
It generates long-term, recurring income regardless of market volatility
It offsets low margins from hardware or equipment sales
It’s easier to optimize and scale with existing customers
Clear, well-structured service processes are essential to increasing profitability in the aftersales business. According to Roland Berger, service success comes down to three factors: growing service revenue, reducing service costs, and optimizing service contracts.
Each one is tightly connected to how you manage spare parts, service delivery, and internal workflows.
Spare parts pricing is often inconsistent, outdated, or unmonitored. In an increasingly competitive digital marketplace, this leaves margin and market share on the table.
Are your spares priced consistently across categories?
When were prices last adjusted—and how?
What parts are high-frequency purchases, and how do they relate to each other?
What’s the pricing strategy of key competitors like Amazon or Alibaba?
Even back-office services often go unbilled. Reviewing and adjusting pricing for all touchpoints—not just parts, but technical support and document requests—can generate significant new revenue.
Many companies lose money in aftersales due to free support services and inefficient internal processes.
Technicians and hotline teams spending hours on unpaid calls
Travel time for in-person service visits that aren't billed
Lack of clarity on service contract status during customer support
By auditing these workflows, reviewing service logs, and identifying repetitive, unpaid activities, you can eliminate inefficiencies and recover lost profit.
Service contracts offer reliable, recurring income—but most companies underutilize them. Studies show that only 10–30% of customers have valid contracts, and many of those contracts are underpriced or unprofitable.
Reviewing bundled services and aligning pricing with actual costs
Offering tiered service levels with clear value differentiation
Monitoring contract performance regularly for margin optimization
Done right, service contracts provide financial stability and strengthen customer relationships—especially in uncertain times.
Delivering better aftersales experiences requires actionable data. Unfortunately, many OEMs lack visibility into customer behavior, spare part order history, or service usage patterns.
Visual part recognition on smartphones enables fast identification and ordering
Real-time data on which spares are searched but not ordered can guide dynamic pricing
Location-based tracking improves logistics and part availability
App-based ecosystems offer direct communication, smart upsells, and automated billing
By integrating digital tools into your aftersales flow, you not only make your customer’s life easier—you collect the insights you need to continually improve pricing, service bundles, and logistics.
For example, a customer who uses your app to identify a part but still needs help can trigger an auto-billed support call—turning manual tasks into monetized service.
And with modular add-ons like condition monitoring or predictive maintenance, your aftersales system becomes a true growth engine.
The Hidden Costs of Manual Parts Searches: Why Automation Matters
Explore how digital tools are helping OEMs optimize the spare parts side of their aftersales business.
Roland Berger: Service Business Optimization Insights
Strategic insights from real-world projects showing how to scale margin and service revenue across industrial businesses.
Stop treating spare parts like a back-office task. Start turning them into a business growth engine.
Partium’s Enterprise Part Search helps OEMs streamline parts identification, optimize pricing, and offer digital tools that customers actually use. With photo, text, and BOM-based search, your team and your clients can find the right spares in seconds—and your aftersales business can finally scale with confidence.
💡 Grow service revenue. Increase spares margin. Deliver better support.
👉 Discover Partium’s AI-Powered Spares Platform