Construction Equipment: How to sell more Spare Parts with Partium

Suppose you work in the aftermarket department of a construction equipment manufacturer and are interested in how to sell more spare parts with less effort in a highly complex environment. In that case, you are in the right place.

The top 7 - challenges for construction equipment manufacturers that keep you from growing their spare parts business

Almost all of our customers have the following challenges in the aftermarket and specifically in the spare parts business:

1. Customers are extremely heterogenous (and so is their spare parts supply).
2. Independent spare parts suppliers are increasingly aggressive in their competitive bid for standard parts
3. The machines and equipment are ALWAYS critical for the business
4. The products are getting more and more complex
5. Dealers are more independent and, at the same time, more dependent on experts and machine manufacturers
6. The spare parts business is often seasonal
7. The spare parts business is often cyclical

1. There are many different use cases for construction equipment. Customers use it on large construction sites, moving construction sites like roads, high-tower construction, civil engineering, bridges, and even more environments. Additionally, there are ambitious Europe-wide or worldwide tenders. Customers want faster construction projects and demand better, more efficient machines, which impacts the customer's spare part supply chain.
2. The spare parts "pirates" and independent suppliers concentrate on standard products and undercut the manufacturers' prices without service and advice. In addition, they score high in availability and fast delivery.
3. The printed logos on faulty spare parts make it easy for everyone to identify who is to blame for the breakdown of a machine. It is blamed on manufacturers like Liebherr, Caterpillar, or JCB and their construction equipment. All of their construction machines are critical for logistics and the general progress of the construction site. Downtime means cost and delay. Repairs must be made quickly.
4. In the last 10 years, the number of critical parts and components has doubled. Electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic requirements are at an all-time high. And requirements are increasing even more - year after year.
5. On-site experts are more in demand than ever. Experience Technicians know their way around the machines, their faults, and the critical parts - but times are changing. The industry is bleeding technicians & mechanics. Demographics, working conditions, work hours (24/7), and the ever-increasing complexity mean that soon even generalists or casual users need to be able to solve problems on their own.
6. "You always have too few parts experts in the warm months and too many in the winter" - business is often as seasonal as the job sites. Accordingly, a healthy balance is 30% managing too few resources.
7. The spare parts business fluctuates depending on interest rates, the economic situation, and competition.
   
   

How does Partium support the spare parts business for the construction machinery sector:

• A smart search across serial numbers, images, text fragments, and parts lists.

In addition to spare parts catalogs, PDFs, and technical documents, Partium opens up a new way for non-experts to search for spare parts that are easier and faster. Results are easy to understand, and searches can be referred to an expert or the hotline when in doubt.

• The pre-qualification of requests by AI and humans.

The hotline requests are pre-qualified and processed by the Partium team together with Partium's AI. Workloads for Experts are reduced or can be fully avoided. Depending on the use case or region, the pre-qualification process can be set up with or without a dealer in the middle.

• Up and cross-sell opportunities.

The spare part sales team can intervene in the parts confirmation requests and, where it makes sense, provide advice and sell additional services and products.

• Automated analysis of every single spare parts request

Each search and spare parts request can be easily analyzed through Partium's collected search data. Advanced parts analytics can discover search exits, errors, and improvement potentials. With the correct tools, Aftersales managers can make informed decisions and plan professional campaigns to drive part sales.

Want to learn more about how Partium can help you sell more spare parts for construction equipment? Here you can find an overview of Partium's functionalities. You can request a personal demo of Partium here.