The sales process for many products, including machine tools, has changed. Thanks to easy access to information, customers who want to purchase a new machine today can narrow their choices to a few machines that will meet their needs before ever speaking with an actual sales person. After just a few clicks on a computer mouse, these customers can quickly research and compare data and machine specifications from several builders. They can also easily find and read reviews or social media posts from other manufacturers who are already using the machines to learn more about the pros and cons of each.
With so much information readily available, many customers enter the sales process much more knowledgeable about a machine’s capabilities. As a distributor, one place where we can really add value during the pre-sale phase is when we work with customers to develop complete solutions that will serve their existing and future needs.
Increasingly, customers look to their distributors not only for value before and during the sale, but also after the sale. Today, customers demand much higher levels of service and support from their distributors. These customers want to partner with distributors to achieve productivity and profitability goals, especially as part designs become increasingly complex and machine tools more sophisticated. They expect the distributor to understand their challenges and provide full turnkey support for automation and workholding solutions, preventive maintenance, applications engineering and after-warranty service.
Customers often find that contracting with their distributor for many services has a greater impact on their business’s bottom line than adding more manpower. For example, we have a large customer in the automotive industry that purchased a new machine dedicated to the production of a specific part. That customer opted to contract with us for six months for application engineering support to develop the programming and complete machine set-up rather than hire a full-time engineer. This flexible staffing solution eliminated the risk of hiring an employee that might not be needed after initial setup is complete.
We also have customers who contract with us for maintenance services. Frequently, we hear about the challenges they face finding and retaining qualified maintenance staff , or that they really don’t need a full-time employee for the task. A service contract with us guarantees qualified technicians work on their machines and helps reduce their overhead, as they only pay for the labor hours and services they need.
The value we add for our customers also translates into value added for the machine tool builder. Our ability to provide higher levels of service and support, reduces a machine tool builder’s need to incur additional overhead employing additional engineers to support their customers. Instead, they can focus their resources on designing new technologies and continuing to build high-quality machines.
As the sales process constantly evolves, we anticipate customers will continue to look to their distributors for higher levels and new types of service and support throughout all phases of the sale. One thing is clear: as a distributor, our role remains to add value to the machine tool supply chain.