In recent years, many emerging markets have experienced slowing growth. The market is gradually changing from an incremental model to a stock model. The future of agents is facing great uncertainty. Not only in the construction machinery industry, but also in the oil and gas and oil and gas industries. The same is true in the agricultural machinery industry. To this end, manufacturers and agents have begun to turn their attention to the aftermarket, hoping to tap new gold mines by strengthening their capabilities in spare parts, maintenance and customer service, so as to find new growth points in the industry.
The idea of this strategy is very simple: After years of rapid growth, the huge amount of equipment in the market has provided a stable turnover for the spare parts and service market, and its profit is higher than that of new equipment. This is for many companies. Sustained development is essential.
In the past two years, the sales volume of China's construction machinery market has continued to hit new highs, and the market has become popular again. However, we must see the huge risks behind the hot market: the accessories market has not only not grown in the past two years, but has declined. Data from various aspects show that the operating rate of market projects is not high, and the hot market is largely It is the stimulus of the price war. Taking 2020 as an example, the magnitude of the price reduction of excavators has stimulated the desire of many customers to buy, and thus the sales volume reached a record high in the year of the epidemic, but many agents are losing money! The market continues to start this spring. Hot, but the loss-making area has further expanded, and the loss of money from small excavators to medium-sized excavators is no longer profitable! How can agents survive this way?
The fundamental reason for this price war is the homogeneity of products between brands. Only by fighting prices can the market share be increased, and many brands have greatly reduced their manufacturing costs through localization. They feel that they have room for price reductions to strive for higher prices. Market share. However, there is no winner in the price war. This situation is unsustainable. Many people of insight have set their sights on the aftermarket. In the world of users, whether users can make money depends to a large extent on the aftermarket of agents. Service support, sales are growing rapidly, and profits are shrinking. The service power of many agents simply cannot meet the needs of customers. The next market reshuffle will win or lose in the after-service market, but many agents still only focus on the sales of the whole machine. .
A survey conducted by McKinsey on 30 industrial products shows that the aftermarket profit before tax (EBIT) in the industrial sector averages 25%, which is much higher than 10% of the profit from new equipment sales. In the process of developing the aftermarket, manufacturers usually use the Internet of Things and big data of equipment to guide service activities. In the business activities of foreign construction machinery agents, the importance of the aftermarket has been fully proved.
The aftermarket potential of the excavator life cycle is greater than the aftermarket potential of many other equipment, and the operating performance of some foreign agents has fully proved this point.
If the leasing and second-hand equipment businesses are added, the after-market turnover contribution ratios of the two Caterpillar dealers in 2020 will reach 69% and 65% respectively. Although the "post market" has been a hot topic in recent years, the aftermarket contribution ratio of Chinese agents is still very low, with an average of only 10% to 20%. The big development of the aftermarket that everyone is eagerly awaiting has not arrived as expected. There are few successful cases of the aftermarket transformation of agents, and some people even publicly claim that the aftermarket is just a "false proposition." Why does this happen?
After-market turnover of the agent = the after-market capacity of the agent x the after-market penetration rate. The Chinese market has the largest amount of equipment in the world, the equipment utilization rate is also higher than that of other markets, the price of spare parts is high, and the huge aftermarket capacity is an indisputable fact.
The scale of the aftermarket derived from the application of the Internet of Things and big data is still increasing. The problem is not that the aftermarket does not exist, but that the aftermarket is not in the hands of agents, a large number of customers are lost, and the maintenance and parts business continues to shrink, resulting in The market penetration rate after the agent is very low. In sharp contrast, the Second Mobile Phone Alliance, the Parts Alliance, the Leasing Alliance, the Robot Alliance, the Maintenance and Remanufacturing Alliance and other non-governmental organizations have sprung up like mushrooms after the rain. The cruel reality is: The main force of the aftermarket is no longer manufacturers and agents.
The development model of the post-market is completely different from the "Great Leap Forward" model of incremental marketing agent marketing. Agents can be said to be blank in this regard. Foreign brands have some experience in foreign markets to learn from, but the national conditions are different and the times are different. Many agents are still using the old thinking of exclusiveness, monopoly and regional protection to do the aftermarket. Their focus is still on insured equipment, waiting for customers to come to their door, and they have no ability to maintain the service of out-of-warranty customers, resulting in a large number of customers after the warranty period. Lost, the loss of the post-market becomes inevitable.
Many brands set the price of spare parts too high, causing some customers to afford the equipment and cannot afford the equipment. Some customers even have to seal up the equipment of foreign brands and switch to other domestic substitute products. With the decline in ore prices and rental desk fees, many construction machinery users are facing such a situation: if they honestly use original parts to maintain and repair equipment, they will not be able to make money! Better to meet customer needs is the market after development The original intention of the company has evolved into a new battlefield chasing higher profits. The needs of agents and customers are drifting away, and of course they will be abandoned by customers. This is that many customers give up high-quality original parts and prefer to buy without quality. The reason for guaranteeing the sub-factory parts.
Some strange scenes are often seen in the after-service market: second-hand equipment is a burden in the hands of many agents. Trade-in is subsidized by manufacturers and often loses money. The more equipment overhauls and remanufacturing are repaired, the more you lose, but those used cars The dealers are making a lot of money; the dealers’ spare parts stocks are abundant, but there is nothing wrong with them, and those parts shops are not big, but they are busy, and the bosses are busy every day from morning to night; the dealer’s overhaul workshop is in good condition, but it is empty and many small shops. But the repair shop has endless work and endless car repairs. Obviously, the aftermarket is not a "false proposition", but "God" (customer) is not on the side of agents. Jiang Nanchun once said: "Life is for the purpose of serving, making money by the way."
Those powerful manufacturers and agents need to reflect: They sell equipment to users, but customers don’t come to them to sell accessories and provide services. How can old customers come back? "Don’t forget your original intentions" is not just a slogan. It is also a criterion for cooperation with customers, and old customers are an important driving force for the sustainable development of enterprises.
