A few days ago, my colleagues and I visited the markets of many provinces and conducted extensive exchanges and discussions with OEMs, agents and leasing companies. On the one hand, everyone is vigilant about the current rapid market growth and can look at the market rationally; on the other hand, the price competition that cannot be stopped in reality and the quietly rising overdue rate make people "confused", especially for agents in an embarrassing situation. group. From the perspective of the construction machinery industry chain, agents play the role of intermediate distribution channels and are largely attached to the OEMs. In other words, the development of the brands they represent (the OEMs) almost determines the future of an agent . Take the excavator as an example. In the past two years, the continuous price war has been fought, and most agents have no sales difference. The main profit comes from the sales rebates and subsidies of the OEM, and the operation is more dependent on the OEM. In the context of this industry, agents are more willing and need to think about their own development issues and end the "strategic confusion period" as soon as possible.
Since I started to get involved in the construction machinery industry in 1997, I myself have experienced two complete development cycles of the industry. I would like to share some of my thoughts on the strategic choices of current agents for reference only:
1. The development of agents cannot be separated from the brand
·The natural attributes of the agent determine the great influence of the brand on the development of the agent. "Choice is more important than hard work", "Brand is strong, if the agent can't do it; the brand is weak, and the agent can't do it", etc. Vivid description of influence
Most agents in the Chinese market have grown up under the cultivation and support of OEMs. From their own strength and ability, it is difficult to obtain equal dialogue rights with brands. OEMs often occupy a dominant position in the relationship between manufacturers. More like a "major", to a large extent also assumes the responsibility of agent development
2. The industry environment has a huge impact on agents
·Although China's construction machinery market has entered the stock market, the ability of agents in the aftermarket business has not generally formed. Profits still rely heavily on the sales of the whole machine. My personal judgment is that this situation is difficult to be broken in the short term. The strongest endurance is the top brand agents with economies of scale, and a small number of non-mainstream brand agents with strong aftermarket business capabilities
·The continuous increase in brand concentration promotes "the strong will always be strong." Most brands are unlikely to achieve counterattacks. Unless there is a major structural change in market demand, the current market game rules are more beneficial to top brands, especially domestic brands.
Full model and full coverage competition has become the strategic consensus of the top brands. "Partial security in a corner" can only temporarily guarantee safety, but it cannot guarantee the future
·What cannot be ignored is that user concentration is also increasing, scale demand, service demand and composite demand are constantly superimposed, and user demand orientation has gradually replaced sales order orientation. This puts higher demands on manufacturers' strength and capabilities, and exacerbates differences. The gap between brand agencies
3. The strategic choice of agents should be based on the brand, taking into account their own capabilities and expertise
·It must be emphasized that the development of agents firstly depends on the development of the brands they represent, and brand loyalty is the basis of cooperation between manufacturers
·Secondly, it should be emphasized that at this stage, most agents cannot take the aftermarket business as a pillar of profit, not to mention the existing customer scale in the front market directly affects the development of the aftermarket business
·In the cooperation between agents and brands (main engine manufacturers), there are two dimensions that have a huge impact on the development of agents. One is brand power, that is, the market influence of the brand, which means the scale of sales and the guarantee for the vertical development of agents; It is the product line, that is, the richness of the product line of the agent brand, which is the guarantee for the horizontal development of the agent
·Agents can first evaluate which quadrant the core brand they represent (a brand that occupies an absolutely important position in the company’s revenue contribution and profit contribution) in the above chart, and judge the main future development direction; then combine their own capabilities and expertise, Amend or supplement the main development direction
Fourth, the strategic direction of different types of brand agents
China's construction machinery market has not yet entered a stable brand competition pattern. Maintaining growth is the only choice for agents. This is also the common goal of OEMs and agents. Therefore, "growth" is the main line of the agent's strategic choice. It is a balanced growth between revenue and profit, rather than simply sales growth.
In short, in most cases, the strategic choice of construction machinery agents is not to make a choice from "forward" or "retreat", but "how to regroup".
