Trust Is the Media Industry’s Most Valuable Currency

To diversify beyond products and aftermarket parts, OEMs can expand service-based offerings. This could start with extended warranties, break/fix repair, and enhanced service level agreements.

As OEMs increase the level of information they capture about their products in the field - including product location, performance, and repair frequency - they can offer more advanced and preventative maintenance services. By embracing the use of sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) technology, OEMs can add proactive, and ultimately predictive, maintenance offerings.

During the pandemic, repair technicians often could not access customer equipment onsite to do repair work. As a result, more manufacturers turned to remote repair and virtual reality technologies to get customers back up and running. Adding these technologies to the OEM service portfolio reduces costs, speeds time to repair, and improves customer satisfaction.

As with aftermarket parts, success requires consistent engagement throughout the customer lifecycle. This ongoing engagement helps develop stronger relationships with end-customers and builds brand loyalty.

Finally, strong collaboration with channel partners is essential for driving revenue growth. Excellent partner relationships lead to excellent customer service, benefiting everyone. But too often, poor communication and competition get in the way. According to a BCG survey, 38% of corporate ecommerce channel managers said channel conflicts are their top business concern. And 44% believe tensions will increase in the future.

Digital technologies can help improve OEM/dealer engagement, drive increased revenues, and improve dealer and end-customer satisfaction. It all starts with the objective of providing an excellent end-customer experience that flows seamlessly from the OEM to the dealer to the end-customer and back.

You can help partners succeed with updated training modules, easily-customized marketing materials, and communication and productivity tools that improve efficiency for them while keeping you in the loop. Successful co-marketing is about adopting an everybody-wins mindset and using collaboration tools to make sharing easier. Establish a better connection with partners and they’ll help you learn more about customer trends. This will enable you to create better products and services.

A trusting, cooperative atmosphere loosens tensions and fosters brainstorming. That can lead to innovations neither party would have come up with on their own. And that can lead to hitting milestones faster, while reaching for new goals.

Salesforce has the tools to support you in each of these areas.

Our commerce solutions can help OEMs digital aftermarket parts storefronts parts storefronts that enable seamless self-service purchasing experiences for dealers and end-customers.

Our service, field service, analytics and AI solutions can help you build a data and customer service infrastructure that drives strong service-based business models.

Our Accelerate Channel Management solution can help you build stronger working relationships with channel partners. You’ll find tools for recruiting and onboarding, co-marketing, sales collaboration, business forecasting, training, and more. In addition, with our new Channel Incentive Management Solution, you can leverage both rebates and loyalty programs to drive channel engagement and improve channel performance.