One of the key changes within our industry is the use of advanced analytics to drive equipment dealership performance. Equipment dealers and partners who embrace these changes sooner than later will reap the many benefits provided by these new technologies. The most impactful and disruptive experiences we’re now seeing include the integration of IoT and AI, among other digital business offerings.
The Equipment Industry is Already Behind
At this moment in time, the equipment industry has been slow to adopt, leaving many businesses vulnerable to these disruptions. As a result, sources of profits for dealers might be threatened.
Scenarios involving inventions like price transparency from internet stores, computerized self-service offerings, and 3D part printing from third party sources bring us into a new decade of innovation. Parts & Services are likely to face the most significant disruptions from digital.
The Many Benefits of Advanced Analytics for the Equipment
Dealers today are employing a number of different ways to digitize in this new era. These practices include:
- Offering predictive maintenance packages
- Using analytics to lower the cost of holding parts inventory
- Actively managing digital marketing spend
- Using algorithms to drive supply and demand pricing
- Using analytics to improve the utilization of rental assets
- Employing digital business management solutions
The Key to Adopting Advanced Analytics
Whether or not you’re currently using these strategies, there is one significant mindset shift required of dealers in today’s market. That shift is viewing challenges as opportunities. From automatically monitoring prices for top equipment to providing value-added premium subscriptions, there certainly are a lot of lucrative outcomes to the digitalization of the industry.
Customers Respond Well to These Technological Advancements
And the even better news is, customers love it. In fact, as dealers continue to add advanced tech components to their customer service and infrastructure, a recent equipment rental market analysis predicts a whopping $1 billion increase in revenue by the year 2021.
When choosing an equipment dealer we now know that price competitiveness plays a large role in their decision making. Companies like Amazon are already employing advanced analytics to create pricing algorithms. These web crawlers are set to auto-adjust pricing to meet the needs and demands of the market.
This same technology can help dealers automatically monitor prices. It can also monitor demand for top equipment as well as price new and used equipment to remain competitive in local markets while still allocating inventory to higher demand areas.
Post-Sales Support Has Become Even More Important to Customers
We’re also seeing that post-sales support is another contributing factor for equipment dealership performance and success in this new digital age. In fact, it’s become a very important brand differentiator in the agriculture industry. Advanced analytics offer ways for dealers to offer superb service through predictive maintenance, real-time support, vehicle breakdown avoidance. Detail-oriented service providers will see a lot of benefit from these technologies now and well into the future.
Key Takeaways
- Dealers interested in driving their equipment dealership performance should start showing a willingness to disrupt legacy business models in order to drive growth through digital.
- Advanced analytics are powerful and necessary tools. Leverage them to radically drive down cost structure to maintain or expand margins.
- Get a head start on these technological advancements by investing in new skillsets to properly execute these tasks.
Regardless of how involved you plan to be, advanced analytics is here to stay. Quickly embracing and adopting these technologies can lead to new lucrative income streams and higher customer satisfaction levels.