Language Archives - Page 6 of 8 - Sales DNA and a Service heart

Driving Revenue Growth

Today most service executives have a revenue growth target. After having delivered cost reductions for decades, the switch to delivering revenue growth is easier said than done. Where cost control stays within the current paradigm, growing revenue requires an entrepreneurial mindset.

When sales people need to grow revenue, their first response will be “Give me a new product, with more features at a better price point. And yes, we need a marketing budget too.” Let’s transpose this mindset to the service domain.

Give Me a New Product

Take a look at your current services portfolio. When is the last time you reviewed this portfolio? How did the services in your portfolio come to be? Was it an internal push or did you create a dialogue with your customer to develop these services?

Whether we use the word disruption or not, there are several changes to take into consideration.

Customer behaviour
Technology
Business objectives

There are two significant trends we see at play today.

From Product to Output to Outcome based services
From Reactive and Preventive to Condition-based and Predictive services

Give Me More Features

At home you may have a lot of products laden with features you do not use. Those features have been added by the supplier to cater to a multitude of use-cases. You may have a comparable situation with the “features” on your services portfolio.

In growing revenue, the most important thing is to have a dialogue with your customer to change the feature push into a feature pull.

A preventive maintenance example:

You can split the preventive maintenance job into three pieces:

The execution of preventive maintenance
Creating a report on the findings and activities done
Communicating about the job

Many customers see the execution of preventive maintenance becoming a commodity. They expect to get a report free of charge but will acknowledge its value increasing from a compliance point of view. The eye opener may be communication. When offering choices like email, telephone, video conference or communication on site, a growing group of customers will choose the latter. With equipment becoming so complex, customers want an expect to say something sensible about it. Often this visit turns out to be the largest cross and upselling opportunity.

We see two growth levers:

Suppliers adding communication “features” enter in a dialogue of value and drive new revenue streams
Suppliers adding features enabled by service and digital transformation are more connected to their customers leading to more sustainable revenue

At a Better Price Point

We’ve heard various asset operators say: “Less service is more”. Meaning, the lesser a piece of equipment requires servicing, the more the operator can drive value from its use.

We also hear that OEMs providing basis break-fix and preventive maintenance services saying that these services are becoming commoditised and are under severe price pressure.

Of course, you should continue your efforts in improving your internal efficiency and curbing your cost, but the move forward is to develop services higher up in the value chain.

We see a shift:

From Price to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to Value based proposals

We Need a Marketing Budget

In Sales, growing revenue is driven by touch points, leads and conversion of those leads into a sale. In Service we have plenty of touch points and we are driven by customer satisfaction.

We drive incremental sales while performing a maintenance job
We use customer satisfaction to the benefit of higher renewal rates attach rates post point-of-sales

Though these two actions do increase revenue, they build on existing customers in the service domain. To grow revenue further, you need to tap into a base beyond your existing service customers.

Sell services at time of product/ equipment sales
Sell services to adjacent and competitor equipment

To convince these “new” customers you need to be able to articulate how good and valuable your services are. Call it marketing.

This article is published in ServiceMax Field Service Digital on June 25th, 2018

Hybrid Workforce in Field Service

In its latest report^{^[1]} Gartner predicts that “by 2020, more than 40% of field service work will be performed by technicians who are not employees of the organization that has direct contact with the customer.” Whether this development is one of choice or industry dynamics, the ultimate questions are:

What impact does this have on my ability to deliver consistent service?

How to maintain a unified face to the customer?

Insourcing/ outsourcing issues are not new, though the drivers to do so have varied wildly over the last three decades:

Cost and head count targets
Business process outsourcing
Flexibility
Scalability

Acceleration

As of late we see an acceleration in the shift driven by three trends:

Customers are more aware and have multiple service providers to choose from.
Increased ICT and Field Service Management (FSM) capabilities create a greater number of more capable service providers.
Healthy profit margins on services attract existing and new entrepreneurs to get a piece of the cake.

The consequence of this shift is that a legacy 1:1 relationship between customer and supplier turns into a many-to-many relationship. Customers have a greater selection of suppliers, and suppliers can reach out into new markets.

Scaling your service delivery capabilities

The threat of existing customers going to the competition and the opportunity to win customers in competitors’ markets drives the scaling of your service delivery capabilities. You’ll not only need to be able to vary the volume of your workforce, you’ll also need to be able to modify your business processes and workflow on the fly, based on real-time metrics. In this regard Gartner’s prediction is multi-angled and serves as a good compelling reason to act.

This article is published in ServiceMax Field Service Digital on April 25th, 2018

^[1] Gartner “Critical Capabilities for Field Service Management”, March 27, 2018, G00348436

Are Service Metrics the New Economic Barometer?

For decades the OECD^[1] has been reporting a global productivity decline, while at the same time we see a rise in GDP. This triggers the question: Should the productivity metric should be augmented with more contemporary metrics in policy making and business decisions? Today we see the disruption of anything-as-a-service business models. Its success is powered by underlying service metrics.

Where productivity predominantly focusses on the efficiency of producing a product, service metrics focus on how that product is being utilised. Understanding and optimising a product’s use creates new revenue streams boosting our economy.

Responding to Volatility

Service metrics have been around for decades, only to gain more traction as other metrics fail to paint a complete picture for decision makers. Decision makers face a volatile environment with rapidly changing customer behaviour and technology. Today we must explain to customers that apart from selling an excellent product, we provide services that enable the end user to drive value from that product. Instead of the product being the goal, the product is a means to an end. More and more we’re moving towards buying the outcome of a product over owning the product.

“Velocity and scale of adoption are coming faster, making service metrics (availability, uptime, reliability) strategic to growth & success¹.”

After-Sales Has Always Known

Initial product purchase relative to total product lifecycle cost

Research from Accenture^[2] shows that between 8 and 12% of the life cycle cost are related to the purchase of a product. The rest of the costs are incurred during the operational phase of a product. It is typically the after-sales department that provides services during this phase. In doing so, after sales has many touch points and has a pretty good idea how the customer is using the product. In performing the services throughout the product lifecycle, after-sales generates many service metrics. The big opportunity is to use these metrics beyond the operational aspects of delivering the services.

Maturing of Service Metrics

The effectiveness of service metrics depends on the maturity of your service organisation. If you only provide break-fix and spare part services in a reactive mode, the available metrics will have a lesser potential to influence your business strategy then when selling output/ outcome-based services. For the latter, having a thorough understanding of all cost and revenue drivers is essential. The common demeanour is that service metrics drive new insights and those insights can be turned into new revenue opportunities. Zeithami^[3] et al illustrate in their continuum how your services portfolio will change when maturing and shifting the focus from product to its use.

Installed Base Penetration

Let me illustrate the maturing of a service metric and its impact on your business model. Does your organisation know where products go after they have been sold? Do you keep track of reactive and preventive maintenance activities per installed product? Do you keep track of modifications and retrofits to installed products?

When you invest in installed base understanding and connect the dots with all activities that relate to the installed product, each iteration you generate more insights to do the job better, faster and cheaper. As a result, you build trust and satisfaction with your customer. In return, the customer will tell you more about his business and how you can create more value by means of offering more and upscale services. The more you are connected to the dynamics of your customer, the more reliable your economic barometer.

From Data Consumer to Data Supplier

What you see happening in the example of installed base penetration is that after-sales is transitioning from data consumer to data provider. To deliver basic services, after-sales builds on product related info such as the as-built and warranty clauses. In delivering services, after-sales collects data on the usage of the product creating a wealth of insights from the as-maintained. The insights created from service metrics can feed both product development and market development, resulting in better products and relevant propositions driving sustainable economic growth.

Outcome Economy

On sustainable economic growth, the World Economic Forum^[4] describes the outcome economy as a phase where “companies will shift from competing through selling products and services, to competing on delivering measurable results important to the customer”. This requires “a deeper understanding of customer needs and contexts in which products and services will be used”. Service metrics cater to this deeper understanding of both product and customer behaviour. It is technology, digitisation and state-of-the-art field service management tooling that drives the maturing of service metrics in both scale and real-time. Having this data at your fingertips supports situational and holistic decision making. In other words, product related services for commodity buyers and outcome-based services for value buyers.

Service Metrics as an Economic Barometer

Whether it is the maturing of the after-sales domain or the customer shift from owning a product to generating value of its use, service metrics are at the heart of both. The dotcom revolution has shown us that productivity does not have the same relevance in the automated, servitised Industrial Internet business landscape. Today, we live in a data driven economy. He/she who masters data has a competitive advantage. Service Metrics play into that game.

“It’s about unlocking data to turn valuable insights into powerful business outcomes^[5].”

After-Sales Paradigm Shift

After-sales traditionally has not been a business function with a voice in strategic decision making^[6] – despite contributing significantly to the margin of the organisation. With the growing value of service metrics after-sales has the potential to become a provider of valuable and strategic insights. This is a paradigm shift for the entire organisation. Productivity has its place, but pay attention to the service metrics as an economic barometer.

This article is published in ServiceMax Field Service Digital on January 8th, 2020

^[1] OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators 2017, ISBN 9789264273252

^[2] Accenture 2001, Equipment Today, Service Tomorrow – the total cost of ownership vision

^[3] Zeithami, Brown, Bitner and Salas 2014

^[4] World Economic Forum – Industrial Internet of Things: Unleashing the Potential of Connected Products and Services 2018 – Chapter 3: Convergence on the outcome economy

^[5] GE Digital strategic focus 2018, Bill Ruth

^[6] VansonBourne 2016, The challenges, benefits and future opportunities of field service management

Battery Gate

The dust is settling over Battery Gate. I’ve heard many woes and seen people in disbelief. Is this really happening? Is a mobile phone the only product affected? Social media exploded with conspiracy theories and various law firms have started class actions. What can we learn from Battery Gate?

Sales and After-Sales

A relationship between Supplier and Customer starts with an initial sale. With array of tools Suppliers bid for repeat purchases:

Dazzle them: Brand/ customer loyalty
Force them: Technology/ customer lock-in
Convince them: Maintenance & Value-added Services
Help them: Operate & Ease-of-use Services

In the case of the phone we can see multiple types of product related repeat purchases:

	Revenue	When
New phone	$999.00	In x years
Extended warranty	$199.00	Point of sale
Battery replacement	$79.00	Approx. after 2 years

In this example the supplier drives its revenue figures through product sales and has little incentive to lengthen the life cycle of the product. After-sales revenues even jeopardize future product sales.

Many OEM’s/ Manufacturers will find themselves in exactly the same position: after-sales revenues are a welcome addition to sales revenues as long as they don’t compete.

Doing the right thing

So, what is “doing the right thing”? In case of Battery Gate consumers got the impression that the supplier was purposefully reducing the product life cycle, thus forcing earlier product repurchases. We’ll probably never know all supplier considerations in their course of action, we do know Battery Gate back fired … to a certain degree. Analysts predict that the supplier may see “mild headwinds” (see inset).

When considering “doing the right thing” from the customers perspective, the concept of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) could come into play: the optimum of both the initial/ capital sale and the operational expenditures throughout the life cycle.

Does this mean we would rather buy a phone with a longer life span and user replaceable parts? I guess here we must make the distinction between “needing” and product and “wanting” a product. If you want the new functions and features you’ll probably forgive the supplier. Your repeat purchase will be the next product. If you need the product to generate output and outcome for your organization, you’ll drive your supplier, or third-party maintainer, to deliver after-sales services.

Loyalty

Would a Battery Gate in your industry impact your NPS and revenue stream? Would the headwinds be negligent, mild or violent? I believe being honest and transparent is your route to loyalty and repeat revenue.

CIO take – Field Service Engineer of the Future

What is your digital roadmap? What technology advancements is your organization utilizing? There’s a great chance these questions are crossing your path. In the Argyle CIO Webinar on the Field Service Engineer of the Future five executives shared their take on technology both as driver and enabler for generating business value.

At center stage we position the Field Service Engineer. His/ her propensity to work with and embrace technology is a critical success factor in value creation. Though field service may have suffered from under investment or derision, new technology is turning everything on its head. Service is increasingly seen as critical business function.

In a way, we see a convergence of many insights molding into a perfect storm. In addressing each aspect, we see a pivotal role for Field Service. This leads us to a Vision for Digital Worker: “The Digital Worker suite of applications enables, empowers, and elevates industrial workers to drive the customer outcomes of productivity, reliability, safety, security, and profitability”.

The toolkit of the Digital worker comprises of:

Internet of Things
Augmented Reality
Big Data
Predictive Analytics
Drones and robots/cobots
Artificial Intelligence
Wearable & mobile devices
Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing)

The good news is that these are not technologies of the future, they are available today and providing solutions to the most pressing business issues. Also, the cost of technology is coming at a point where the business case turns positive.

The CIO panel stressed the human component; the interaction between people and technology. Technology can be a very powerful instrument in attracting and retaining talent. At the same time addressing the aging workforce and productivity issue. Tech savy field service engineers tend to recognize the value of technology and thus adoption rates are high.

When it comes to investment priorities the panel was unanimous on connectivity of assets and how that data collaborates with operations and the field service engineer. Customers value the output and outcome of assets. The new play is about Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Both cost of downtime and increased earnings capacity of the asset are the main drivers for the investment priority.

With the value promise of field service and digital technology the final question to the panel was on getting from knowing to doing. Who do we need to convince and/or pull into the discussion in moving forward? The first answer was “everybody”. We’re in a paradigm shift. We have to see it. As CIO’s we have a leading role in driving the transition. As CIO’s we understand tech and digital, we understand the importance and reach. We have to reach out to the business and lead. Through innovation teams. Through a Chief Digital Officer. By being agile. Glad to know Field Service both loves technology and more and more is recognized as a critical business function.

A closing remark from a Field Service Engineer: “Do give me the right tools to be a hero on site. As a result I’ll deliver value”.

Field Service Asia – Is Asia willing to pay for Service?

Sentosa Island was the backdrop for the first Field Service event in Asia. More than 120 delegates came to Singapore to participate in discussions and get a feel of the field service buzz. Many had heard their European or American colleagues talking about the US & EU editions and were encouraged to join the debate.

On the tip of the tongue was this one question: “Is the Asian customer willing to pay for Service?” Closely followed by “on a maturity scale, how do we compare?”

The two questions are interlinked. In the same country and sometimes with the same customer it makes a significant difference how you both define and position service. If service is more focused on the Product, the Asian customer is less inclined to pay for service. This is most visible in the Japanese culture where Product related service is pinned to Quality: if the product breaks, something is wrong with quality … and the supplier must fix it … at his cost.

Despite all the cultural differences, most delegates agree that the basic field service business processes are more universal. A product breaks, the customer has an expectation and calls, the supplier fixes the product resulting in a customer satisfaction/ experience. For these service basics there is a lot of transformation going on.

The transformation specifics unfold in building a business case. Three country specific attributes impact both the cost and the return:

Labor cost
Geographical spread and logistics capabilities/ cost
Local legislation, trade & sector barriers

At the first Field Service event in Asia delegates have engaged with each other, thought leaders and field service tool providers. There is an overwhelming consensus on the value field service is providing to the organization and its customers. Going home, the promise of service transformation towards the future is even bigger.

Adding the core message on “ownership” from the TEDx speaker Andrew Bryant, maybe we should rephrase the opening question: “When are we willing to pay for Service”. Make the question personal and dive into your own deliberations. If you can frame your service message more on the Customer side than on the Product side, I believe any customer will pay for Service.

This article is published in ServiceMax Field Service Digital on November 21st, 2017

After:Market 2017 – Unleasing Service 4.0

Last week 250 service leaders attended the 11^th edition of After:Market in Hamburg, Germany. For a number of years, I’ve chaired this event and presented keynotes. Over the years I’ve seen a change in dynamics both in attendants and topics covered. Not only is aftermarket reiterating its value contribution, aftermarket is also positioning itself at the core of business transformation.

To my great pleasure a growing number of attendees is having job titles like business development and sales & marketing. This year even procurement was present. The sheer observation that other functions are having an interest in service is the equivalent of “likes” on social media. The buzz is out. Service people knew that they mattered, now other functions are recognizing it.

Amongst the participants I detect a drive to unleash service on two levels:

Doing things right – Daily many service people keep our assets afloat and take a pride in helping customers. To keep up with the pace of technology advancement and customer expectations, many service executives are shopping for state-of-the-art tooling.
Doing the right things – Having all the data and touch points in grip, there is a realization that service is sitting on top of a gold mine to adapt/ change the business model. These service executives are shopping for how-to-get-buy-in handles.

In my presentation “what service manager should know about sales” I mentioned a window of opportunity to initiate business transformation. If your it is the goal of your organization to grow your business rather than increasing sales, then service can lead the discussion by role playing a product-focus-scenario versus an outcome-based-scenario.

During the networking breaks and social activities, you can feel a common sense of direction. Service is working hard to get its act together on the basics. At the same time service is preparing for that opportunity to contribute to and drive the new business model.

At After:Market many speakers have shared their take on servitization, service design, product-as-a-service, digital, IoE and event procurement-psychology. Great and inspiring stuff. Especially when you tie it all together to create momentum to start your own transformation journey.

I’m looking forward to next year’s edition … and to hear from you how you have applied the insights in your organization.

This article is published in ServiceMax Field Service Digital on November 1st, 2017

Chairing a Field Service event

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Coen Jeukens, Chief Service Officer, D-Essence who was the Chair at this year’s Field Service Forum hosted by Copperberg about the key themes of Agility and Disruption in Field Service

Product as a Service

When we need light, we buy a bulb. When we need a hole, we buy a drill. It is so engrained in our thinking to own products whilst we actually need the outcome. More and more we see upstart businesses cater to this “new” demand. They sell a product as a service (PAAS). How are you preparing your organisation to sell your product as a service?

“We move water”

At the After:Market 2016 event in Wiesbaden a German manufacturer of pumps introduced his company with the words “we move water”. With those simple words he set the stage for his PAAS business model. Selling the pump is not his goal; it is a means to start an outcome-based discussion with his client. In doing so he enters in a conversation where he truly understands what drives his customer.

“If you make a fantastic long lasting products, how do you earn money when the market is saturated?”

Because the conversation goes beyond the pump, he has created a new business model where he earns money with moving water. The additional benefit is for the environment. Instead of designing your product for repeat sales you will wind down a track where you deliver outcome at a minimal material/ energy footprint.

Transforming legacy business is possible

Understanding the effort it takes to transform a legacy business, University of Cambridge professor Andy Neely asked the panel of the Field Service Summit 2017 in Warwick what successful transformation examples should encourage others to follow suit. Both Boeing and Philips demonstrate you can have best of both worlds. They serve customers in a hybrid model. Via one business unit customers can buy the product in a legacy CAPEX/ OPEX mode. Via another business unit customers can buy the output/ outcome of the product. Depending on his propensity, a customer can choose between a jet engine and a “power by the hour” propulsion solution or a bulb and a “pay per Lux” illumination solution.

“Do you need a bulb or are you in need of light?”

Dialogue inset is a freely edited transcript of VPRO Tegenlicht documentary “don’t own, enjoy” November 8th, 2015 (Dutch). A variant of the message in English can be found here.

Why should you explore PAAS

It may scare corporate executives and sound very blunt but exploring PAAS is a “do or die” message. If you don’t do it, somebody else will. At best it is your current competition and you can see it coming. For the worst, you will face competition from newcomers starting with a clean slate.

Record labels were so focussed on holding to their CD product revenue stream and deliberated so long on legal download options, they were decimated by services like Spotify.

How do you assess your organisation?

“Products are meant to deliver a solution.”

Using a more positive approach: the more you understand how the outcome of your products generates value to your customer the more you establish yourself as long term partner in both a profitable and sustainable way.

Where to start

In the example of Philips Lighting, a small team beyond the radar of product based business model executives designed the “pay per Lux” solution. Upon demonstrated success with a launching customer the new PAAS solution was put in the spotlight.
Setting up a sandbox environment with servitisation minded people is essential, as you will be in for a paradigm shift:

When you sell Outcome there is no title passage of the Product. This means the product remains on your balance sheet.
As supplier you will be responsible for and remain in control of all CAPEX and OPEX cost components.
You need to understand your customer to define a “pay per use” earnings model.

Understanding cost

In the Philips Lighting dialogue the customer asks for a Design, Build, Finance, Maintain and Operate solution. This DBFMO framework can be used to understand total cost of ownership.

Design and Build lead to the commissioning of a Product. Maintaining the Product safeguards the Output of the Product. Operating the Output provides an Outcome. The Outcome generates Value.

Maintain and Operate are stated in terms of OPEX. When adding Finance services to your portfolio, you can transpose Design and Build CAPEX into OPEX too.

Design-for-Operate

With PAAS the total cost of ownership shifts from customer to supplier. As a result the supplier is incentivised to throw in all his expertise to continuously optimise product, output and outcome.

In order to make pay per use profitable all cost elements of DBFMO need to be designed in unison. Call it design-for-operate. Where design-for-service supplements design-for-manufacturing, design-for-operate augments the former two.

“Business models based on breaking products should not be accepted”

Pay per use

Where design-for-operate drives towards minimising waste and cost, engineering the right pay per use model determines your revenue. This is where entrepreneurship and partnership kicks in.

Pay per use is a bi-directional handshake between supplier and customer that takes it to the next level compared to a typical sales-purchasing relationship. Instead of a cost/ revenue conversation about products and output your dialogue will evolve into an outcome based profit/ value handshake.

Your customer will help you define the pay per use drivers. If you really understand his business and you are confident in the capabilities of your own organisation to generate outcome that makes your customer succeed, your customer will be inclined to enter into a partnership to make you succeed as well. As a result de pay per use drivers will be fair, sustainable and durable to both parties.

Don’t own, enjoy

Ownership comes with responsibilities. Why should a customer have to carry the risk whilst the supplier is the expert in both understanding and influencing risk. A PAAS model is the ultimate form of “back to core business”. The supplier managed DBFMO, the customer uses the outcome to generate value. In return the customer pays for use.

Does pay per use really work for both parties or do words like partnership, fair and sustainable sound altruistic? The IT industry does give us insight into what is to come. Because SAAS solutions are available for consumers as well, first hand experience is changing our perceptions, attitude and decision-making regarding cost and value.

Published in Field Service News issue #xx (July/August 2017 and website

What service managers should know about sales

Service is probably the single largest contributor to an organisations profit margin. Service has the most lasting and trustworthy relationships with customers. Still, in the board it is a sales game. If service wants to lead, it has to understand sales.

In the boardroom

Let us be witness of a business plan review meeting:

Exhibit A: our targets are more ambitious than our current performance.
Exhibit B: we face increased competition, increased customer volatility and shorter product life cycles leading to declining market share and diminishing attach rates.

Now suppose the CEO invites you, the field service manager, to pitch a solution to this non-sustainable situation. Are you prepared? Will your message and vocabulary resonate with the board members?

For as long as I can remember, field service managers bring a message of reality. About healthy and sustainable profit margins. About attach rates and trusted relationships.

What do you think the sales manager brought forward as solution? A message of hope: “if we introduce a new model, add a new feature or drop the price, we will regain market share”.

“When it comes to choice, a message of hope prevails over one of reality.”

What makes the clock tick?

The ugly truth of corporate economics: it’s all about sales and success is measured in revenue figures. Add to that the sales perception that after-sales does not exist without an initial sale and you know the picking order is set. To complete the picture, factor in mind that most CEO’s have a sales background.

“Sales first, then after-sales.”

Sales targets

Sales is a big numbers game. Product hero’s playing with capital expenditures. Going for the win is putting in a peak performance in a short period of time, balancing effort and reward. Asking sales to include Opex related propositions in the sale does sound altruistic considering that doing so complicates, lengthens and may jeopardise the sale.

What about profitability? In the sales mind-set profitability is not a driver or performance indicator. Not because they don’t care, far from that. Because in most customer organisations the decision making unit for both Capex and Opex are different entities optimising their own silo.

“Profitability, who cares? Certainly not sales.”

Funnelling leads

Sales vocabulary uses words like suspect, prospect, lead and qualification. Elias Lewis has put these words in context in 1898 when he conceived the sales funnel. This funnel is engrained in every sales process. It is in the DNA of sales people to convert leads into a sale.

“What we need? Leads, more leads and qualified leads.”

Qualification

One of the most important steps in the sales process is the qualification of a lead. Here sales balances effort with reward. When service starts feeding the funnel, it is crucial to know the difference between a lead in the eyes of a field service engineer and a lead according to sales.

In the eyes of sales service-leads are a big bag of small peanuts. Converting those requires a lot of effort with small reward. For sales to follow-up on service-leads, those leads need enrichment and qualification.

Window of opportunity

Though the clock ticks sales, typical sales solutions to the corporate challenge fail to reverse declining market share or do so at the expense of profitability. In both cases the course is not sustainable.

This is good news as it provides the opening for the field service manager to come forward with his ideas.

“Growing sales is an operational process. Growing your business is changing your business model.”

Find the right tune

Although ideas have been voiced for many years at field service conferences, they will be new for sales once rephrased in sales vocabulary. It will become a customer touch points game with roles for hero’s and ambassadors. It is the perseverance of sales to get to a customer on board. It is the caring mindset of service to keep a customer happy. It is their joint effort to come up with new business.

“Find the right mix between sales DNA and a service heart to develop new business.”

How will sales react? As long as the field service manager doesn’t gloat over his profit contribution and trustworthy customer relationships … and sales can stay in the lead, then sales will go along.

“Field service managers can lead by following.”

Published in Handy Little Book for service Managers (edition 2017) and website