Hidden Potentials: Making the Pricing Iceberg in the Spare Parts Business Visible and Raising Hidden Sales Opportunities

Price determination in the spare parts business has hardly changed in recent decades. Traditionally, a margin is added to the purchase price, which determines the sales price, so-called cost-plus pricing. Due to the lack of market data and third-party suppliers, this was the most common method, especially before the Internet, but it still vehemently persists in the digital information age. Not least because the spare parts market is still a market characterized by intransparency and a lack of opportunities for comparison. 

Machine manufacturers have only a fraction of the information that actually exists on the market to determine the price of their spare parts, and there is no up-to-date, valid overview of prices and delivery times on the market. As a result, market-oriented price determination is not possible. The result: sales potential is not exploited, the company's own competitiveness is lost and customer satisfaction declines. MARKT-PILOT solves exactly this problem, makes the spare parts market transparent for the machine manufacturer and thus helps to achieve market- and competition-oriented pricing for spare parts. At MARKT-PILOT, we also call this making the pricing iceberg visible.  

What exactly is the pricing iceberg in the spare parts business? 

Often 90% of an iceberg lies under water and escapes our view. It is very similar for machine manufacturing companies in the aftermarket. A lot of information is available, but it eludes us because it is often distributed over numerous and mostly inaccessible channels. Particularly when it comes to determining the price of spare parts, more than 90% of the existing information, for example on competitive prices and delivery times on the market, is therefore usually hidden.

What are the advantages of using MARKT-PILOT?

Machine manufacturers benefit from the following advantages through MARKT-PILOT: 

1. more sales: thanks to the potential analysis, machine manufacturers can see at a glance for which prices there is potential for price increases or market share and can adjust their spare parts prices accordingly. As a result, sales potential is optimally exploited and margins are sustainably increased.  

2. digital resilience: in the data-driven age, the ability to adapt to new environmental conditions represents one of the most important success criteria for companies - especially in mechanical and plant engineering. Only those who react and adapt to new circumstances will secure a successful long-term position in the market. 

3. enhance the customer experience and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction: With a market-oriented pricing strategy for spare parts, machine manufacturers can offer fair prices that are aligned with the market and also have a data-based argumentation basis. This leads to a better customer experience and higher customer satisfaction in the long term.

4. security through data-driven decision-making: a data-driven decision-making basis offers machine manufacturers a significantly higher degree of security in their pricing. Clarity about pricing and supply structure reduces the information gap and brings transparency through data intelligence.    

The last few years in particular have been characterized by uncertainty, a high level of dynamism and numerous technological innovations. There is no doubt that technological progress and the degree of penetration of digitalization will continue to accelerate in the coming years. For machine and plant manufacturers, this means finding digital answers to an environment that is changing ever faster.  

In doing so, they must not shy away from putting established procedures such as cost-plus pricing to the test and positioning themselves for the future. To do this, machine manufacturing companies do not have to jump in at the deep end to see the whole pricing iceberg. Rather, they can rely on MARKT-PILOT's AI-supported software, PRICERADAR, to determine prices for spare parts. MARKT-PILOT's steadily growing customer base shows that more and more machine manufacturing companies are also recognizing precisely this, not only realizing new revenue potential but also strengthening their resilience in the face of global competition. Even a ship would not see objects such as an iceberg and set sail without radar. So why should it be any different for machine manufacturers when it comes to pricing spare parts?