Aftersales As a Revenue Driver: Systematically Growing Your Service Business
Machine manufacturers often only capture a fraction of their theoretical aftersales revenue. Reasons for this include spare parts being hard to find, a lack of clarity around maintenance services, and inadequate data for new business models. To generate service revenue, it’s more important to provide better information rather than sales consultations.
Pascal & Peter
Aftersales Manager and Head of Service
It’s Monday morning, and the team is holding a strategy workshop. Pascal is presenting a model calculation that he’s been busy with for weeks to senior management. For a machine manufacturer with annual turnover of 100 million euros, the spare parts business accounts for around 25 million euros as an industry average. According to current aftermarket benchmarks, companies often only capture 50 to 75 percent of this. The rest of it, some 6 to 12 million euros, remains unused potential (details on this are included in the table of key figures below).
Peter, a service manager at the same machine manufacturer, knows what causes this gap from his day-to-day work. Customers want to buy, but the path to placing an order is often too long.
Where aftersales revenue gets lost: Three structural causes
Ineffective spare parts catalogs
PDF catalogs sent by email often only show a generic exploded drawing:
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No relation to the specific machine configuration
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No compatibility information
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No equipment-specific context
As a result, many customers prefer to phone the call center, order and hope for the best, or switch directly to a third-party provider with a more convenient ordering option. But what they really need is a machine-specific, digital spare parts catalog with an integrated spare parts shop.
Maintenance contracts are not renewed
Reactive contracts along the lines of “You pay a fixed amount and we’ll show up if there’s an emergency” are hard for Pascal to justify. The value-add remains stays buried without reliable figures. The customer pays regardless of whether a fault occurs, but only sees a real benefit in the event of damage. Without measurable added value, customers tend not to renew this kind of contract.
Original parts lose out to the competition
Third-party spare parts suppliers cost machine manufacturers a significant amount of revenue across the industry, mostly for the same three reasons:
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Original parts are not clearly marked
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The added value is not communicated
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The ordering process is too complex
As a result, the company consistently loses business, putting direct pressure on Pascal’s margin.
Figures
Figure | Meaning |
| ~25% of the overall turnover | Typical share of a machine manufacturer’s revenue made up by the spare parts business |
| 25 to 50% untapped potential | Share of aftermarket revenue (spare parts and service) that isn’t generated according to industry estimates |
| €6 to 12 million with €100 million annual turnover | Sales potential derived from this. A model calculation, not a measured individual figure |
The key difference between a PDF catalog and a machine-specific, digital spare parts catalog comes down to data integration. This is based on:
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The mechanical parts list for the specific machine
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Complementary 2D drawings, 3D models or both, depending on the design data available
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Optional integrations with systems like ERP or documentation management systems, giving availability, price, and service information right at the part
Instead of just a product series with no relation to a specific machine, technicians see a clear overview of their equipment’s structure, and can find the required part significantly faster.
For Peter’s customers, this means:
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They only see the parts relevant to their specific machine
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Compatibility information is provided automatically
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Successor parts are recommended when a part is discontinued
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The ordering process is integrated—one-click ordering and no need for telephone inquiries anymore
For Peter’s team, making the switch pays off in multiple areas of the day-to-day business:
Preventive maintenance contracts based on structured machine data are easier for Pascal to justify. “Because we know when a part typically wears out, we can get there before it fails—which boosts the availability of your equipment.” It’s a case Pascal can make to both senior management and his customers.
The prerequisites for this are structured data on machine fleets, maintenance histories, and wear patterns, as generated in stage 2 of the multi-stage model.
Equipment as a Service, Pay per Use, and availability guarantees are still a pipe dream for many machine manufacturers. Anyone still working with PDF catalogs and reactive maintenance contracts today should view these models as a longer-term prospect; they are not yet suitable as an immediate next step.
Some manufacturers are already trialling models that prioritize availability prices over purchasing costs. For Pascal, this would turn a transaction into a partnership. The prerequisites for this are:
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Reliable data on machine status and usage
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The ability to properly document and bill for service work
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The structured product information from stages 1 and 2, which is essential for operational implementation
It’s hard to argue against more cost-effective third-party providers if the added value of original spare parts is not clearly communicated. There are three things that can protect Pascal’s revenue and increase trust in the brand:
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Quality certificates directly linked to the part name
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Clear information on warranty conditions when using third-party parts
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A documented machine history
The service platform as a shared knowledge base
All these measures have the same prerequisite: Knowledge that’s accessible when it matters. As things stand, this knowledge is often scattered across ERP, CAD, and documentation systems, spare parts catalogs, and the heads of experienced colleagues. This creates gaps that cost Pascal and Peter revenue and time on a daily basis.
Having a central service information platform closes these gaps by leveraging two interconnected principles:
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A common data foundation: Information from various source systems is consolidated in a structured way and linked to the respective machine by serial number, configuration, and history. This provides a reliable, up-to-date information base instead of multiple contradictory versions.
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A single point of access that knows the context: Whether it’s a technician on site, a customer using self-service, or support staff on the phone, everyone has access to the same data and only sees information relevant to their role and the specific machine. The context automatically determines which compatibility checks, spare part, and subsequent maintenance step are required.
What this means in day-to-day business:
Untapped service potential isn’t a question of fate
It’s the result of structural deficits that can be solved step by step rather than all at once. Above all, anyone looking to systematically tap aftersales revenue needs better product information—structured, machine-specific, and accessible digitally from anywhere in the world.
Quanos IQ Platform collects this information from your existing systems to create a shared data foundation that can be accessed by technicians, customers, and support staff alike. You start from where your biggest bottleneck is today, whether that’s spare parts, documentation, or service processes, and continue building from there.
This refers to data that can be clearly assigned to a specific machine and is available in a standardized format, instead of being scattered across individual systems in different formats. It includes, for example, parts lists, compatibility information, maintenance histories, and wear data.
No. Service information platforms do not replace ERP, PLM, or documentation systems. They consolidate the data stored in these systems and link it to the relevant machine. Existing systems remain the source of their respective data, and the platform makes this information usable for technicians, customers, and support staff.
In practice, aftersales & service, technical writing, and IT are usually involved. Aftersales contributes the requirements from the customer business, technical writing maintains the underlying product data and metadata, and IT is responsible for connecting to existing systems like ERP and PLM.
The standard indicators are the first-time fix rate, the average order time in the spare parts business, the renewal rate for maintenance contracts, and the share of overall spare parts revenue made up by original parts. These figures can be captured as a baseline before implementation and then compared at regular intervals to track progress.
Further resources
eBook
Digital Spare Parts Catalog: Why Service Professionals Need It
Download now
eBook
Service Portals in Machine Construction
Download now
Checklist
Where are your most costly knowledge gaps?
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