The 5 biggest Challenges Part 4
Digital Automotive
Sales next level for automotive suppliers who want to grow profitably. Far beyond any CRM!
CHALLENGE 4
NO TIME
Nobody has time. Especially not in sales. Why actually?
From conversations with countless sales colleagues from automotive suppliers, 3 things stand out:
1. Time-eaters Ad hoc Reporting
In sales this is worse than in any other area, for 2 reasons:
1. In sales, there is extremely interesting and important information for the success of the company
2. There is usually only very rudimentary standard reporting in sales available
The time spent on ad-hoc reporting is due to:
(1) Searching data
(2) Analyze data
(3) Create report
(4) Correct report if management prefers a different presentation
The tasks and questions are repetitive - here is an excerpt:
(1) How many electric cars will be built in Europe next year?
(2) How much revenue will we make from customer xy in 5 years?
(3) What does our product portfolio look like?
(4) What projects do we have planned with the new future product xy?
(5) Will plant xy be at capacity in 3 years with the planned orders?
(6) What order intake have we achieved in the last 12 months?
(7) What orders are we currently competing for?
(8) What SOP´s do we have in the next 12 months?
(9) How much damage have we incurred from volumes that have not come?
(10) How much are the open claims at customer xy?
(11) What did we get out of project xy with change management?
(12) How many open changes do we actually have?
(13) What is the incoming payment in the next 6 months through tooling invoices?
(14) How many quicksavings do we actually have to give?
(15)...
All these issues can be mapped in an automated standard reporting by using the data available from the processes that are anyway done. The goal of digitization must be to eliminate 80% of ad hoc reports. With software tailored for automotive suppliers, this is possible. And for the remaining 20%, even the data and file search is significantly reduced.
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2. No time: too little focus and orientation
A clear direction (strategy) where to put energy is missed in many places. It is about focus on the issues that bring a lot. Prioritize the processes that occupy sales people most of the time: Acquisition, change, claim and order management. How?
What is needed for this are anytime available and up-to-date overviews that visualize priorities easily. In claims, the amount of the claim certainly determines the effort to be made. In order management, the amount of transactions to be billed. In the acquisition the strategic priority.
It's about putting time into the things that really matter.
3. No time: software like in the 90s
In the sales department of most automotive suppliers, software is used as it was in the 90s. Process optimization does not take place. This is not meant to sound ironic, but is simply the case. Excel + PowerPoint already existed back then. A high-tech industry such as the automotive supplier misses it in the administrative processes to modernize just as it does with their products and production processes.
The consequences of non-digitization
- No way to automate processes
- data is entered x number of times
- Reports are created manually every time (see above)
That the employees then have no time is not surprising.
And the situation will get worse due to the skilled worker shortage. If you are not modern as an employer, you will not be attractive to young employees. The consequence: the remaining colleagues will have even less time.
What is the solution?
Time is gained through automation in all sales processes. Pre-filled input fields, one-time data entry and fully automated management reports.
In honor of the automotive suppliers, it should be said, the range of meaningful software alternatives to Excel and PowerPoint was also not given until now. From classic CRM software, most have refrained from the outset or recognized that this is not the solution.
What the automotive supplier sales needs is a tailored software solution that covers exactly their processes in depth and makes the processes more efficient and faster. This creates time for the essential things. Digital Automotive is the leading automotive supplier sales software standard.
To illustrate, here is an example of how flexible management reporting can be for automotive supplier revenue curves. Ad-hoc reports to present the sales curves should be a thing of the past. And best of all: the data is also displayed in real time
CHALLENGE 5
MAKING SUCCESSES VISIBLE
Read part 5 of the 5 biggest challenges next week...
If the challenges also affect you and you want to learn more
about the solution, you have 2 options:
1. Visit the Digital Automotive website:
2. Watch Digital Automotive in a live demo just for you and your needs: