Question

Topic: Strategy

Growing A Industrial Maintenance Business

Posted by sanjay.bahl on 3/14/2011 at 10:36 AM ET 600 Points
We are based in Delhi, India and are Industrial Distributors and Technical advisers of Repair And Maintenance products.
and can help companies increase their Equipment life.
Our Product range includes:
# Hardfacing Welding Alloys. -- for wear protection (used in heavy machinery)
# Spray Aerosols ( Lubricants, Cleaners, Protective Coatings -Anti rust, Heat Proof etc.)
# Special Purpose Greases, -Food Grade, High Temperature, Heavy Load Bearing.
# Electrical Maintenance : Electrical cleaners, HT/LT Insulation Tapes.Insulating Chemicals

This business was started by my father and with his efforts we have anr Existing client base which gives us consistent business. A few of our existing customers are sugarmills, earthmoving rental companies, Road transport Companies and similar ones .
I joined the business more than a year ago and wish to increase sales further and grow in size/ profits.

The difficulties being faced are.
1) There are lot of similar products in market.
2) A lot of customers have Outsourced Maintenance operations as Annual Maintenance Contracts-- These contractors want to get the job done by keeping costs as low as possible and don’t prefer buying expensive, technical products we offer.

I need your suggestions on how to:
1) Increase present customer base. / Generate New Leads
2) Generate Enquiries from new customers
2) Find a unique Industrial product /ideas which can bring in considerable profits.

This forum has always given me great ideas to think of , awaiting a similar experience.
Thanks
Sanjay
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 3/14/2011 at 1:02 PM Accepted
    One option would be to get into the outsourced maintenance operations, which you said some customers want. Instead of losing the product sales, you can gain added service business will keeping the product sales.

    You may also want to think through why your customers buy from you, instead of the other similar products. Are your products better? Is your service better? If you can understand why they buy from you, then you can work on promoting that value to other customers.
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 3/16/2011 at 1:48 PM Accepted
    Sanjay,
    Your position in India is really no different than the position that many of our clients face in the US, Canada and Mexico.

    Distributors must decide if they want to be logistics or knowledge based in their market approach. Your comments lead me to believe you want to be knowledge based - providing expertise and advise along with the products you sell.

    We train distributors to focus on the value they provide to the customer. In a world where everyone claims to be value-add you need to prove your value by measuring it in terms everyone understands - dollars (in the US) and (I suppose this means) Rupee's in India.

    The problem that most of our customer contacts (engineering, maintenance and technicians) don't understand value. Instead they understand, gears, grinding, electrical issues, mechanical problems and other technical issues.

    You and your sales team have to make the translation for them...

    If you have questions, feel free to contact me via my profile.
  • Posted on 3/21/2011 at 1:00 PM Accepted
    well sanjay first is you offer many solutions for many fields ;
    A > If you dont have a sales force hire(on commission)
    a few electricians, a few mechanics, a few welders
    B> for Gen. sales to keep register running go for 2- sales representatives ho regularly visit both Purchase Dept. & the Agents which get the contracts( usually they also hire sub agents on local level).
    C> to Generate Quick cash(W.C.) go for tie ups with Agents and sopply them with heavy margins.(those qil bing more cash but u will earn marginally)
    Again you need to work out a lot of things in a lot of sectors fix your consumers first analyze the situation & then invest.
  • Posted by sanjay.bahl on 3/24/2011 at 3:51 AM Author
    Thanks Every One ,

    Really appreciate Yor response Frank, Peter and Rohit.
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