Hi there,
Here we are with the last CONNECT newsletter of this year!
A couple of weeks ago we organized two CONNECT events. Our first one in Italy on cybersecurity and the second one in The Netherlands on after-sales services.
The purpose of these CONNECT events is to connect machine builders with each other to meet new people and share learnings.
11 machine builders from different industries were present at last month’s events. We made sure that no competing businesses were present, so everyone could communicate openly.
I’m excited to share the most important talking points with you today:
1. Understand your customer
By selling a machine you solve a problem for your customer. Your services need to solve problems too. Problems your customers care about, or should care about.
Gathering in-depth feedback and observing how customers use your machines will help you develop more customer centric solutions and help customers understand and appreciate the value.
2. Secure management buy-in
Management support for transitioning to digital services often falls short because they are concerned about the risks involved, or unclear ROI.
Instead of pitching a well prepared business plan, take them along on the journey. Organize C-level workshops and invite customers to share their experiences with your products. Nobody rallies the troops better than your customers.
3. Highlight the cost of failure
Focussing the conversation on the costs of downtime can highlight the inherent value of services and increase acceptance by customers. Improving the machine's performance through service improvements turns out to be a strong argument. Especially with customers who have just experienced it.
4. Cybersecurity: a vital service
Manufacturing has become the number 1 target of cyber threats. Machine builders are responsible for complying with new regulations to secure software and device configurations. Continuous monitoring, updates and maintenance are crucial, regardless of device type.
Hence, cybersecurity is not just a product, but an ongoing service essential to secure operations. In many cases an important problem to solve for your customers.
Given its success, we’re going to organize 12 additional CONNECT events next year in three different regions: The Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
Are you interested in joining? Just reply to this email and we will contact you with more details. You can also find out more about CONNECT here.
After the Holidays I will be back with a new edition of the CONNECT newsletter about our New Year's resolutions for next year.
Meanwhile I wish you happy holidays! Enjoy this time with your loved ones.
- Steven