Podcast - Making the Shift to Services in the Animal Health Industry

22 July 2015

Podcast - Making the Shift to Services in the Animal Health Industry

Podcast Interview with Dr Veronica Martinez on 'Making the Shift to Services in the Animal Health Industry'.

[ PODCAST ]

Manufacturing firms will need to 'crystallise', 'commercialise' and 'push' services to their customers if they are to succeed at making a shift to services.

In a recent paper, 'Making and Sustaining the Shift to Services in the Animal Health Industry', by Veronica Martinez and Veronique Pouthas and the “Shift to Service” team, our researchers emphasise how important two way communication is in manufacturing firms that make a shift to services.

The Animal Health industry is used to offering 'services' as add on’s or extras free of charge so it is important for organisations in that sector who want to begin a 'shift to services' in order to take customer on the service transition journey with them. Whereas products are sold as a one-off transaction, selling services to a customer could last the lifetime for them and the organisation that makes the sale.  

This research confirms what is already known about the servitisation of manufacturing and how important it is to enter what may be a slow but constant journey with customers, even if at times it is painful and bumpy along the way.

Organisations will need to have leaders who have the vision and sense of urgency to build on the potential of this journey, and communicate it to their staff, particularly the sales team, who will also need to feed messages back up to the top tier of management. 

This transition from transactions to relationships will need a lot of push to see it through to a successful conclusion. Martinez and Pouthas conclude:

“The delivery journey of the sales force lies at the core of the shift-to-service journey. The best practices required to make the shift to services include leveraging customers’ experience, implementing service value and benefits, and building an integrated service team.”

The research paper maps out some fundamental steps and best practices in the animal health industry. In her podcast interview Veronica Martinez tells us how at the CSA they have mapped out some concise and usable steps to help others make this journey:

“It is about communication. It is about how do you make this journey from selling products to selling services? How do you train your sales force?  It is relational. It is about generating trust, it is about continuous communication. It is about if you as a customer have a problem, how do you come back to me and we can solve it for you? It is about maintaining the customer and giving them support, and making them feel you are working together with them.
“Vision and sense of urgency are very important key steps in making this shift to services. The vision is about where strategically do you want to go as a company? And how you are going to use the services in this vision? You then have to translate this vision into what do you want to do with your services. You then need to define the value service proposition that really matters to your customers, in order to make this a success.

“The urgency is very much around when the service is needed. Consumers want a service now, because the problem is now, and the urgency is making this vision happen within the organisation and others in the ecosystem. This delivery must have a sense of urgency so everybody can be aligned around the same aim.

“You have to have a strong leader that can tell the story of how to do things better, and they have to have the right leadership position, the right support and the right resources. They will need to listen and encourage others to make this happen.

“Building an integrated team is core.  The sales person has to be out there and taking advantage of the fantastic opportunities coming from the customer but the team has to crystallise, commercialise and develop that opportunity for the customer.”