This session, modeled after the popular Ted Talks that are seen at other events and symposiums in the business world, will feature three individual presentations in an hour. Each presenter will have 15 minutes in which they will feature the technology-related solution they are using in their business, and will then discuss the possibilities of distributors in the audience to incorporate different levels of technology into their own businesses.
The inaugural presenters for this new session will be David Seewack, founder and CEO at FindItParts, Dana Nevins, founder and CEO of Web Shop Manager and Shriram Rajagopal, vice president, product management at e-Emphasys Technologies.
Truck Parts & Service spoke with each presenter last week to learn a little more about what they have in store for the audience at next week’s event.
David Seewack is no stranger to HDAW. The longtime aftermarket veteran is a yearly fixture at the event and has presented at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue in previous years.
In 2010 he founded FinditParts, an online marketplace for commercial vehicle truck parts, and the site is now the largest e-commerce distributor in the heavy-duty industry. FinditParts currently has more than six million parts numbers and has sold products in more than 200 countries worldwide.
In his presentation next week, Seewack says he plans to discuss what he’s learned about e-commerce during his time leading FinditParts, and hopefully offer other distributors guidance for taking their business into the online world in the coming years.
Seewack believes the brick-and-mortar sales structure of heavy-duty distribution isn’t going away, but it is no longer the only method for selling and servicing customers.
Online sales are here to stay, and customers are gravitating toward the option.
“You have to learn to serve your customer the way the customer wants to be served,” he says. “It’s time to listen to customers and do business with them the way they want to.”
Seewack says he also wants to “eliminate [distributors] fears” about FinditParts, and offer examples on how the online retailer can become a partner and supplier to the conventional aftermarket chain.
“I can be an ally to distributors. There is an opportunity for us to do well together.”
E-commerce will remain the top of conversation during Dana Nevins’ presentation.
Nevins has been active in the e-commerce section of the automotive market since the 1990s, when he envisioned and then built a business management tool for aftermarket businesses.
He is founder and CEO of Web Shop Manager, and serves as an advisor to multiple tech companies and educational organizations.
Nevins, like Seewack, believes sales opportunities exist for independent aftermarket businesses in the e-commerce world—particularly in local and specialized markets.
Nevins says there’s no reason for an aftermarket distributor to try and become the next Amazon. That’d be too time consuming and wouldn’t work, anyway.
The better tactic, he says, is to find your niche. To find that one specific product grouping or category you know well and become the industry’s expert.
“That’s what I really want to get into,” Nevins says. “How do you participate [in e-commerce] and how do you figure out exactly what you can be.”
He says that includes leveraging your existing customer service and product knowledge expertise across the online platform.
And Nevins says that’s one area where Amazon can’t even compete. A customer buying truck parts wants more than a great deal. He also wants a supplier he can lean on if he needs help.
“It’s all about determining how you can create value.”
Rajagopal’s presentation will shift slightly toward business software technology, and how some equipment dealers, distributors and rental companies today are using software to improve efficiency and profitability throughout their businesses.
As vice president of product management at e-Emphasys, Rajagopal has spent his career working to develop technology that alleviates customer pain points and streamline business.
Rajagopal says independent aftermarket distributors can capitalize on this technology the same way the equipment market has, and plans to offer HDAW attendees guidance on how to do so during his presentation.
“The key underlying philosophy is to transition to work smarter and harder putting the customer at the center of the organization culture,” he says. “Moving the distributors to a proactive mode of engagement rather than reactive both within their internal departments and their customers. Wouldn’t it be great if a parts rep was alerted (mobile system alerts, emails) that the back ordered part from a vendor has been delayed beyond the promised date to the customer? This allows the parts rep or the service shop to triage the situation earlier than later either by finding alternative sources of fulfillment or working with customer proactively to ensure customer satisfaction.”
Rajagopal says eEmphasys research shows distributors are typically slow in technology adaption for three reasons—lack of awareness to problems with their current system, lack of awareness of better systems that exist, skepticism and fear of change—but says with education and information, those fears can be alleviated.
“We really want this to be a wake-up call for the distributors,” he says, “Not only to improve their business processes and bottom line but as such to remain competitive and sustain the proliferation of technology in their space.”
That includes making sure to “not limit their vision and potential with their existing processes and current system capabilities, rather think out of the box on the best ways to improve their operational efficiencies and serve their customers better. [To] seriously review their system capabilities vis-à-vis their vision for their organization,” he says.
‘Aftermarket Briefings’ will be held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017. To view a complete schedule of HDAW events, please CLICK HERE.
This article is the fifth in a series previewing the presenters at next week’s Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) 2017.
