The automotive supply industry is under enormous pressure. Rising raw material prices, volatile supply chains and the transformation to electromobility are causing margins to shrink. Although many companies are engaged in change management, the decisive focus is usually missing: profitability. Yet this is precisely what is essential in order to achieve sustainable return targets.
Technical changes are omnipresent. New requirements from OEMs, product adaptations, production changes or the need to increase efficiency - all of these require active change management in sales. In reality, however, this process is often handled operationally without systematically evaluating the economic impact of individual changes. The result: well-intentioned measures are implemented which, in the worst case, worsen the margin instead of improving it.
The actual goal, namely to increase company profits in a targeted manner, falls by the wayside. It becomes particularly critical when sales accompany technical changes without recognizing their impact on profitability. A new way of thinking is needed here - and new tools.
If change management is not carried out with a clear focus on profit, the result is a dangerous blind flight. Individual technical changes - such as engineering changes, product range streamlining or condition adjustments - are viewed in isolation. The effect on the overall margin remains in the dark. Overall, this can jeopardize the continued existence of the company. This is an incalculable risk, especially in times when returns are already under pressure.
Closing this gap requires a systematic approach that not only makes the economic impact visible, but also actively manages it. The solution lies in four specific measures that can be implemented directly in modern sales platforms such as Digital Automotive:
Before a technical change - be it a design adjustment or a price negotiation - is implemented, the absolute profit impact should be visualized. This is the only way that sales decision-makers and controllers can make well-founded decisions together. It's not just about turnover, but above all about contribution margin and margin.
Today, digital solutions make it possible to simulate various scenarios at the touch of a button. This makes it possible, for example, to show how a technical change at a particular customer will affect the overall profit - and whether this change makes sense at all.
Although many supplier companies have calculation specifications, compliance with them is often not guaranteed. Automated logic that anchors minimum mark-ups in the system can help here. The advantage: sales and costing remain within economically viable guidelines. Manual errors or strategically unwise discounts are prevented from the outset.
Not every technical change makes economic sense. An early warning system is needed to ensure that this sentence is more than just lip service: if a change falls below the minimum return, the system automatically sounds the alarm - and can optionally trigger an approval process. This creates security and prevents sales staff from making unprofitable long-term decisions due to short-term pressure.
Change management becomes a real lever when the performance of technical changes is made measurable - for example through dashboards that show which changes have made which profit contribution. Even better: if incentives are linked to the profit impact of changes, the team's motivation to implement economically sensible measures increases. This turns an abstract goal into a concrete success factor - and profit into a lived KPI.
These four principles are not just theory. They are already fully integrated into the Digital Automotive sales platform. As the leading solution for Strategic Sales Planning & Sales Management, Digital Automotive was developed specifically for the needs of automotive suppliers - by industry experts for industry experts.
The platform offers, among other things:
Real-time change profit visualization
Automated minimum mark-up logic
Warning and approval processes if returns are too low
Transparent change performance dashboards
The result: decisions based on real data - and a sales department that not only sells, but actively helps to control profitability.
Technical changes are part of every supplier's everyday life. But without a clear system for evaluating their economic impact, change management remains a piecemeal process. If you want to remain competitive in the future, you not only have to allow change, but also systematically make it profitable.
Digital tools such as Digital Automotive make this possible. This transforms sales from executor to designer - and the achievement of return targets becomes a joint task.