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There are two businesses inside every OEM VAS programme. The first is the business you design. You decide what to sell, at what price, to which customer, and what economics you want the programme to deliver.
The second is the business that actually happens in the market.
A salesperson has three other products to sell. A customer is comparing two devices. A store has its own targets. Your programme is one of several things competing for attention in a transaction that may last a few minutes.
The first business exists in a spreadsheet. The second determines whether the spreadsheet was right.
This is the part of VAS that deserves more attention.
VAS is a different kind of distribution challenge
Let’s take an example of a consumer who walks into the store to buy a smartphone. They have a clear goal in mind, the salesperson has a clear sales target, and the retailer has an established process for completing that purchase.
Value added services, like extended warranties or maintenance plans, have to earn their place within that same transaction; even though arguably they would significantly improve the overall ownership experience. The challenge is, the customer must understand the same, the salesperson must see a reason to offer it, and the purchase journey must accommodate it without adding unnecessary friction.
For an OEM operating across hundreds or thousands of retail outlets, this creates a distribution challenge that product design alone cannot solve.
KPMG's India CX Report '25 found that 21% of electronic-store customers were willing to pay more for brands offering value-added services such as extended warranties and maintenance plans.
That is a useful signal. Customers can see value in the proposition. But willingness to pay is not the same as attachment. And attachment is not the same as a well-performing business. Between the three lies distribution.
Where assurance programmes are won or lost
- Priority:
Salespeople operate within competing commercial priorities. Assurance must earn a place in that environment through appropriate incentives, sustained engagement and clear relevance to the primary sale. Launch-day enthusiasm is not a distribution strategy.
- Capability.
Product knowledge is not the same as selling confidence. Sales teams need to understand which customer needs a plan addresses, how to explain its value and how to handle the questions that arise during a purchase. Training has to translate into behaviour, not merely attendance.
- Technology:
Assurance should fit naturally into the existing sales journey, not create a separate process for the salesperson to navigate. Plan selection, eligibility checks and enrolment should be simple to complete at the point of sale, with the necessary integrations into the OEM's or retail partner's systems. The objective is to make assurance easy to offer, easy to purchase and easy to process — without slowing down the primary transaction.
- Visibility:
OEMs need to understand what is happening across their distribution network. Store-level attachment, salesperson productivity, incentive performance and conversion trends help identify where execution is working, where it is falling short and where intervention is needed.
These factors reinforce one another. Incentives cannot compensate indefinitely for a complicated process. Training cannot resolve competing priorities. Engagement cannot make an irrelevant proposition attractive.
The programme needs to operate as one connected system, supported by distribution infrastructure that brings people, processes and technology together.
Build a scalable infrastructure, not just the programme
For OEMs, VAS deserves to be treated as a business in its own right, with the capabilities required to support its growth. The product proposition creates the reason to buy. But sustained commercial performance depends on how consistently that proposition is communicated, sold and delivered across the network.
That also changes how success should be measured. Attachment rate matters, but it is only one part of the picture. You need to understand what drives conversion, where sales opportunities are being missed, how customers experience the programme and whether the economics remain viable as volumes grow.
