Where does 14.5% of aftermarket revenue go? Not where manufacturers look.
Ask a revenue leader at an equipment manufacturer where they lose aftermarket revenue and the answers come quickly: competitors undercutting on parts, customers deferring service, price pressure on renewals. All real. None of them the biggest one.
How much revenue do equipment manufacturers lose between sale and service?
In an independent survey of 300 revenue and service leaders at U.S. equipment manufacturers (TrendCandy, 2026), leaders estimated that on average 14.5 percent of aftermarket revenue is lost at the handoffs between sales, installation, service, and billing. And 86 percent said the leak happens between departments - not inside any one of them.
That second number is the finding worth sitting with. It means the problem is not a weak team. It is the transitions no team owns.
Why does every department's dashboard look fine?
Sales hits its bookings number and hands the order on. Installation completes its projects and closes them out. Service resolves its cases. Billing invoices what it is told about. Each dashboard is green, because each dashboard measures what happens inside a department. The 14.5 percent lives in the four gaps between them, where a unit changes hands and information does not follow it.
This is why the leak survives year after year in well-run companies. Nobody is failing. The revenue falls where nobody is looking.
What does a handoff leak look like in practice?
Walk one machine through its life:
| Handoff | What falls through |
|---|---|
| Sales to Installation | What was sold is not exactly what gets scheduled and fitted; options and services quoted at the sale never make it onto the work order |
| Installation to Service | The as-built record stays behind; service later works from the order, not from what is actually in the field |
| Service to Billing | Work is done under unclear coverage; billable work is written off as warranty, or invoiced late and disputed |
| Billing to Renewal | Contracts quietly expire; the renewal conversation starts only when the customer calls with a broken machine |
Every row is ordinary. That is the point - the leak is made of ordinary moments, repeated across an installed base of thousands of units.
What is revenue leakage?
Revenue leakage is revenue a company has already earned the right to collect - through a sale, a contract, an entitlement, or delivered work - that never reaches the invoice. It differs from lost deals: nothing was lost to a competitor. The money was yours, and the process dropped it.
Where to look first
The leaders in the study point at their own answer: since 86 percent locate the leak between departments, the fix starts with what crosses the borders - the record of the unit, its coverage, and its history. Departments do not need to work harder. The information needs to survive the handoff.
The full 2026 benchmark - the survey of 300 revenue and service leaders at U.S. equipment manufacturers.
Get the reportFAQ
How much aftermarket revenue do equipment manufacturers lose?
Revenue and service leaders at 300 U.S. equipment manufacturers estimate an average of 14.5 percent of aftermarket revenue is lost at the handoffs between sales, installation, service, and billing (TrendCandy survey, 2026). 86 percent locate the loss between departments rather than inside any single one.
Is revenue leakage the same as losing revenue to competitors?
No. Revenue leakage is money the company already earned the right to collect - through a sale, a contract, an entitlement, or delivered work - that never reaches the invoice. No competitor takes it; the process drops it.
What causes revenue leakage at equipment manufacturers?
The most common cause is information failing to cross department handoffs: sold options missing from work orders, as-built records staying with the installation team, service work done under unclear coverage, and contract end dates passing unwatched.
How can a manufacturer detect revenue leakage?
The visible symptoms are lapsed contracts discovered by customers, billable work written off as warranty, disputed or late invoices after service visits, and parts orders going to outside channels. Auditing the four handoffs - sale to installation, installation to service, service to billing, billing to renewal - locates where the leak concentrates.