Major sales successes can be achieved outside core regional markets like the United States, Europe and China that are central to the business of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST). Two recent orders, one from Brazil and another from Turkey, are good examples. They highlight the range of factors that are critical to success throughout the world. The two projects were award-winners at a Sales General Industry meeting this year.
Hidrover is the largest cylinder manufacturer in Brazil. Its customers include leading construction and agricultural equipment manufacturers. FST was only too happy to do business with this key supplier in South America. “The market in fluid engineering and hydraulics is very conservative. Customers mainly put their faith in tried-and-tested products. Hidrover had unfortunately been wedded to the competition at that point,” said Jürgen Besser.
Besser, Vice President, Global General Industry (GI), is responsible for business development in regions that – often for historical reasons – cannot be clearly categorized based on market segments in FST’s “GI world.” Switzerland, with its Zürich Service Center, is one example. Another is Brazil, where FST’s sales operations are located in a joint sales office in São Paulo.
A customer focus and the persistence of local Sales GI employees Charles Santos De Lima and Juliana Gonçalves Veiga are the main reasons that FST was able to win a contract worth millions from Hidrover. “We were able to establish trust,” Besser summed up.
For one thing, trust was built up on a personal level with regular customer contacts and visits. For another, FST provided problem-solving expertise on a technical level. “We solved specific technical problems for Hidrover,” Besser explained. He also cited speed and services that extended to the commercial side of the business relationship. It certainly didn’t hurt that the end-customer, John Deere, is one of FST’s top customers.
Reducing Costs
Speed, service and problem-solving expertise: Each aspect is a precondition for effective cooperation among local staffs in various regions, the Sales GI market segment and the technical experts at the Lead Center. This made it possible for FST to reel in another major contract in the same market segment, this time in Turkey.
FST did not get the business in the first round with Stal (Gürmak), a manufacturer of gas springs for shock absorbers. The prices that the customer required could not be achieved at the planned production volumes.
But it was possible to reduce production costs – and the prices to the customer – at higher volumes. Instead of giving up, the Sales GI staff in Turkey – Sedat Yurdakul, Necmi Cüheylan and Erdal Uysal – turned to market analyses and phone selling, meaning they contacted the potential buyers identified in the market analysis. It worked: They found other interested parties for the hydraulic seals and sealing systems that Stal (Gürmak) was envisioning.
The concept of “accumulating production volume to reduce prices” gained traction and was a factor critical to success. But it wasn’t the only one. The order required an internal company partner to produce the hydraulic seals cost-effectively. This is where Freudenberg-NOK India (FNI) came into play: It produced the seals in Basma. Employees from Sales and the lead center, that is, from Turkey and India, jointly visited the customer in-person to take care of the technical and commercial details.
