Incubators help newborns entering life. In business, the term describes organizations that support startups at an early stage. But at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST), incubators are teams that nurture new technologies and specific innovative products until they are ready for the market. Five of them are closely tied to the auto industry’s shift to new drive systems. It is Automotive Sales’ team task to develop the innovations to breakthroughs with the customer.
The products are cell caps, thermal barriers, wave guide antennas, battery envelopes and busbars. What they have in common: They are all expected to be key pillars of FST’s automotive business in the future, which is why FST formed special teams, called incubators, to zero in on their development, the processes for their industrialization, and their later commercialization.
“For us in sales, new products of this kind pose special challenges,” said Dennis Gunst, who is responsible for (tier) suppliers as Vice President, Automotive Sales. For one thing, customers do not associate “seal maker” FST with these classes of products. For another, they are complex and require explanation. At the same time, the sales team first has to build up a wealth of experience with them. In addition, new customers and rivals abound in the emerging fields of electric mobility and autonomous driving. Finally, there are often new departments and contact persons to deal with, even at existing customers.
Gunst summed up the challenge: “We are going to be selling fewer and fewer classic elastomer seals. In Automotive Sales, we are gearing up for new products and customers who don’t know us yet. We don’t know them either at this point. The work involves much more effort than in the past,” he said. At Automotive Sales meetings this year in Barcelona and San Diego, the sales organization’s approach to the changing environment ranked high on the agenda.
Vice President at Automotive Sales
Offering More Added Value
The material and process expertise that FST has developed over decades is giving it an edge to exploit with new customers. So does the reliability and high quality associated with it. The added value of FST’s innovations is another sales argument that can work with customers.
One example from the company’s incubators: FST battery envelopes not only encase cell chemicals inside the vehicle battery’s housing. They also make it possible for the battery manufacturer to fill the cells with electrolytes more quickly than in the past.
“Many other great topics” are emerging outside the incubators as well, Gunst said. “We only have to expand our horizons and go down the path together inside the FST organization.”
“Together we grow” is a fitting slogan for the current campaign at Automotive Sales. It explicitly promotes close cooperation and information-sharing with incubator teams.
For example, there are opportunities for growth beyond powertrains. Air suspension is increasingly becoming the standard in vehicles, and it requires classic sealing expertise. The increased electrification and radar technology needed for autonomous driving is adding to the demand for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. In this area, FST has different solutions up its sleeve that substitute plastic for metal.
