What developments have led FAULHABER to reorganize its sales structure?
Volker Sprenger: It is important to us to be close to our customers. In order to do justice to this development, we needed to coordinate our global sales activities more effectively and sustainably. We are now in a position to serve the needs of the various markets even more specifically and quickly.
Mireille Deckers-Strobel: We have a product portfolio that has not been developed for a single application or a single market. Together with our pilot customers, we develop solutions for a wide variety of markets and diverse applications in several sectors. It is this participative approach that makes tailor-made products possible in the first place.
What impetus has the newly formed sales team already been able to provide?
Mireille Deckers-Strobel: Our new sales structure introduced in October 2023 follows the "local for local" approach. This is specifically reflected in the creation of regional sales centers and the recruitment of sales staff in the respective regions. The local presence has enabled us to achieve closer customer loyalty and faster response times to our customers' individual requirements.
We attach great importance to ensuring that our sales team is very well equipped both technically and commercially. Our experienced engineers have a great deal of know-how about our drive technology and our capabilities. They are able to understand customers' applications and know exactly what they need. Only then is a good solution possible. That is our understanding of good service.
We always have our sights set on taking the team to the next level. Our world is becoming more digital and demands faster solutions for new applications.
Can you give an example of new applications?
Mireille Deckers-Strobel: Thanks to strong business development, we are able to provide our team with targeted training on new topics, for example in the fields of robotics and precise diagnostics.
Volker Sprenger: The tasks of the sales team go beyond applications. For example, we have to understand completely new business models. The fact that the customer either rents or sells their product, for example, results in completely different business models for the product itself - and therefore also for sales.
Mireille Deckers-Strobel: If it's a core business, we also have the specific needs of end users and their applications in mind. We are only 100 days into the new sales structure and have already noticed that we have been able to identify market needs much more quickly and thus intensify our work on future topics.
To what extent does academic input flow into your developments in addition to your customers' suggestions?
Volker Sprenger: In addition to the excellent customer relationship, the partnership with research institutes, colleges and universities is of great importance to FAULHABER, as it has a considerable influence on product development. I would like to mention our partnership on a customer basis with the University of Berkeley in California (USA) as an example, or the good exchange with the drive technology strongholds, such as the universities of Ilmenau and Linz (Austria). By collaborating with the leading scientists based there, we can use research results for our development at an early stage and at the same time expand our international expertise.
The university partnerships also put us more in the spotlight as an attractive employer, so that young academics are more aware of us. In future, my colleague Mireille Deckers-Strobel and I will involve these leading academics much more in our work.
Mireille Deckers-Strobel: Conversely, research will also benefit from collaboration if we make it clear where FAULHABER products can be used.
As a globally positioned group of companies, FAULHABER is always on the lookout for attractive expansion opportunities. Are there even opportunities to acquire companies?
Volker Sprenger: There is strong potential in the USA and North America in particular, which is why FAULHABER already has a strong structure there and will continue to strengthen it. The focus is also on the special requirements of these markets, which differ from other regions.
Mireille Deckers-Strobel: In connection with precise diagnostics, laboratory automation plays a major role; interest in surgical robots is also increasing worldwide. It goes without saying that we react differently to this in Europe than in the USA or Asia. This is why we have established our local specialists in our own subsidiaries.
We currently cannot and do not want to rule out acquiring companies in order to further strengthen our international market position.