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Manufacturers Tailor Sales Strategies to Key Customers

Soaring demand for wind turbines has led to bursting order books and a global shortage of key components.  Demand has also driven manufacturers to redefine and sharpen their sales strategies over the past two years.  Customer profiles have rapidly increased from 20 MW to 50 MW orders in selected countries, and to 1,000 MW agreements spanning multiple regions.  In turn, turbine suppliers have had to alter their sales approaches to maximise profitability, while positioning themselves for long-term market share.

Prior to 2005, turbine buyers could generally base their procurement decisions purely on site characteristics and price; however, the recent turbine shortage has made availability a key element in choosing suppliers.  Buyers must now carefully balance their development plans with turbine availability and increasing turbine cost in what is clearly a seller’s market.  This has led to multiple procurement strategies based on a developer’s site portfolio, including multinational bulk orders, individual project contracts and a mix of both, with varying payment schedules based on the type of customer and of their position in the order book.  

 

Figure 3.2:  Interlinked Factors Determining Turbine Procurement

Source: Emerging Energy Research