EC

Prospect Profiles 2022

Round 1 + Wild Card

Quarter Finals

Semi Finals

Disclaimer: All prospect profiles are developed for educational purposes and to facilitate competition at UTISC. While some organizations and/or individuals represented in the profiles resemble actual companies and/or individuals, the profiles and situations are purely fictitious, and any comments or remarks made in this document or by participants during the UTISC do not reflect the views, opinions, or facts about any actual organization and/or individual. Page 2 of 6

CASE OVERVIEW Operated out of Maplewood, Minnesota, 3M Company is a multinational conglomerate divided into four core businesses: Consumer, Transportation & Electronics, Health Care, and Safety & Industrial. With 90,000+ employees worldwide and offering north of 60,000 products, 3M makes up one of the thirty Dow Jones Industrial Average Components. In addition to household brands such as Post-it®, Scotch®, and Nexcare™, the company also specializes in industries that use adhesives, chemicals and advanced materials, films, medical device products, and more. As an Industrial Sales Specialist for 3M Company covering the state of Colorado, you are tasked with targeting and eventually selling to Industrial manufacturing clients with a focus on Wind Blade manufacturing. Your product portfolio contains a number of diverse solutions: abrasive discs, masking tapes, high-grade sealants, and more.

THE CALL

If there’s one thing you’ve learned from the past 18 months as a 3M Sales Specialist, it’s that time management is critical. Driving to and from accounts across your Colorado territory and working from home means plenty of time on the phone. In addition to reaching out to customers, you’ve found that this is a prime opportunity to touch base with one of your most important partners – industrial distributors and converters. Renewable energy and electric vehicles have been top of mind for many politicians and advocates alike looking for new ways to develop energy and clean power for a growing infrastructure. With abrasives solutions representing a significant mix of 3M’s product portfolio, these renewable energy manufacturing market distributors are an integral component of your sales network. Distributors that are more robust can take on an integrator role and will have a crib onsite at the customer location so that they can provide the ultimate responsiveness on inventory management and fulfillment. One in particular, Mountain Top Distribution, has proven to be a particularly effective partner. Mountain Top Distribution was established in 1905 and was acquired by the Valley Group in 2012. They are headquartered in the historic city of New Orleans, LA and have warehouses around the world. Mountain Top Distribution specializes in providing integrated customer solutions for the distribution and sale of industrial supply and machine tool products. Mountain Top Distribution is a leader in the distribution of abrasives, cutting tools, machine tools, and related maintenance and repair products to its customers largely in the Wind, Oil & Gas, and Marine vertical segments. While they carry several lines of Industrial products, Mountain Top Distribution frequently turns to 3M products to help meet buyer needs.

Disclaimer: All prospect profiles are developed for educational purposes and to facilitate competition at UTISC. While some organizations and/or individuals represented in the profiles resemble actual companies and/or individuals, the profiles and situations are purely fictitious, and any comments or remarks made in this document or by participants during the UTISC do not reflect the views, opinions, or facts about any actual organization and/or individual. Page 3 of 6

As you travel North along Interstate 25 to your next customer meeting, you decide to reach out to your Mountain Top Distribution sales rep, Parker Deal. While catching up on the latest market activities, the two of you talk about 3M’s newest extension to the Cubitron abrasives product line - Xtract Net Disc 710W. After hearing the features of the product, Parker lets it slip that he/she is currently selling a competitive net disc product to Tuuli Energy.

THE LEAD Tuuli Energy - America located in Denver, CO is one of the premier wind blade manufacturers and servicers in the world. Tuuli Energy’s corporate headquarters is in Helsinki, Finland and has operations in 7 locations (Colorado, California, Brazil, China, Australia, South Korea, and Finland) spanning 5 continents around the world. Tuuli Energy generated around 13.3 billion euros from wind turbines and wind power plant sales. Tuuli Energy is tied into the renewable energy market making composite wind blades. As more people look into electric cars, the need for more cleaner power sources is creating significant demand on wind blades and turbines. Wind energy comprises 8% of the power grid and is cheaper than nuclear and coal energy and is the same price as natural gas. Parker reports that Tuuli Energy American engineer, Arden Liska, mentioned that he/she was working on a series of manufacturing changes. Parker noticed changes to the regular orders when he/she was following up on restocking the onsite crib and asked Arden about the changes. Parker said that Tuuli Energy is generally open to change because of the evolving market that they are in. The need to come in and see their manufacturing process is important, and the need talk to the operators on the floor is imperative to discovering where 3M solutions would have an opportunity to improve Tuuli Energy’s manufacturing.

Disclaimer: All prospect profiles are developed for educational purposes and to facilitate competition at UTISC. While some organizations and/or individuals represented in the profiles resemble actual companies and/or individuals, the profiles and situations are purely fictitious, and any comments or remarks made in this document or by participants during the UTISC do not reflect the views, opinions, or facts about any actual organization and/or individual. Page 4 of 6

THE SOLUTION The challenges to this sales lead are twofold. Tuuli is a company that brings years of market expertise to the table; it’s likely that they have been pitched multiple iterations of competitive abrasives solutions. You will need to arm yourself with both industry and application knowledge to build credibility within their organization. More so, you must remember who it was that first introduced you to this lead. Mountain Top Distribution is the integrator at the Colorado facility and needs to stay involved in the sales process to maintain your strong partnership. As you work through the many potential solutions in your portfolio you could bring to the table, one in particular remains atop the list – Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc 710W.

3M Abrasives with the Cubitron II technology have revolutionized the industry. The precision shaped grain has helped abrasives last longer. 3M has been a technological leader in abrasive technology for over 100 years. The Cubitron II brand was introduced in 2009 while the new Xtract Net Disc feature just launched in August 2021 after years of lab and field testing. Some of the benefits to 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc 710W include:

Improving throughput -> the 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ has ceramic, precision shaped grain (PSG) that cuts through wood, composite, metal, and other substrates at a higher rate than traditional aluminum oxide grain products. The PSG is sharper, tougher, and fractures at a high rate, which produces a better cut with less pressure from the operator. 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Discs typically enable operators to sand 50% faster and reduce sanding related rework to around 5%.

Precise finish -> 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc has a printed pattern on the disc that enhances finish better than paper and cloth products because the dust particles are able to be extracted through the net/mesh pattern. The uniformity and symmetry from the printed pattern that is coated in precision shaped grain further reduces wild scratches in the composite and primer finish.

Improved work environment -> 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc is a

converted newer material that allows the composite dust to be captured through the net/mesh material and into a vacuum system in the power tool creating a virtually dust free environment. 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Discs can be used on 3M sanders and most other mainstream sanders, and the time to changeout the disc is 10 seconds. 3M also provides a breadth of supporting resources available to the distributors and end users. The lab, technical support/service, marketing, sales, and customer support teams all offer a unique auxiliary benefit in addition to the products themselves.

Disclaimer: All prospect profiles are developed for educational purposes and to facilitate competition at UTISC. While some organizations and/or individuals represented in the profiles resemble actual companies and/or individuals, the profiles and situations are purely fictitious, and any comments or remarks made in this document or by participants during the UTISC do not reflect the views, opinions, or facts about any actual organization and/or individual. Page 5 of 6

When you connected with your 3M technical support team, they estimated the following for

sanding Tuuli’s blades:

Grit and Purpose Sanding Area in Meters per Disc

80 grit – grinding 12

180 grit – blending 12

320 grit – polishing 18

According to Tuuli’s public product information, turbine blades have 1,600 meters of area to sand. There is a great deal of layering different materials during the manufacturing process, and some of those layers need to be sanded before the next layer can be applied. The exterior surface also needs to be sanded before it is painted. Each blade goes through grinding, blending, and polishing. The 5” disc in 80 grit through 320 grit costs $0.29 each to Mountain Top Distribution and $0.38 each to the end customer. Xtract™ Net discs are made in the United Kingdom, cut and packaged in Iowa, and then warehoused in multiple locations throughout the world so they can be quickly shipped to customers as needed. Locations in the US include Chicago and California. Additionally, the time spent sanding the composite shell is an important cost to a manufacturing plant. The burden rate factors in not only the labor rate of the operator but also the burden cost applied to manufacturing such as the taxes, vacation, management cost, and rent. The difference is a labor rate might be $20 per hour, but the true burden rate in a large factory might be $80-90 per hour. Faster production will be an important factor for a customer to be aware of when considering 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Discs. While 3M was among the first to bring PSG to market, there are competitive alternatives to 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Discs. Large industrial manufacturers like Mirka, Norton, and Klingspor offer their own versions of these abrasive discs, and some distributors may offer private label versions as well. While these competitive abrasives offer different value propositions, they can compete directly with what 3M provides. Throughout your experience as a 3M Industrial Sales Specialist, you’ve found 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Discs to be a versatile abrasive solution across multiple applications including composite boats, aluminum airplanes, wood shops, and decorative material attachments. You’re confident that, no matter the challenges Tuuli Energy may present, you’ll have the right tools and knowledge to make the sale.

Disclaimer: All prospect profiles are developed for educational purposes and to facilitate competition at UTISC. While some organizations and/or individuals represented in the profiles resemble actual companies and/or individuals, the profiles and situations are purely fictitious, and any comments or remarks made in this document or by participants during the UTISC do not reflect the views, opinions, or facts about any actual organization and/or individual. Page 6 of 6

3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc 710W

Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc 710W Website

Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc 710W Toolkit

3M™ Precision Shaped Grain

Precision Shaped Grain Overview

Competitive Landscape

GreenTec PS77 & FP77 Sanding Discs | KLINGSPOR Abrasives USA

Industry Channel Partner Insight

Converter Overview

Channel Partner Example

Wind Turbine Industry

Wind Blade Manufacturing Process – Example #1

Wind Blade Manufacturing Process – Example #2

OBJECTIVES

Be sure to review the relevant sales and training material in advance of your first meeting to

familiarize yourself with 3M™ Xtract™ Cubitron™ II Net Disc 710W capabilities.

Round 1 (and Wild Card) – Meeting with Arden Liska, Production Engineer

Goal: You must first meet with Arden Liska to scope what areas the 3M™ Xtract™ Net

Disc could be specified to compliment engineering design changes. In order to

persuade Arden on 3M™ Xtract™ Net Disc fit, you must understand their objectives and

design components.

Quarter Finals – Meeting with Dakari Pattin, Procurement Director

Goal: Now that you understand some of the key design aspects and preliminary cost

savings, you need to feel out the sourcing priorities that go along with their business plan

and convince them that a change to 3M™ Xtract™ Net Disc will make fiscal and design

sense.

Semi Finals – Meeting with Leslie Stefanski, Production and Service Manager

Goal: With Dakari’s approval, you must now meet with Leslie to explore how the 3M™

Xtract™ Net Disc can be an asset for both blade production and servicing.