Industrial marketing comprises of marketing of goods and services to another business. It is just like Business to business marketing. Industrial goods are manufactured so that they can be used by another company to form the finished goods.
Example of Industrial Marketers are Automobile component manufacturers are industrial marketers who provide the end product to Major automobile manufacturers like Volkswagen. These components are then converted to form the final product – cars.
One of the crucial points which makes an industrial marketer successful, is his ability to understand the market and more importantly, his patience in handling the situation. As industrial marketing is relatively slow when compared to product marketing, you need to persevere to be successful.
Here are top tips for Industrial marketers
- Understand how your customers run their business – Naturally, if you want to market your industrial products to customers, you need to understand how customers are running their own business. This will help you understanding where your products are applicable and how crucial they are to your customers.
- Show how your good or service fits into your customer’s business – Once you understand your customer’s business, then you need to show to the customer how your product can be used in their business. Arrange a free demo if necessary.
- Make sure the benefits you sell stay current – You need to be updated at all time. If the customers machinery is changing, or he is upgrading his system, it should not be that you become outdated.
- When selling, reach everyone on the customer’s side involved in the buying decision – This is critical especially where industrial marketing is concerned. In a company, there is a group of decision makers. As an industrial marketer, it is your job to reach all of them.
- Communicate to each decider the message that will address his or her chief concerns – When you meet multiple decision makers, multiple doubts and questions will be raised. A smart industrial marketer will answer each question to the best of his ability. This will ensure that when the group is alone, they feel confident about your product.
- Be the person or firm with whom your customers prefer to have a relationship – The personality of the sales person plays an important role in making the sale easier or tougher. If the purchase group feels they can have a good relationship with you, they will feel more confident about making the purchase.
- Be sure everything is consistent – You need to ensure that the quality, service, price, and performance of the product is always consistent and does not keep varying. Time is of the essence for industries, so there should not be breakdowns or time lapse due to operating your product. You should make it as customer friendly as possible.
- Understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses – When you try to push your own product in the minds of the customer, he will have his own doubt. He is trying to protect his own business. So a comparison with your close competitors is likely. For this, you need to be well aware of your competitors strengths and weaknesses. You will have to defend where the competitor is strong, attack where he is weak.
- Strive to dominate your niche – Set out with the goal of absolute domination. This goal will make you aggressive enough to take on each of your competitors and to defeat them in this game of business.
- Train your people – Not only should you train your people in selling your products, you need to teach them interpersonal skills, handling the customer and keeping watch on the competition. It should be the responsibility of the people in charge to ensure that people under them are well trained.
- Seek new markets and new applications for your existing products – Many a times, good products fail in the market because the penetration level were not upto mark. If your product is working good, then you need to push for better penetration in the market. This involves searching for new applications for the product or newer products for varied applications.
- Enhance your products with customer service – If you want to differentiate your self from competition, then your customer service department can help you in the same. A good customer service experience can go a long way in retaining the customer as well as in getting references from the customer.
Also Read – Channel levels in Marketing | Business to Business marketing
