What is organizational buying/selling?
Companies need different materials, equipments, services or products to maintain their activity. We talk about business to business or industrial marketing when:
-    a manufacturer sells to another manufacturer, for ex. Equipments
-    a manufacturer sells to a trader
-    or a trader (en-gross) sells to a retailer.
Reporting to consumer goods selling this business is usually more quite, almost invisible for large public. Anyway there is about fat cash.
What are the main features?
-    big volume and fat cash
-    industrial equipments, machines or products for reselling
-    low number of buyers, but with great capacity
-    special services
-    intensive relationship between seller and buyer
-    professional procurement
-    large number of factors to influence decisions
-    the importance of sales forces
-    derived demand – it depends on consumer goods demand
-    unstable demand
-    geographical concentration of the buyers

When selling to companies the first question is who has the decision to buy?
Is it one person or a group?
When we sell to one person it can be easier, but not necessarily. When selling to a group we call it buying center.
What is a buying center and how it works?
Buying center is a group of professionals, employees of the company who are involved in the decision making for a specific buying.
We can meet different roles:
-    Promoters: they make the first step or proposal
-    Users: they will use it effectively, they help to make a choice on technical/ professional level
-    consultants / influencers: they can offer advices
-    buyers: they will select the supplier, they negotiate and sometimes make even the decisions
-    approvers: financial department
-    decision maker: they approve the big value buying
-    gate keeper: they can have (negative) influence on the selling/buying process.

Let us see an example: a regional trade company wants to buy It and communication equipment to his sales force. The promoter could be the sales manager or an It manager. Users will be the sales forces. Consultants/ influencers the It and communication professionals, who knows different equipments and technology: laptop, palmtop, wi-fi, LAN, mobile net etc. The buyers will be the employees of the procurement department. The decision maker could be the CEO, if its about a large investment. Gate keeper could be the assistant manager/ secretary when observes some negative behavior on the selling team.

Why is important to analyze all these information? If we want to have a successful selling campaign we have to focus on every member of the buying center, offering the optimal sales argument for each member. Let’s see some sales argument for each:
-    for the final user: we have to convince them that the machine, equipment etc. will be perfect for their work: easy to use, handy, comfortable, they can have faster information from the market, faster and easier communication with the company etc.
-    for the sales manager: he will have a bigger control on his team, easier communication etc.
-    for the financial department: the new equipments will save costs, etc.
-    for the decision maker: his whole company will benefit from the purchasing: growing selling, closer control on sales forces and market and finally bigger profits.

So, the first step when selling to a buying center is to define the partners and their roles and influence in the decision making, then to offer the optimal sales argument for decision makers.

If we don’t develop a strategy for our company the chances to develop or even to survive are seriously decreasing. Just like a traveler which doesn’t make plans for his trip he probably won’t get to his dreamed place or the worst scenario he’ll be lost.

What are the main advantages of doing plans?

- it stimulates the management and executive staff to a more efficient work

- a better market position for the company

- stimulates the interdepartmental cooperation

- helps keep the organization flexible

- it controls responsibility, by following deadlines for each department and staff

- helps every manager think, decide, and act more effectively

- indicates to management how to evaluate and check up on progress

toward planned objectives.

- it leads to socially and economically useful results.

Anyway, the strategy development process itself forces managers and consultants to make deep analysis of their business and markets, to think with the customers mind, to evaluate many factors for success (market, human, financial, technical etc.).

Every time when a few “key player” is involved in the strategy development it is proven that they’ll be more involved in implementing the same strategy and also they’ll help the top management in convincing the whole staff to follow the plans.

In the last 150 years the market changed, and new forms of selling were introduced. We can mention self-service shops, catalogue selling. Most of them decreased the importance of personal selling. The products’ presentation and buying became more and more impersonal. Anyway in the beginning 21^st sales forces are still the major factor of a company’s success on market.

Sales forces in industrial marketing are the major communication and selling channel. The key to success or failure.

We must not forget anyway, that the various marketing functions—sales force, advertising, customer service, product policy, market research—must work together. All of these functions must be parts of a focused marketing strategy and coordinated from the customer’s point of view.

Sales forces in business to business fields are in permanent contact with the customers, they are the company’s “eyes and ears”.  This is very important that they pick up information missed by other means and do this systematically. Marketing department must coordinate their effort to gather every significant data of the market: new product, new trends, prices, customers’ behavior and needs, competitions’ moves. And the most important thing is to analyze these INFORMATION and USE IT.

In order to achieve all the objectives (including sales target) a professional sales representative must have the following characteristics: very good communication skills (personal, technical), professional competence in his specific field (steel products, high tech, building or real estate, machinery etc), courtesy, reliability and responsiveness.

How to participate with success to expos

Summer is over. It’s fall again. Many expo and fair centers reopens with fresh forces even in difficult economical environment. Even this year when companies have less money to spend on marketing and expos, a lot of them don’t want to renounce to participation to expo and fairs. The most important thing is to profit after every penny we invest by getting new customers.

Participation to regional, national and international fairs is an excellent opportunity to build up new business partnerships, to build company’s image, to present company’s business or products to potential and existing partners.

Unlike traditional advertising (ATL), PR events, or expos can offer a much more personal experience, because at this events we can influence our costumers trough almost all of their senses. At many occasions they do have the opportunity to live test the products or services.

Why do we participate to fairs?

Possible reasons, goals to participate:

-          launching new products

-          new market’s research

-          competitive analysis

-          customers’ data base development

-          developing commercial partnerships

-          building company’s brand

We have to pay attention to the following:

The first major step to expo participation is the right selection of the expo. We have to pay attention to the place and period of the expo, the precise theme of the expo (general, technical, consumer goods, automotive industry, tourism ..), the organizers, it’s brand, the visitors, the costs of the participation and the budget of the event.

Then we have a long list of important actions. We recommend a well defined action plan, maybe a Gantt.

-         stand reservation, month before the event, (specifying dimension, position, facilities)

-         preparing the advertising materials (product catalogues, flyers, banners, posters)

-         sending personal or trough media invitation to existing and potential partners, stakeholders,

-         logistics

-         selection and training for stand staff (company’s employee and hostess)

-         building the stand: rented from the organizers (cheaper and faster to prepare) or custom made (with much more effects on image)

-         the effective participation to the event: reception of the visitors, presentation of the company and it’s products, making contracts, obtaining demands and data

-         final action: disassemble the stand, packaging, data processing and using, and follow-up.

The positive effects of the expo can be pushed further by a series of methods: short interactive programs at the stand (product presentation or mini-conference), visiting potentials partners stand with specific business gifts, maybe unusual gifts.

Data processing and using them is vital. We don’t have to forget “promises” we made at the expo to customers – send them quotations, visit them, call them. A simple thank you call or e-mail could have a very positive effect in the following days or weeks.

Don’t forget participation to a fair has a long term effect. It’s very rare that we can sell as much at the fair that we can cover our expenses. But, what is important, that some customers may remember after months and make a bid or when next meeting them after long weeks they may accept much easier an offer to cooperate.

“Selling begins long time before the sales man calls”. We have to support the sales force by specific business to business communication.

Szekely Szilard

We don’t see very often TV ads for example mining industry equipments or other technical equipments or stuff. Why is that?

Are industrial or business to business companies using marketing or advertising? If yes, how do they do marketing?

Why advertising agencies focus (almost exclusively) on FMCG? Why do de treat industrial products and services like on outkast?

We have a large marketing experience in both categories. In business to consumer fields we met fast moving consumer goods – FMCG, services for large public, retail, tourism. And on the other side, the business to business fields: steel and building material trading, buildings, logistics – transports, IT – webdesign and online marketing, industrial sewing machine trading… Everywhere we met new, interesting marketing and selling methods,  tools and strategies.

The first aspect we noticed was that market target and decision making mechanisms define the style, the conception and the methods of marketing for each specific domain.

Very often innovative methods with huge success in one domain proved to be a total failure in other appropriate domains. Some marketing tools that make big sales for sure in the case of beer, could be totally inefficient for plumbing or sanitary stuff. And that means bog loses for the company, wasted money.

Of course, the basic precepts of marketing activity are the same for each domain. We can reduce to the following basic steps: analyzing a situation, diagnose the market of the company or product, making marketing plan or marketing strategy, implementing it and controlling. Little bit scientifically: we start with a market research (qualitative and quantitative), we analyze internal environment, we identify the possible developing directions. One of the key moment is the proper using of the most commented SWOT analysis.  Meaning not only mentioning the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats, but analyzing them like parts of a complex system, with multi-directional influences, we can establish powerful concept of future development or marketing strategy.  Then we can establish marketing plan: product, price, promotion and place (distribution) policies. We identify cleat objectives, which motivates and also are reachable, action plan with strict deadlines and tasks.

Even in the 21^st century business some company ignore the fact that establishing a strategy must start with the mission and vision of the company and the general objectives of it. There are a lot of companies who “start marketing” when they already have major problems and are losing the marketing. It’s crucial to make early plans and to adapt continuously to the market and economy challenges. Without planning we only take a promenade or we fight for surviving. And this is also true for a small bakery and an industrial mammoth.

More to follow: the importance of the sales force, online marketing for b to b company, expo and fairs, industrial selling, marketing places, en-gross market, and much more

Szekely Szilard

Business to business activity – economical or trade relations between business firms.
B2B  marketing – those types of marketing activity which refers to business to business activities.

The industrial marketing or business to business marketing shows a few similarity and differences too when it’s compared with the “classical marketing” (business to consumers marketing).

Decision makers are influenced by subjective and objective arguments too.
Industrial marketing uses a lot of specific instruments for communication: expos and fairs, product catalogues, multimedia cd-s, outdoor advertising, business and technical magazines, product presentations.
Sales forces have an important role in business’ succes, but they must be offered support to work efficiently.
“Sales begin long time before the salesman picks up the phone”.

In the following articles we will meet: marketing objectives, 4P for business firms, technical marketing, crm marketing, industrial market research, website marketing, unusual business presents, business to business marketing agency, online business marketing and many other methods and lessons.