Industrial sales emphasis across the life cycle

Life-cycle stages require changes in both operations and management styles. Different personnel sales skills, qualities, and motivation are optimum for the various phases of industrial product life cycles. Early phases require creativity and informality. Growth phases require emphasis on operational planning, staging, training, optimism, problem solving, and stamina. Mature phases demand emphasis on efficiency, administration, judgement, and conservatism. Cutback phases place a premium on “hard-nosed” decisiveness, objectivity, judgement, and courage.     

Applying territoriality to steps in the buyer/seller process

Territoriality is the drive of an individual to stake out, establish, maintain, and defend an area of space for personal use. The “area of space” may be physical or psychological. Industrial buyers and others involved in the buying process, as members of organizations, will act to establish individual territories within the organization and may also act to represent an organization's territorial needs. Because an understanding of the behavior of buyers is important to industrial sales people, and because the concept of territoriality is a mixture of psychological processes, physical behavior, and the space surrounding an individual, a Territoriality Scan System is proposed to assist the salesperson in improving his or her sales communications with industrial buyers. A salesperson can gather important information about an industrial buyer's psychological processes by observing the buyer's physical behavior and surrounding physical space using the Territoriality Scan System. These observational measurements can then be used to enhance the entire sales presentation.     

Social auditing for marketing managers

A general framework is suggested for use by the marketing manager in maximizing efforts to safeguard consumer rights by thoughtfully preparing for his part in the corporate social audit. He can adapt a suggested audit preparation sequence to the needs and resources of his individual company.     

A critical review of industrial market segmentation

This article reviews approximately 30 articles over the past 20 years that have addressed the topic of industrial market segmentation. The pursuit of a normative model to guide practitioners in segmenting industrial markets has made some progress with three identifiable models. There are a host of problems with the work done in the area both conceptual and methodological.     

Vendor segmentation: An additional level of market segmentation

This article describes a new conceptual approach, called “vendor segmentation,” which will be useful to industrial marketers in making their vendor evaluation and selection procedures more customer oriented, and hence more profitable, than conventional procedures. A practical approach for doing vendor segmentation analysis is outlined as a stepwise procedure, and the potential benefits and limitations of using this approach are discussed.     

Changes in industrial buying: Implications for industrial marketers

Some of the most dramatic changes in organizational buyer behavior have occurred and continue to occur in the industrial purchasing function. Purchasing is becoming less and less a lower-level staff function and more and more a top-level management position. This article examines some of the major changes in the purchasing function and the reasons for those changes. The article concludes by considering some of the major implications of these changes for the industrial marketer.     

Technology transfer from government laboratories to industrial markets

The first purpose of this article is to explore the interface between Marketing and R&D. The intent is to illustrate the nature of the relationship that must be developed and maintained to assure the successful transfer of technology from Federal laboratories to the civilian and commercial sectors of the nation. The second purpose of this article is to explore how government participation affects the R&D—Marketing interface and other dimensions of the innovation process.     

Setting multinational industrial marketing strategies

Nations of the world are striking out, from various starting points, along a variety of new development paths, reflecting a widespread repudiation of the conventional economic model of development based on a common, predetermined roadway to progress. Marketers who are bound by tradition may perceive the alternative development approaches as threats to standardized marketing strategies. Innovative marketers will view them as important keys to expanded market opportunities throughout the world.     

Measures used to evaluate industrial marketing activities

Given the importance of controlling marketing efforts, a study was conducted of industrial manufacturers to determine the extent of their use of various measures to evaluate different marketing activities. The predominate measures used for evaluation were sales volume with much less utilization of profitability, productivity, and expense measures.     

Developing better industrial advertising

This paper reports on various factors that should be applied by industrial advertisers in order to improve their advertising effort. Topics on setting objectives, developing copy, designing the layout, and selecting media are covered in an applications-oriented way. The result is a concise approach of how industrial advertising can be more effective.     

A sales mix model for effective industrial selling

The purpose of this article is to focus on one aspect of the marketing mix for industrial firms. Specifically, the control of promotion centers on the promotional mix, which includes personal selling, advertising, and sales promotion. The personal sales mix model (Figure 1) highlights those factors that are controllable by the industrial sales representative. Also, the uncontrollables involved in industrial selling are discussed. An understanding of the personal sales mix model should aid industrial marketers in satisfying buyer's needs through effective selling.     

Marketing research by a small industrial firm: A case study

There is a growing need today for industrial marketers to conduct marketing research and use the results in making profitable business decisions. This paper describes a marketing research study conducted by a small industrial firm and discusses the nature and extent of its impact on the firm's operations. Several implications and practical guidelines are derived for industrial marketers in general, based on the firm's marketing research experience.     

A framework for strategic industrial pricing

A model for pricing decision making in an industrial setting is described. Written from the perspective of a price setter, the model starts with an evaluation of the relative strengths and weaknesses of both buyer and seller. These evaluations are then input into a strategic framework, which integrates tactical considerations with several environmental concerns. The article concludes with a set of strategic pricing alternatives, in a matrix form, to be used by price negotiators and pricing executives of industrial companies.     

Marketing to the industrial lease buyer

This article reports on a survey of financial executives concerning their attitudes towards the leasing of industrial equipment. Specifically, the study seeks to explore the reasons why lessees lease. The research findings are viewed in terms of their implications for the marketing of industrial equipment.     

Increasing the role of direct mail marketing in industrial marketing strategy

Direct marketing has long been a dominant factor in the distribution strategy of industrial goods and services. Yet frameworks for strategy formulation in this area are nearly nonexistent in the literature. Much that has been written focuses on successful techniques, such as how to use a specific type of sales letter to improve results. This article outlines a set of key perspectives that industrial marketers may use to evaluate the potential effectiveness of direct marketing strategies.