Industrial manufacturing & Processing Firms which also includes distributors who buy and resell to other firms.

Institutional/Commercial including health care, restaurants, educational institutions, hotels/resorts and other service providers.

Government Agencies includes all levels from local municipalities, county, state and national organizations. It should be no surprise that the Federal Government of the USA is the single largest purchaser of goods/services in the World.

One of the real goals of good industrial marketing is the development of mutually satisfying, profitable long-term relationships with your customers. To create these important relationships, customer service may require helping your customer sell his product/service to his customers. This process is called “pull-through marketing”. It can be as important, or even more important than the physical product itself. I was associated with a company that made parking lot sweepers. These are sold to small, independent contractors who sweep parking lots at shopping malls and other facilities during the nights when the businesses are close. This company had created a unique sweeper that was not only effective in sweeping, but was very quiet doing it. But, the sweeper wasn’t selling. Then we learned enough about the contractor’s customer (the shopping mall manager) to find out that creating noise, at night, caused serious complaints with neighbors. So we provided the contractor with videos, testing lab reports and charts showing the significant reduction in noise using our sweepers and the product took off. This is a classic example of how learning about your customer’s market and how your product’s competitive advantages could give him an edge in his markets really paid dividends. Another way to put it, is to ask yourself this important question. What competitive advantages will my product provide for my customer’s product/service? When you know the answers and can effectively communicate them to your customer (and help him communicate them to his customers), the ingredients for success are at hand.

How should we compete? By adapting our sales/marketing efforts to the differing needs of the segments

Selection of target customers is probably the most critical decision made by the industrial marketing plan. This is because the sel

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