Industrial Market Research. Rise of the Machines
As smart systems and evolving industry parameters increase the pace and complexity of manufacturing, industrial market research can help your company thrive in a changing world.
Possessing knowledge and understanding about your customers is one of the primary factors in running a successful industrial company. And being able to provide your business-to-business (B2B) clients with meaningful insights about how you can satisfy their needs requires a robust industrial market research programme.
In this article, we are going to take a brief look at industrial market research and how the information it provides can help you to sell more effectively to your B2B customers.
What is Industrial Market Research?
Market research, in general, is the way companies identify their target markets, monitor their customer’s satisfaction and buying behaviour, and analyze supply chains to ensure they operate smoothly.
Industrial market research takes this concept and applies it to the supply of raw materials and their manufacture. It differs from what you could call “ordinary” market research in several key ways.
Product research
Industry is constantly changing and evolving. Manufacturing systems are becoming more automated and consumer identity is fragmenting into evermore complex segments. So being able to pinpoint which products are going to become desirable and which ones will begin to fade from view is an important aspect of industrial market research.
If your company provides manufacturers with raw materials, components, machinery or infrastructure for producing goods that are going to become more desirable in the short- or medium-term, industrial market research will enable you to present your clients with ways that you can meet this future demand.
Supply chain management
Being able to supply your B2B customers on time and with certainty is vital to maintaining your company’s integrity and reputation. Industrial market research enables you to spot supply chain issues before they occur and put in place systems to mitigate their effects of these.
How much does it cost, and how much can it be sold for?
Pricing is an important factor in the decision-making process of industrial customers. A private consumer is going to be more concerned with how a product satisfies their immediate needs. But your B2B industrial clients are going to take a longer-term view. Buying committees within industrial organizations will look more at ROI and future production trends. They will then seek out suppliers who understand these parameters.
So your company’s industrial market research will need to understand both the cost of supplying the client AND how the client will recoup those costs in the price of its finished products.
Stay visible over time
Industrial buying cycles take much longer. So ensuring that your brand and your products stay top-of-mind during these long B2B sales cycles is essential. Industrial market research helps to identify the channels that your clients are most likely to respond to over time. This will enable you to target the correct people with appropriate information and avoid alienating clients by overloading them with irrelevant material.
Understanding the Machine.
Conducting industrial market research requires a unique set of skills that are quite different from normal market research. PMGCO are experts in designing and implementing effective industrial market research strategies. They can help you to find out what it is that your B2B industrial clients are looking for and give your company an edge over your competition.
