Industrial Marketing is, like all selling, about creating and communicating benefits for the buyer.

You can see how this technique works in a case I helped with on Usenet as well as in the samples at www. copywriter .co .uk.

Question

"Marketing an industrial water treatment product

I'll be handling the marketing for an industrial product, specifically a line of water-treatment chemistry in the Midwest on behalf of a small (< $3 million) manufacturer. Service and reliability has been a strong suit of this firm with existing customers but little name recognition beyond current customer base. These chemical products are used for the prevention of hard water scale formation in industrial process equipment (e.g. boilers) which may otherwise cause a bunch of problems. The business is competitive, three or four national companies have 50 % of the market, particularly in large refineries and chemical plants. The rest is handled by small regional companies which feature superior service and target small to medium industrial customers. Customers feel vendors are pretty much the same (they're really not, there are some real "snake oil" companies in this business) , until they have a problem at which time they flail about trying to figure out what went wrong and look for a new vendor to help them. Switching costs are high for the customer. My gut is to launch a direct mail campaign targeted to decision makers so when they DO have a problem, they call us. Otherwise, I'm at a loss as to how to get them to switch or consider switching.
I'd truly appreciate some advise, opinions, discussion."

Reply

• 1) Why is there a high cost of switching suppliers? Can anything be done about this.
  
  
• 2) The customer's business is on the line here, if the machines get bunged up. If not there is loads of expensive downtime. This can be dramatised.
  
  
• 3) create a point of difference:
  
  
  
  • a) Look at your client's delivery record. See if delivery can be backed by an attractive guarantee.
    
    
  • b) Look at the product, if it is colourless add colorant to make it easier to see and use. This translates into economy.
    
    
  • c) Check the packaging. If certain amounts need using, mark off the label, sell the benefit.

  • d) What else would be desirable in such a product? Rust inhibitor? Detergent? Add this, protect the exclusivity and sell the benefits.
    
  
  

• 4) Look at the underlying costs, delivery must be costly. See if a bulk delivery means enough savings or your client to offer a massive discount if a customer is offered a bulk delivery.
  
  
• 5) Think money saving, improving profits!