Five key steps to becoming a marketing-ready industrial company

2021 is here and industrial companies should embrace these five key steps to become marketing-ready. A deep-dive into your “purpose”, “capabilities” and “growth plans” will be required. Are you ready?

According to our State of Industrial Sales and Marketing 2020 research study, forward-thinking industrial companies are continuously adapting to achieve total customer relevance and sustained growth.

This proves a ‘cookie-cutter’ sales and marketing approach will not cut it in 2021. Industrial buyers are informed, tech-savvy, and looking to partner with the best fit industrial supplier. A unique and well-planned strategy is needed to ensure a superior customer experience.

The case for becoming marketing-ready and moving forward with a re-designed strategy has never been clearer. Here are the five key steps to consider:

Step 1: Revisit Your Purpose

Leading industrial companies know that purpose is both a differentiator and a must-have. A strongly held sense of purpose defines your culture and reason for being. Purpose embodies everything your company stands for from an emotional, social, and practical point of view. It clearly sets how things are done and how people behave, react and represent your brand promise every day.

Our research study revealed some industrial sectors relative to other sectors have a “production mentality” rather than a “customer-driven mentality” and customer needs are not the uppermost priority in the development of products or marketing outreach.

When customer centricity is at the heart of your purpose this will help your people navigate uncertainty, innovate, and even discover untapped market potential. Marketing-ready industrial companies will clearly articulate what they stand for, why they exist, and will use purpose as the ingredient to connect their people and industry partners in ways that inform their business choices.

Step 2: Re-define Your Value Proposition

Most industrial companies have a value proposition. However, few can demonstrate exactly how their customers benefit from this value. Marketing-ready industrial companies, create, communicate and deliver customer value in a unique and memorable way.

The key is to connect your strengths and operational efforts back to your customers’ challenges and growth plans. When industrial companies can create, deliver and communicate this value – the results are powerful and hard to replicate.

Consider how your competitors create a good customer experience and go better. Become obsessed with creating, delivering, and communicating your unique value in the industries you serve.

Step 3: Confidence

From our research, 74% of industrial sales and marketing professionals predict they will outperform competitors in the next 3 years. Our 205 survey respondents were asked to predict their future business performance relative to competitors over the coming 3 years.

The vast majority (55%) believed they would do ‘somewhat better’ than their competitors, followed by those who believed they would do ‘significantly better’ (19%) and then those who believed they would perform ‘about the same’ (19%). 7% of survey respondents believed they would do ‘somewhat worse’.

This clearly demonstrates that industrial sales and marketing professionals are optimistic about the future, even through a challenging and volatile 2020.

Government stimulus measures have proven to be essential to help support the Australian Manufacturing, Construction, and Mining industries. The federal budget has clearly built greater confidence back into these key sectors to drive Australian economic recovery in years to come.

Step 4: Execute

Industrial companies that decide fast, test quickly, and execute are “marketing-ready”. These companies focus their time and energy on the core decisions to improve customer experience and enable growth.

To prepare for the future, many industrial companies will need to reset their speed to market. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organisations of all types to “turbocharge” decision making out of shear necessity.

Now is the time to test the market, improve your offerings and market your value proposition. Execute quickly and capitalise on your strengths – the market is waiting for you.

Step 5: Win the War on Talent

Technology is advancing at lightning speed. Some jobs are being replaced by automation while others, supported by machinery. These changes are leading many industrial companies to rethink their talent strategy.

Leading industrial companies will focus their talent strategies on answering three core questions: What type of talent do we require? How can we attract this talent? And how can we best manage talent to deliver an improved customer experience?

According to our research study, this may be achieved by recruiting from non-traditional disciplines, age groups, and broader gender. This will help enhance the talent pool as well as bringing ideas from other marketing sectors that are more advanced in customer orientation. Recruits from other sectors and from younger age groups are likely to motivate industrial companies to use cutting-edge technology in terms of social media and personalisation to a greater degree. This does not always mean paying more money, it is about creating an employer brand.

Final Word

A unique and well-planned strategy is needed to ensure a superior customer experience. The five key steps outlined to be “marketing-ready” have been back up by our recent research study – the State of Industrial Sales and Marketing 2020. To learn more download our study. And if you’d like some help with your approach to industrial marketing, let’s chat.

State of Industrial
Sales & Marketing 2020
Research Report

We were delighted to have 205 respondents participate in our first-ever Industrial Sales & Marketing Research Study, led by Deakin University and sponsored by Salesforce. The study focused on six key areas: Customer Experience, Sales Effectiveness, Sales and Marketing Alignment, E-Commerce and Technology, Loyalty, and Account Based Marketing (ABM).

Download the State of Industrial Sales & Marketing 2020 Research Report to learn more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zafiris is an industrial marketer and founder of Industrial Ideas. Having built his experience in B2B marketing from the ground up, Peter understands what it takes to succeed with your marketing strategy. All client projects are personally managed by Peter to help industrials like you get the return on investment you deserve. Peter and team, work hard to become an extension of your business, to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Get your free 30 minute marketing consultation to learn more.