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As the B2B marketing process unfolds, the next step requires communicating the
offering’s value to the marketplace.

Communication is critical for a product launch, of course, and also throughout the product’s entire life cycle. New prospects always enter business markets and customers exposed to competitors’ messages need to be reminded why they’re happy buying from you.

Professor Don E. Schultz at Northwestern University, an ISBM Fellow, has led the
fields of integrated marketing communications and brand value creation. Both
approaches take a sophisticated view that goes far beyond the old-time techniques
of “industrial advertising.” In planning market development, for instance, marketers can
take a “behavioral timeline” approach for mapping communications timed to the
actions customers take in the buying process.

A simplified example illustrates the importance of communication timing and
positioning in business buying processes. Say you’re marketing integrated circuit
chips to “original equipment manufacturers” such as a cell phone makers. Your
success depends on reaching the engineers designing new products just as they are
choosing components for those products.

But the marketing job is not over yet. You must also convince and keep reassuring customer executives that your products and support services will continue to meet their marketing needs delivering value to their customers. Will you be a reliable source of quality supply? Will you remain technologically advanced? In business marketing, communicating with the whole “demand and decision chain” is a critical requirement.

Channel Strategies
Channel strategies and channel management come into play at this phase of the
process, as offerings move downstream along the value chain toward the eventual
user. In business markets, the right channel partners are often the keys to valueadded
marketing. Channel partners often provide applications know-how, access to
customers, inventory management, product integration, and other direct contributions
to the manufactured end-product or the business service rendered. Working with
them requires a special mix of art and science—such as relationship building and
offering co-design—from the business marketer. Critical issues include how a given
channel adds value, particularly when disruptive technologies such as the Internet
rewrite some of the value chain’s rules. ISBM Fellow Dr. James Narus of Wake
Forest University has been an excellent source of channel management insights.

The Sales Force
Business marketing often depends heavily on a company’s sales force and the
capabilities of individual salespeople. Unfortunately, some in business still confuse
the respective roles of the marketing and sales functions. Though highly
complementary, they are distinctly different.

Business marketing manages the understanding, creation, and delivery of value.
Sales interprets that value for individual customers, ensures that customers receive
the value they purchase, and translates customer needs in ways that allow the firm to
improve the value of its offerings. Marketing provides direct support for the selling
process with such as competitive intelligence, pricing information, sales aids,
channel programs, training, and technical support. Marketing sets the stage so
salespeople can build profitable relationships, overcome obstacles, and close
transactions. Professor Wesley Johnston, an ISBM Fellow and head of Georgia State
University’s Center for Business and Industrial Marketing (CBIM), has pioneered in
academic partnerships with the sales function.