Introduction

Industrial Marketing necessarily comprises of three groups of effort, namely: 1. Product Management 2. Sales 3. Customer service Units Link between the groups is essential for managing interfaces, the interdependencies and organizational barriers that affect their joint activities. There are some inferences from what the salespeoples speak. It reflects the changing tasks that the managers face and stress on the fact that more information was required. However the marketing complaints focussed on the requirement of working with more functional area. Managing marketing interfaces is increasingly important and complex at many industrial firms. It then outlines typical interdependencies and organizational barriers that affect the planning and execution of these activities. Evaluation of the strengths and vulnerabilities of initiatives are aimed at improving links between the marketing groups.

New Marketing Requirements

Factors affecting the marketing units include changes in what many industrial firms sell (the nature of the product offering), to whom they sell it and how under what product life-cycle conditions they sell it. Nature of the Product Offering Industrial marketing programs increasingly involve a combination of tangible products, service support, and on going information services both before and after the sale. Development and execution of such programs require the participation of the various marketing groups responsible for managing product, service, and actual sale. Basic services in business now include on-time delivery, damage-free goods, and efficient order inquiry routines. Value-added services will include custom-designed product labelling, customized quality programs, dedicated order-entry specialists, extended warranty plans, and new services in areas such as waste management and safety programs. Value-added services build the relationship and sustain our pricing structure; and cost- effective development and provision of these services require a multifunctional approach among product, sales, and service personnel in different divisions. Market Fragmentation Phrases like "micro-marketing" and "mass customization" have become perhaps too familiar in recent years. Managers risk losing sight of what is competitively distinctive about these developments versus what is fundamentally old wine in new bottles. Supply Chain Management The goal is to optimize the total cost in use of doing business with a vendor. Supply chain initiatives seek to lower these costs and increase the vendor's ability to develop and sustain value-based pricing policies that reflect total system benefits for customers. Product Life Cycle The focus is on coordination even as other factors increase the amount of required coordination

among these marketing groups, shorter product life cycles decrease the time available for establishing and assimilating the relevant coordination mechanisms.

Market Requirements and Marketing Interdependencies

It essentially focuses upon: 1. 2. 3. 4. Hierarchies of Attention Measurement Systems Information Flow & Competency Traps

In short the consolidation of the Marketing Requirements is done in the table below. Differences among Marketing Groups at Industrial Firms

Product Management
Hierarchy of Attention Operate across geographies. with specific product responsibilities

Field Sales
Operate within geographical territories, with specific ac- count responsibilities. Selling cycles at multiple accounts. External buying processes.

Customer Service
Operate within geographies with multiple product and account responsibilities. Product installation/ Maintenance. Field service processes.

Time Horizons Driven Product development by: and introduction cycles. Internal budgeting processes

Measurement Systems

Performance measures based on profit-and-loss and market-share metrics.

Performance measures based primarily on annual, quarterly, or monthly sales volume.

Measures vary, but typically "customer satisfaction" and cost efficiencies.

Information Flows Aggregate data about products and markets (defined in terms of segments). Role of data makes compatibility with seller's planning and budgeting categories a criterion of useful information. Disaggregate data about geographical markets specific accounts and pertinent resellers. Role of data makes compatibility with buyers' categories a criterion of useful information; "timely" data as a function of varied selling cycles at assigned accounts. Disaggregate data about product usage at accounts.

Data Priorities:

Key Data Uses:

Role of data makes compatibility with relevant technical vocabularies a criterion of useful information.

Conclusion
Firms utilize other initiatives also other than the ones that have been addressed to above. Managers interested in improving linkages among product, sales, and service units should not focus on identifying only one preferred approach. Rather, after analysing how market factors affect marketing interdependencies in their firms, managers should focus on those areas and actions that, within their business context, are likely to provide the best returns on time- consuming and expensive coordination efforts. The discussion reflects on partly reflect the continuing need for specialized expertise in each marketing unit. Such expertise is important for achieving the in- depth knowledge, scale and scope economies, and ongoing efficiencies in each unit that remain important aspects of industrial marketing efforts. Hence, the goal in managing new marketing requirements should not be to eradicate differences between these groups or to assert that "everybody is responsible for customer satisfaction." In most busy organizations, what everyone is responsible for in theory, nobody is responsible for in practice. Rather, the managerial issue is how to link, efficiently and effectively, knowledge, resources, and varying sources of customer value that are necessarily located across different marketing units in many industrial firms..