According to the most recent report, “machinery” manufacturers report that the current economy has had a negative impact on capital sales, which seems to indicate plants are holding off buying new equipment and instead getting old machinery fixed or refurbished. This appears to be the case as the “fabricated metal products” industry reported first quarter orders are up as compared to prior two years.

The following industries reported growth in orders: Plastics & Rubber Products; Machinery; Paper Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Printing & Related Support Activities; Transportation Equipment; Fabricated Metal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; and Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products.

As indicated by the statement made by the “transportation equipment” industry, orders are not across the board but depend on “division, plant and market served.” This is most likely true for many industries. In order to get leads into the pipeline and sales on the board, it is important to take a really close look at the current buying behaviors of your target groups. You will most likely have to create an entirely new profile for these groups if you expect to market and sell to them effectively.

I say it over and over again because it is true. When you want to learn something about the buyers and sourcing professionals you are targeting, ask them. Send out a survey. Write a personalized email. Uncover their pain and make sure you can offer a targeted, viable solution that not only eases their pain but helps them to grow too.

This is the time to be innovative in all aspects of how you serve your customers. Whether it’s a creative financing offer, lease offer, a new product, or special services, uncover what your existing and potential customers really need and let them know you understand exactly how to fulfill those needs without compromising quality.

Even at the basic membership level, designed to get targeted industrial and commercial buyers to contact relevant seller members, Industrial Web Search offers sellers the opportunity to control the way in which they reach out to their targeted buyer groups. Unlike legacy category search, which was modeled after print catalogs, Industrial Web Search does not allow its members to buy their way to the top of a given category, making the service effective and affordable for companies with limited marketing budgets. Instead seller members use tags, which are keywords and phrases they carefully select, to identify the products and services they represent.  This method ensures a more accurate match between buyer and seller because each one is able to clearly identify himself to the other through commonality of language. No more guessing and wading through pages of irrelevant results.

The enhanced and premium levels offer more content and presentation control to member sellers in the Company Profile area. Once a buyer-user has completed his search and clicks on a link to visit a company profile, he can further learn whether he has found a seller whom he wishes to contact. At the “Enhanced” membership level, some of the additional features include the option to attach an RFQ form and a photo gallery that holds up to four images. The “Premium Level” is almost like a micro-site, providing an integrated WYSIWYG html editor to control style, background, links, information for multiple locations, and even has an FTP link option to facilitate the download of large files containing project proposal information from interested buyers. The photo gallery at the “Premium Level” is also far more robust, allowing for multiple albums and images.

For those who are just interested in managing costs and having some control over their online marketing, the “Basic” membership level offers plenty. The Company Profile page at all membership levels includes a company profile summary, at least one link to the seller member’s website home page, downloadable vCard, active email and call links for one-click communications, integrated Google map, active link to their .tel domain, and even the ability to send the profile page to a colleague. Basic level memberships start at less than $400 for a full year’s membership. Great value for the money!!

Now more than ever companies need reassurance that they are making the right choice.  Controlled by their fears – fear of making a bad decision, fear of losing their job, fear of insufficient return on investment – buyers and sourcing professionals appear to be stuck between the ‘research’ and ‘consideration and comparison’ stages of the traditional industrial buying cycle.

As an industrial or commercial seller, if you want to be successful in your sale today, you must understand not just the practical needs of your targeted buyer groups but the inner workings of their psyche in order to learn how to effectively help them manage their fears. Your job becomes more complicated because now you have to play psychologist and determine what information they need in order to feel safe. To succeed, you must move your targeted audience from a feeling of “too much risk” to one of “manageable risk.”

So how do you do that? Ask them what’s holding up their decision. Let them know you understand their current challenges and you want to help them reach their goals successfully. Ask them to relate to you why they are apprehensive and how they imagine the outcome will be. You will most likely learn pretty quickly why they are stalling. Armed with this information either you can gather the information they need to help them feel safe or, depending on the nature of the response, abandon the sale for the time being.

The more you can learn about your client’s present state of mind, the greater your chances are of presenting him with the information he needs to be convinced that he is making the right decision by selecting to do business with you.

Radio station 1010wins reported recently that “professionals who have waged major damage-control struggles say the best strategy for Toyota mixes apology, openness, details about a specific fix – plus a little help from friends on Capitol Hill.” Well, Toyota’s cross-channel strategy seems to be working: apologetic television ads, a public apology from the CEO, “moving forward” slogan, an entire section of their website dedicated to Recall Information, to name a few. Essentially, Toyota is achieving damage control success because they have spent years building a strong brand. Now they can “cash in their chips,” as it were, to appeal to their loyal customers for forgiveness and understanding. And they have – to the tune of a 15.3% increase in global sales. Wow!! And in this economic climate! Pretty impressive, I’d say.

Even if you do not have access to the branding budget of a Toyota there are still plenty of effective strategies you can implement that will establish, support and promote your brand among your desired target audience groups. And hopefully you will never have to experience the need for such damage control.

For instance, you can start with basic public relations:

1. If you don’t have one yet, get a News module on your site and write about every significant thing you have done or are doing that has had or continues to have a positive impact on a client.
2. Don’t just write a boring case study and bury it somewhere on your website. Construct the story to demonstrate how you really made a difference. Archive case studies on your site so prospective clients can easily find the ones that apply to their need – by industry, application, product, etc.
3. Write a news story that points to the case study and summarizes what you achieved for your client.
4. Be sure to include a quote from your client that expresses his views about what you helped him to achieve.
5. Post client comments in your testimonials and on Twitter.
6. If you sell products, enhance your website application (or get one) that allows customers to rate your products and post comments that help other customers to make a decision.
7. Find a way to win awards and win them. “Top Supplier” “Best New Product”. They are out there.
8. Demonstrate your integrity and generosity by hosting a charity event or supporting a charity you believe in.
9. Reach out to customers in an email to thank them and offer them something that will help them today – discount, white paper, case study, something for free, etc.
10. Send out press releases that attract journalists who will want to write about your successes or challenges

Branding is an ongoing endeavor. Keep communicating with your target audience groups. Build trust and loyalty through quality, consistency, and communication. And by all means represent your brand with integrity and accountability.

Ask Customers to Recommend You on LinkedIn as a Service Provider

In my last couple of posts, Are You LinkedIn Yet and Get Free Company Profile in Online LinkedIn Company Directory, I encourage my industrial and commercial readers to take advantage of the free services offered by the professional networking site LinkedIn. If you want to be listed as a Service Provider under one of the available categories then you must first get at least one of your customers to enter a Service Provider Recommendation on your behalf.

Here’s a great way to communicate with your valued customers for a reason other than selling. Send them a brief email thanking them for their loyalty and ask them to provide you with the recommendation. Send them the link so it is easy for them. Or give them a call and ask.

Believe it or not people like to be helpful. If your customers have a good feeling about you they will be happy to provide you with what you need. You will find that customers are proud of the business decisions they make. Deciding to do business with you is one of those decisions.