Technical and commercial communication methods used in semi-finished industrial goods market in South East European markets

Abstract

South East European industrial markets are crossing a period of strong development. This progress is also strongly felt by industrial suppliers, including semi-finished non-ferrous metal products traders. Industrial marketing presents a lot of features which differs from the consumers marketing. Analyzing these markets one can observe an increased communication between sales teams and buying centers. This communication has two major line: technical and commercial. Buying teams, which include very often engineers, need special, detailed and customized technical information related to products, delivery and payment conditions etc. The clarity and efficiency of this communication is one of the key factors of commercial success on industrial markets. In our paper we intend to analyze the communication methods, channels preferred on the mentioned markets, focusing on the interaction of personal and digital communication and other issues which are specific for industrial marketing. Research methods include: on site observations of sales teams, back office analyses of industrial suppliers’ websites, professional in-depth interviews. Our goal is to deeply understand the trends and interactions of different communication methods and channels on this field and to propose new concepts in order to improve this communication.