[MUSIC]

The last topic we are going to cover under the overall course Knowing The Consumer

is called vendor analysis in the context of business markets.

So whenever a business consumer is trying to talk to another business supplier,

he looks at certain attributes of the supply.

For example, what's the price of the product being offered,

what is the reputation of the supplier, what is the reliability of the product

the supplier's providing, also we have to look at the reliability

of the supplier themselves, and finally, the flexibility of the supplier

in terms of the deadlines and when he use going to supply the product and so on.

So a business consumer usually rates this characteristic or attributes

in terms of differentiating skills, maybe or poor, fair, good, and excellent.

And he also weighs different attributes at different levels.

So maybe price is the most important attribute, so a business supplier or

business consumer is going to give it the maximum weight.

Finally, using these weights and evaluation of the different attributes

he is going to put a total score to the different suppliers available and

of course choose that supplier who gives him the best score.

So this is how the vendor analysis works, that is

when a business customer is trying to acquire a product from another supplier,

he is going to evaluate the potential of the different suppliers using

this vendor analysis, and then choose the one which gives him the best option.

The next important concept in the case of business markets is the different

buying center participants.

So remember, as we mentioned in the previous video,

during our business-to-business transaction,

there are quite a few people who might influence the entire purchase process.

The different people who are there usually starts from the initiators.

Who are these initiators?

The initiators are the people in the company who actually start the process

of analyzing the need of the company, so

whether they actually need something to purchase from out of the supply.

Now of course, need is not the first element.

There are the actual users of the product.

Think about the situation that you as a company probably need a photocopy machine.

So maybe your boss tells you that, okay, we might need a new photocopy machine,

but you as a direct consumer also have to determine

what are the different attributes of the photocopy machine you want.

So these are the users of the product which determine are who

will influence the purchase process.

Then the third set of people are the actual influencers.

Who are these influencers?

Of course the users are definitely the influencers, but at the same time,

you have to remember also people who have different connections or

who have different interests in this company.

For example, if you are the consumer who is the user of the product,

you have to talk to other users as well,

you have to talk to people who might have some connection or

some communication with the group of suppliers who can provide you the product.

So you know what are the different options you have.

Finally, when you look at this influences,

you have to go to the next stage who are the deciders.

That is, you chose between the different suppliers, but

you have to eventually decide which of the suppliers suits you best,

using the vendor analysis we just talked about.

The next set of influences in this whole decision-making

process in the business-to-business market are the approvers.

Of course, you might choose a vendor to supply your product, but

you need the budget to be approved.

So you send your estimated budget to certain approvers who is actually going to

approve it or not and depending on that approval, you are going to purchase it,

and these purchases of course you are not going to the supplier to buy the product.

There's a certain group of people that needs to go to the company or

the supplier to purchase the product.

These are the buyers.

And the final set of influencers in an organizational buying process

are the gatekeepers who sometimes might actually influence your

purchase process because they might have certain vested interests,

they might like certain suppliers, they might dislike certain suppliers, so

that might also be a factor when you buy in a all-national context.

Finally, we are going to look at how price plays an important role

in this whole organization buying process.

Remember, when we talked about the vendor analysis,

price was one of the characteristics which was important in the purchase process.

Some suppliers, or some consumers, might be very price sensitive.

When there is a consumer who is price sensitive,

from the supplier's perspective, it's important that

he designs a product which takes into account this price sensitivity.

For example, if you have a price sensitive consumer,

you provide them with the minimum quantity desirable.

You do not make any adjustments, you do not provide any refunds, in case there

is any problem, or maybe you do not provide any extensive service contract.

On the other hand, for consumer or business consumers who want a product

which is good in quality but not usually concerned about the price,

these are the Price-Indifferent Business Consumers.

For these Price-Indifferent Business Consumers,

you as a supplier should provide them as much assistance as possible.

Maybe in terms of an Internal Engineering Assessment or

maybe a fill value, or something where you go,

you send your technicians to your consumer and help them out.

The third option in this case of Price Insensitive Consumers is

provide them with expertise, and finally, you can build a trustworthiness and

likability from the perspective of the supplier by giving them regular sales

calls, providing them with assistance, giving them certain discounts, and so on.

Overall, what we see here is in a business-to-business marketing context,

it's important that you remember very carefully what are the different stages of

the buying decision process, what are the different influencers of this buying

decision process, and how do you deal with the different attributes which

the consumer wants, and how to evaluate these different attributes.

So I hope this would give you a very clear

idea about the distinction between consumer markets and business markets.

So I definitely look forward to your participation in the next video

which is going to be on market research.

We are going to look at it in the next video.

Thanks a lot. [MUSIC]

2.8 Análisis de proveedores y la importancia de la fijación de precios

Investigación de mercados y comportamiento del consumidor

与讲师见面