Q. Explain the typese of customers?

One group can include the price-sensitive ones called the transactional ones. In India this segment exists in mainly product categories ranging from consumables to projects.

The second group of customers need 'consultative selling'. This will necessitate the marketing organisation to have analytical and intimate knowledge of the customer's requirements and provide a consultative edge to the total offering.

The third group of customers are the ones who need the 'enterprise sales effort' by which they may have a strategic association with the marketer. This approach must enable the marketer to bring in marketing efforts which may require inputs from numerous functional areas of the marketing and buying organisation. This finally results in offering the customer a strategic product. This approach directs to continuous improvement between the customer and the marketer. The 'Docutech' model of digital copier which was developed by Xerox for Boeing is a good instance of this approach.

These customer groups add a latest dimension to business-to-business marketing. The 'three-value philosophy' of purchasing organisations can as well help a marketer categorise buying centres according to the value expected by the organisation. There erstwhile a radical shift of the value concept in business-to-business marketing -- from the price performance equation to the three types of expectations based on the type of customers.

The suggestions of the shift in the value-orientation of buying organisations are that a marketing manager must be able to develop parameters for classifying buying organisations and train the sales force to cater to the three kinds of customer groups .

There is necessitating breaking away from the 'products-benefits-brand' sales pitch which is generally the approach in business-to-business marketing.

While the ideal approach perhaps the 'enterprise sales effort' this mayn't suit every customer. A marketing organisation may perhaps have to deal with all the three types of customer organisations and the respective buying centres. There is a need to developing strategies for all the customer groups and defines value for each of them.