Nonetheless, manufactures and service providers frequently maintain separate industrial and consumer marketing operations to reflect the different needs of the two channels.
An entire profession (strategic procurement) that includes tertiary training and qualifications has been built around the process of making important purchases.
Government agencies are particularly likely to utilise elaborate competitive tendering processes due to the expectation that they should be seen at all times to be responsibly and accountably spending public money.
[6] Sales force management has a critical function in industrial selling, where it assumes a greater role than other parts of the marketing mix.
During periods of high demand (economic boom), sales forces often become mere order takers and struggle to respond to customer requests for quotations and information.
The term "cannon fodder" derives from the World wars and refers to the massing of undertrained and recently recruited troops sent to the fronts to face the enemy.
Such troops invariably had a poor survival rate but provided the tactical advantage of distracting the enemy while professional soldiers mounted more effective operations.
In adopting the term to Industrial Marketing it means those bids being submitted that have no chance of winning but are involved to make up the numbers (you can't have only one bid in a "competitive" tender process; that wouldn't satisfy the requirements of probity) (for example in government tenders, or for private enterprise the requirement to "truly test the market" and to "keep them honest").
The amount of conventional media advertising required to promote the sites burnt cash at a faster rate than on-line sales generated.