Business Market Segment Summary

I’ve been posting on “business market segment” for a week now. So I decided a summary of my posts and article on this topic will help you to better grasp this wealth of information.

I’ll summarize by rephrasing the main topics from the article and posts and writing a brief statement about each.

Business Specific

Organizational Business Market Segment
Organizational segments differ by size of the business, including number of employees, number of plants, braches or stores and number of geographic locations. Organizational segments also differ by age of the business and its geographic location.

Financial Business Market Segment
A business market segment also differs by financial characteristics like sales volume, profits and market share.

Industrial Business Market Segment
Each industry is a different business market segment because each has different needs, regulations production methods, equipment and supplies, types of facilities, technical requirements, and each sells to different types of customers.

Product Specific

Pricing Business Market Segment
Business, like people, have different pricing preferences. Some buy strictly on price. Others buy just for quality without regard to price, but most buy for value. They want the best match of benefits and price.

Technical Business Market Segment
Each business market segment has different technical needs. Some are high tech; some are low-tech, and some use a combination of high-tech and low-tech procedures.

Delivery Business Market Segment
Each different business market segment has different requirements for speed and type of delivery.

Purchasing Specific

Purchasing Approaches Business Market Segment
A business market segment can also be distinguished by how the purchasing unit is organized. Some are centralized with a unit at headquarters doing all the purchasing. Others are decentralized with each branch making their own purchasing decisions. Some use a combination with each branch placing orders but with headquarters making all payments.

Purchasing Situation Business Market Segment
A business market segment’s needs stipulate its purchasing situation. Some need consulting help from sales representatives. Others prefer to purchase on line, by telephone or fax.

Purchasing Volume and Frequency Business Market Segment
Each business market segment will differ by how much and how frequently they purchase a certain type of product or service. By keeping good records on customers, it’s easy to determine which business market segments are your best customers. If you focus your marketing efforts on those customers it will likely result in more increased business than if you focus on another business market segment.

Decision Maker Specific

Purchasing Function Business Market Segment
Each business market segment also differs by business culture, roles of purchasing decision makers and their freedom and responsibility regarding purchasing decisions.

Risk Tolerance Business Market Segment
Some individual decision makers are more risk adverse than others, and some businesses encourage risk taking in purchasing while others discourage it. Thus, both personal characteristics of decision makers and company culture influence how willing purchasing agents are to take a risk on a new vendor or product.

Personal Business Market Segment
As people, purchasing agents are influenced by their demographics as any consumer. Thus, knowing their consumer market segmentation criteria help you relate better to these decision makers.

To learn how to use demographics to discover the best appeals for your target market, get my free report on my easy market segmentation process. Just complete the form below:

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