Industrial firms develop and supply products, services, processes and other knowledge to support consumer goods distribution companies. In turn, consumer companies apply these technological advances to serving their own customers more effectively and efficiently.
Industrial marketing encompasses both stock and specification items.
In the case of stock items the seller participates in application and installation. Given the service orientation of industrial marketing, the relationship between the industrial firm and consumer goods distributor is long-term and must be communicative. For the industrial marketer, the typical entry-level position is sales manager or territory representative. Instead, the industrial sales representative is an account manager who solves problems and explains technical product attributes to customers. Although career progression in industrial marketing is unstructured, new developments have created a need for product managers and channel marketing managers.