“Industrial” Marketing concerns the question of the ways in which
decisions are made. In Consumer Marketing it is usually possible with
confidence to target the individual or the family. In contrast, in Industrial
Marketing, purchasing decisions will often be made in a complex way with
different corporate executives interacting in different ways through a socalled
Decision-Making Unit or DMU.
Because of its importance, there is now a substantial literature dealing
with the workings of Decision-Making Units, and the ways in which those
who wish to sell to the firm should approach the different DMU
participants. This literature suggests that these participants should be
divided into five categories, each of which will be working to their own
agenda in terms of both “Apparent” and “True” needs.
These categories are as follows: