Industrial
Buying Habits
2019
266
industrial buyers participated in our survey.
Owner
C-Level/SVP�Director�Manager�Individual Contributor
6%
2%
8%
45%
39%
Overview
Suppliers Added�Over the past 12 months ...�
2018
… industrial buyers added an average of 16 new suppliers to their supply chains, a 45% increase over 2017.�
+16
+11
2017
Less Than 10 : 54%�10 - 25: 36%�26 - 50: 6%�51 - 100: 1%
101+: 2%�
… industrial buyers added the following number of new suppliers to their supply chains:�
How They Source
When sourcing new suppliers, industrial buyers use these tools: ��
Thomasnet.com�Referrals�Company Preferred Database�Other Search Engines�Alibaba�
80 %
71 %
65 %
41 %
21 %
9 %
What They Look At
When sourcing new suppliers, industrial buyers pay attention to:��
Your Website�Market Presence�Brand Strength & Reputation�Case Studies�Social Media�
73 %
68 %
61 %
24 %
10 %
“You MUST have a website. On it, be very clear and detailed about your supply capabilities and lower limits. Include all public contact and social media channels, locations and areas served, your business structure, history, and mission/vision.”�
The Importance Of Your Website
The quality of your website impacts industrial buyers’ decision to partner with your company:
“When designing your website make sure that it is informative and most of all easy to navigate, if I struggle to navigate a website you have about 30 seconds of my time and then I am gone.”
23%
65%
12%
A lot
Somewhat
Not at all
Who They Look At
On average:�
25% of industrial buyers vet between 5 and 10 suppliers
71% of industrial buyers vet fewer than five suppliers
3% of industrial buyers vet more than 10 suppliers
What Really Matters
Buyers rated these factors on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most important:
Delivery Performance Cost Quick Turnaround Times
4.45
4.2
4.03
3.94
3.93
3.91
Financial Stability Quality Certifications Industry Experience
“On-time delivery is very important. When an order is late please notify your customer prior to the order being late.”
Location Counts, Too
When adding new suppliers to their supply chains, industrial buyers always or generally prefer to source:
45% of industrial buyers never prefer to source globally, compared to just 17% who never prefer to source locally, and 6% who never prefer to source domestically.
Globally
Domestically
Locally
84%
94%
55%
What They Spend
The largest contracts awarded over the last 12 months were�
Less Than $10,000�$10,000 - $49,999�$50,000 - $99,999�$100,000 - $499,999�$500,000 - $999,999�$1 million+
24%
10%
9%
19%
12%
26%
Decisions Happen Fast ...
Most industrial buyers make their decisions relatively quickly.
45%
Less Than One Month
40%
Between One & Three Months
10%
Between Four & Six Months�
4%
Between Six Months A Year
1%
One Year Or More
… So Speed Counts
Response time is critical to winning new contracts.�
53% of industrial buyers
expect to be contacted within 24 hours of submitting an RFQ
33% of industrial buyers
expect to be contacted within 2-5 days of submitting an RFQ
12% of industrial buyers
expect to be contacted within a week of submitting an RFQ?
“Respond to RFQs in a more timely fashion. Preferably within 24 hours. The supplier that wins my business, generally responds quickly to my queries.”�
Priceless Advice:
Want to make it more likely for you to win more business? Here is some advice from real industrial buyers. �
“Quality is a given; then we need delivery a priority at a competitive price. Once an order is provided, communication is key to keeping our business.”��“Read my email and respond to me as quickly as you can, not just with an automated email response, but with something that answers my specific questions.”��“Educate quoting staff to be proactive in asking technical questions appropriate to the type of materials/services offered.”��“Give your best quoted price to begin with, then hold to it.
Also, be willing to negotiate payment terms as that is a big objective lately and could lose you the business even if your quoted price is best.”��
Over 12 million buyers and engineers per year access the Thomas Network at Thomasnet.com for in-depth information on more than 500,000 North American suppliers. This activity generates petabytes of buyer behavior data, which we draw upon to fuel our Thomas Insights and the Thomas Marketing solutions we provide to OEMs, custom manufacturers, service companies, and industrial distributors.
Thomas. For Industry.
Contact us: 800.879.6757
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