A firm that is marketing multimillion-dollar wastewater treatment systems to cities has been unable to sell a new type of system. This setback has occurred even though the firm’s systems are cheaper than competitive systems and meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) specifications. To date, the firm’s marketing efforts have been directed to city purchasing departments and the various state EPAs to get on approved bidder’s lists. Talks with city-employed personnel have indicated that the new system is very different from current systems and therefore city sanitary and sewer department engineers, directors of these two departments, and city council members are unfamiliar with the workings of the system. Consulting engineers hired by cities to work on the engineering and design features of these systems and paid on a percentage of system cost, are also reluctant to favor the new system.
(a) What roles do the various individuals play in the purchase process for a wastewater treatment system?
(b) How could the firm improve the marketing effort behind its new system?