The complementary effect of trade shows on personal selling

Abstract

In this paper, the authors investigate the complementarity between two dominant elements of the business marketing communications mix—personal selling and trade shows—from an integrated marketing communications (IMC) perspective. Through a field study with a group of industrial distributors, they demonstrate that follow-up sales efforts generate higher sales productivity when customers have already been exposed to the firm's product at a trade show. Overall profits are shown to be greater when the trade show is used in conjunction with optimal levels of sales effort. The study also suggests that return-on-sales figures are higher among show attendees than non-attendees and that the trade show generates positive effects on customer purchase intentions. These results provide much-needed accountability for trade show expenditures and also highlight the valuable leverage they offer towards improving selling efficiency.