Personal Marketing In Business-To-Business Marketing

In the world of business-to-business marketing, the exposure of an organization depends on many actions taken by it. Some companies go towards personal marketing and sales, while others might prefer mass media advertisements. But nonetheless, all organizations need to set their foot in the market by creating ”hype” about their company and brand name. It is true that personal selling is one of the very important mediums of making a sale in the business-to-business marketing world, but where do companies get the contacts from to conduct personal selling? Contacts can be acquired by conducting a meeting with a company’s manager and carrying out a sales pitch, or even by the customer reaching out for the company because of the firm’s good reputation in the market, etc.

Many companies participate frequently in trade shows or exhibitions that are conducted in many parts of the world. Trade shows or exhibitions create an opportunity for firms to showcase their newly developed products and to take a look at what their competitors have to offer for the market. Of course in each industry the “format” of a trade show takes place differently but they all have the same purpose. Many customers seek trade shows as a means of finding suppliers of different products that they use in producing their goods or services or in running their own businesses, because they are looking for better suppliers or are new in the market and are “looking around” for what the companies have got to offer. Another way of getting contacts is through participation in trade shows. Trade shows have a particular advantage over other marketing tools as usually the power is at the customers’ hands, making him the dominant part of the sale, however, in trade shows, the cust...

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...g to data from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), 88 percent of the attendees at a trade show usually haven’t been seen by a member of your company’s sales staff in the past year, and 70 percent plan to buy one or more products. On average, 76 percent of attendees ask for quotes and 26 percent end up signing purchase orders. Seventy-two percent of visitors say the show itself influences their buying decisions.

The positive impact of exhibiting at a trade show isn’t confined just to the event, as 87 percent of attendees will pass along some of the information they obtained at the show, and 64 percent will tell at least six other people about it. From a sales perspective, shows can also be highly cost-effective — it costs 22 percent less to contact a potential buyer at a show than through traditional field sales calls or cold calling (Leybovich 2012).