Telemarketing in distribution channels

This article identifies the use of telemarketing in channels of distribution. Specific telemarketing applications for sales leads, marginal accounts, new products, customer inquiries and complaints, and advertising effectiveness are discussed.     

Emergency and routine MRO part buying

This article examines the effect of emergency vs. routine replacement part buying situations on the purchasing criteria used by maintenance and purchasing managers in process industries. Criteria included expediency, distance, part quality, price, and similar factors. Three sources were considered: OEMs, non-OEMs, and in-house production. The study found significant differences between criteria as a function of the buying situation. No significant difference was found between the criteria of maintenence managers and those of purchasing managers.     

A sales mix model for effective industrial selling

The purpose of this article is to focus on one aspect of the marketing mix for industrial firms. Specifically, the control of promotion centers on the promotional mix, which includes personal selling, advertising, and sales promotion. The personal sales mix model (Figure 1) highlights those factors that are controllable by the industrial sales representative. Also, the uncontrollables involved in industrial selling are discussed. An understanding of the personal sales mix model should aid industrial marketers in satisfying buyer's needs through effective selling.     

Managing a capital equipment business's market share

Several factors are investigated as possible contributors to market share for capital equipment business: product quality, service quality, a business's image for quality, and marketing communications. Cross-lagged correlations with PIMS data imply that product quality and image for quality influence market share, marketing communication influences image, and service quality results from all of these sources of influence.     

Technical or nontechnical salesmen?

This paper examines the pros and cons of using technical and nontechnical sales representatives in the industrial market. The authors offer a solution to the question of whether the sales force should possess technical or nontechnical backgrounds. The answer is tied to both the level and the frequency of technical information exchange.     

Centralized and decentralized buying influences

This article empirically measures the effects of organizational separation on industrial buying in the commercial construction industry. It was reasoned that the relationship between organizations and their buying centers should depend on the separations between organizational buying units. Two types of organizational separation were measured— geographic separation and communication separation. Industrial sellers must relate selling effort to buying behavior and procedures. This study reports on how buying influence varies between firms that operate at various levels of organizational separation. The managerial implications of matching the pattern of buying influence with appropriate selling effort is presented.     

Managerial guidelines for trade show effectiveness

This article examines some managerial aspects of successful trade show promotions. In particular, trade show objectives, advantages, preshow and postshow campaigns, and exhibit evaluation are stressed.     

Purchasing agent's influence in the buying process

As in previous studies the role of the purchasing agent can here been seen to vary throughout the buying process. The results both support and reject previous findings. This study finds that while purchasing agents are heavily involved in some buying stages, such as the selection of an order routine as suggested by previous studies, they may not be heavily involved in such other buying stages as post-sale performance feedback. This is contrary to previous findings. This study was conducted in the commercial construction industry.     

MRO parts service in the machine tool industry

This article examines the post purchase Parts servicing of Machine Tools. Survey results outline the policies and criteria that influence the degree to which replacement parts will be provided for old machines. The survey indicates that the policies of some American manufacturers leave service gaps that can be exploited by foreign as well as domestic competitors.     

A comparison of opinion and regression forecasting for an industrial product

Opinion-based forecasting techniques are widely used by industrial marketers. Rarely, however, are the results of these forecasts compared with alternative forecasting techniques and/or evaluated against actual operating results. In this study, opinion-based forecasting results for an industrial equipment manufacturer are evaluated against actual sales data. Further, the opinion-based predictions are compared with the predictions of a naive regression model. The results of these analyses suggest that the current opinion-based forecasting system is deficient.     

Critical Signals for Making Go/NoGo Decisions in New Product Development

One of the hardest steps for a manager to take is to terminate work on a new product project. Apart from the morale and motivation problems that get tied up in such decisions, the real uncertainty surrounding an unfinished project usually makes the decision extremely difficult. One alternative is to keep the project going until the prospects are more certain, for better or for worse. R. Balachandra proposes a better alternative: to watch for those critical signals that warn of danger ahead. The research he reports in this article identifies a set of these signals to help managers make the tough decisions about project continuation.