Effects of Sales Presentation Topic on Cognitive Responses in Industrial Buying Groups

This article presents results of an experiment which tested the effects of sales messages on cognitive responses in industrial buying groups. Results suggest that matching sales presentations to buyers’ job responsibilities leads not only to higher levels of message involvement and attention, but also to increases in arousal and greater extremity in buyers’ evaluations of the sales presentation, the salesperson, and the represented vendor. Implications of these results for practitioners and researchers are discussed