B2B High-Tech Start-Ups: When Sales Work — and When Marketing Becomes More Important
Prof. Dr. Sascha Alavi from TU Dortmund, together with international research partners including HEC Paris, examines in a recent study the role of marketing and personal sales in this context – and how their effects change over the life cycle of a start-up.
The results show that the right balance between marketing and sales is crucial. In early development stages, B2B high-tech start-ups particularly benefit from investments in personal sales: direct interaction with potential customers helps explain complex products and build trust – and can have a clearly positive effect on revenue development.
However, this relationship changes as start-ups mature in the market. Once the product and business model are established, investments in mass-media marketing become increasingly important. Broader marketing activities help reach new customer segments and scale further growth.
For the study, the researchers followed more than 300 B2B high-tech start-ups over a period of 20 months, including companies from industries such as IT, software, cybersecurity, and biotechnology. Across several survey waves, founders and executives were asked about their marketing and sales activities as well as the development of their companies. The survey data were combined with additional company and market data.
The study “The Different Effects of Mass-Media Marketing and Personal Sales Budgets Across the Life Cycle of B2B High-Tech Start-Ups” by Arnd Vomberg (HEC Paris), Maximilian Friess (Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences / LMU Munich), Sascha Alavi (TU Dortmund), Verena Maag and Jan Wieseke (both Ruhr University Bochum) was published in the Journal of Marketing Research.