Intermediary involvement in project marketing and sales – firm and project level perspectives

Many firms offering complex solutions cannot execute all the marketing and sales efforts by themselves but they need intermediaries to reach the potential customers in the dispersed marketplace. Intermediaries offer various marketing and sales services to the focal firm and act as a connection between the focal firm and its customers. Few studies cover the question of how the use of intermediaries contribute to the outcomes of project marketing efforts of the focal firm. This conceptual paper develops propositions addressing the link between intermediary involvement and the focal firm’s project marketing performance. Intermediary involvement is conceptualized based on the timing and extent point of view, and firm’s project marketing performance from the efficiency and effectiveness point of view. This study suggests that involving intermediaries extensively and early in the project marketing process may be associated with better project marketing efficiency and effectiveness at the individual project-level and at the firm level project marketing performance. These assumptions require further empirical testing in the context of project marketing and sales and future avenues for research are suggested.