The purpose of this study was to research social selling in B2B sales process. Social selling is a new trend and concept in sales and the main interest to do the explorative study was the lack of research about this concept and topic. The overall objective of the study was to increase the understanding of how social selling affects to B2B sales process and how companies can benefit from it and is there any disadvantages and risks in it. More detailed, the study focused on social selling’s impact on each of the steps in B2B sales process and sales outcomes. Also, the social selling strategy was discussed and how it should be implemented to company’s overall strategy.
The research questions that this study aimed to find the answers for were the following ones:
1. How social selling is affecting to B2B sales process?
2. How social selling benefits different steps in B2B sales process and is there disadvantages and risks in it?
3. How social selling strategy can be implemented to company’s overall strategy?
To understand the whole study better and more detailed, the theoretical framework aims to give a clear vision of the study and it was constructed based on the previous research. The theoretical framework was also utilized when forming the interview questions. The theoretical framework of this study had two main parts: B2B sales process and B2B sales outcomes. Social selling was a moderating effect in this framework. Theoretical framework of the study presents the relationship between B2B sales process and B2B sales outcomes and how does social selling affect to B2B sales outcomes when it is used in B2B sales process.
According to Featherstonebaugh (2010), selling is now a social event. Guesalaga and Kapelianis (2012) found in their research together with the Sales Management Association that even though the social media usage has a significant effect to sales, 70 % of the companies in their study did not use social media in sales or they were only exploring to use it (Guesalaga 2016). Safko (2011) suggested the same results and according to their research, 99 % of business managers that have been surveyed, find that social media has a crucial effect to their business but over 60 % of them said that they do not fully understand the meaning of it (Schultz et al. 2012). B2B sales process is facing a significant change because of the emergence of social media (Andzulis et al. 2012) and increasing number of the social media accounts have leaded to the fact that firms have started to search for benefits from social media (Lacoste 2016).
Andzulis et al. (2012) argued that social media has an effect to every step of the sales process which was agreed by Schultz et al. (2012) and Moncrief et al. (2015) who claimed that social selling should be used in every step in the B2B sales process. Social selling’s greatest potential is in the beginning and end of the sales process (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012). These points of views are supported by the results of this research because the findings show that social selling is changing the way the business and sales are done and social selling can be used in every step of the B2B sales process and companies can gain benefits from it. According to this study, it was most commonly used at the beginning and end of the sales process where the most significant benefits of it were seen.
In B2B sales, companies are finding difficult to explore right kind of customers and decision makers (Rodriquez et al. 2012). With the help of social selling, salespeople can find relevant information of prospects and decision makers of the company and save time and effort because they can concentrate to relevant prospects and customers (Agnihotri et al. 2012; Lacoste 2016).
If a salesperson knows detailed information of his/her customer, salesperson is able to give a personal touch to the business relationship (Agnihotri et al. 2012). All these findings were supported by the results of this study which suggest that social selling helps to find relevant information of the prospects that helps for example to identify the right prospects or aids in a meeting. However, there were new disadvantages and risks found in this study that the previous research did not bring forward. Salespeople should not blindly trust to social selling when doing prospecting or searching information of the customers because of course it is possible that not every company or its representative is in social media but also there can be wrong kind of assumptions made based on the information in social media. Furthermore the time management was seen as a risk when searching information of the prospect or potential customer because
there is so much information available in social media that the salesperson cannot spend all of his/her time to information search.
Agnihotri et al. (2012) presented in their research that salespeople are not getting that much responses when doing cold calls or e-mail messages but in contrast, short messages in social media are getting more responses from the potential customers. Findings of the study supported this that through social selling, the salespeople are able to get contact with high-level executives and decision makers which would not be possible without social selling. Listening the customers is one of the most important part of the sales process because customers want to be heard, understood and appreciated. Companies can choose to only listen and observe customers and their issues, concerns, questions and experiences or they can actively participate to the conversations and be able to personalize their products better and add more value to the customers. Approaching customers can be done when posting something to social media platforms. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) When company is actively participating to the conversations it can build trust and reputation for responsiveness among the customers which is the reason that social media is a good resource in relationship-oriented selling (Andzulis et al. 2012;
Agnihotri et al. 2012). When marketing the product or posting content in social media one thing to remember is that the people in social media are normal people like the salesperson him-/herself and the content does not have to be always so professional (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010).
All of these assumptions were supported by the findings of the study but in addition, findings of this study expand the theory because social media was found to be a good place for marketing the product or service for example through succesfull customer experiences in social media platforms. It is possible that customers start the buying process even without the salesperson and they can become more aware of the business of the seller than the seller is aware of the business of the customer and contact the company by themselves (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012;
Moncrief et al. 2015). This was also supported by the results of this study because findings of this study show that due to social selling, customers are approaching the company more and the company does not have to approach the customers that much if they succeed in social selling because of the greater visibility the company is getting which is a significant benefit of social selling. The results of this study give also new insights to approach and marketing the product steps. Findings of this study show, addition to previous research done, that the customers are more acceptable for buying when they can contact the company by themselves. In addition, the results of this study suggest that it is possible that when approaching the customer or presenting
the product or service to him/her, social selling is not personal enough or there can be privacy and security issues if the product is tailored to a spesific customer with sensitive information.
Social media offers a setting where companies can face customers’ issues in real time. Through social selling, company is able to overcome the objections of the customer and offer more solutions to customers’ problems. This can ease the closing also. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) Closing a sale can be done by guiding the customers from social media platforms to a sales channel (Andzulis et al. 2012). It also increases trust, if the salesperson is proposing critical proposals and solutions for the customer (Ingram et al. 2015, 22). Furthermore, according to Moncrief et al. (2015), closing a sale can happen without making the actual sales call in social selling.
Findings of this study support that in social selling, companies can overcome the objections even unknowingly if they have right kind of content in their social media platforms. But on the other hand, compared to previous literature, findings found that when the company is responsing to objections in social media they do not have same resources to convince the customer compared for example to traditional phone call when they can respond with more arguments. In addition to previous research, findings of this study propose that in social selling the closing step might be easier because the reachability of the customer can be better but there should be trust built before using social selling in this step. Furthermore, according to the results of this study, social selling might not be the best tool in closing because face-to-face meetings can be more valuable in this step.
Managing relationships is important in the every step of the B2B sales process and when it is done properly, an ending of a one sales process can lead to a new one (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012). In customer relationship maintenance, social selling is significantly useful. With social selling, the communication is two-way when the information is shared to the customers and the relationship with them is proactive. After-sales service can be done for example by following the customer in social media. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) In this step it is important for the salespeople to engage the customers. Relationships between buyer and seller can be enhanced through continuous communication in social media which can lead to customer engagement (Chu & Kim 2011; ref. Agnihotri et al. 2012). Customer engagement is a necessity for companies because engaged customers give recommendations (Brodie et al. 2011). Companies can get referrals through social media which increases the credibility of salespeople and they can use the referrals with other potential customers (Andzulis et al. 2012; Schultz et al. 2012;
Agnihotri et al. 2012). Findings of this study expand the previous literature by suggesting that
when the salesperson follows his/her customer in social media, they can notice if there is any changes in customer’s business that might need reacting from the salesperson. In addition, it shows that salesperson is truly interest of his/her customer and the reachability can be better in this step when using social selling compared to traditional ways. However, findings of the study propose that it should be remembered that for example if there is a remarkable and important change or achievement in customer’s business, sometimes it might be a better idea to call to that customer rather than sending a message in social media.
In addition to benefits and disadvantages of social selling in each of the steps in B2B sales process there are overall benefits, disadvantages and risks in social selling. If a company is using social selling, they are able to have better communication with the customers, and through which they can gain higher revenues, decrease costs and improve the efficiency (Schultz et al.
2012). Salespeople who are using social media in their sales, can increase loyalty of the customers and reduce costs and get better customer feedback. Social selling has decreased asymmetry and has made the selling process more personalized to the customer and more efficient. (Marshall et al. 2012.) Findings of this study support the previous research done but in addition and more detailed the findings of this study present that the better reachability of the customer as a one significant benefit. Also, as new insights, the results of this study propose that company’s overall image was found to be positive when doing social selling and the company is able on increase its publicity and awareness among its prospects and customers.
However, according to the findings of this study, in social selling it is possible that there is a lot of talking but not that much doing and to succeed in social selling there has to be encourage to be personal.
Previous research and the research done in this study are finding similar but also different risks in social selling. According to the previous research, traditional methods of communicating are disappearing and communication is happening online, where everybody can see it, including competitors. Salespeople can collect information of the customers and prospects easily from social media but all the competitors are able to do the same. (Agnihotri et al. 2012.) In addition, even though the reduction of face-to-face interaction brings efficiency it may harm the quality of the relationship (Marshall et al. 2012). Also, similarly to previous research, the findings of this study propose that in some cases or steps in B2B sales process it might be the best to use traditional communication methods rather than social selling to give a more personal touch.
According to Fagard (2015), in some companies, the social media is not considered to be a
professional tool and its use can be forbidden (Lacoste 2016). Some of the companies do not want to lose the control and have a risk for mistakes that they do not want their salespeople to use social selling. Companies are concerned for example wrong kind of posts that could affect to company’s image and start even a PR crisis (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012). The findings of this study support this because the results found the risk of wrong kind of posts or comments in social media but it was not seen as a significant risk in the case companies.
Previous research presents that the privacy rules in social media are tightening all the time which creates disadvantages to data collection of customers (Kumar & Mirchandani 2012). In addition, previous research found as a one risk the resistance to change when implementing social selling because employees can feel that the social selling is taking their jobs (Andzulis et al. 2012) or they do not see the benefits of it (Curran & Meuter 2005). Furthermore, one difficulty for companies when using social media in their selling functions is that salespeople can use social media differently. It has an impact whether the salesperson grew up with the social media or did they have to adapt to it (Robinson, Marshall & Stamps 2005). This will bring challenges to the sales managers that how they are going to manage the salesperson. The research findings of this study acknowledged the difference between young and older people in social selling but it was more seen as an opportunity to take advantage of the skills in social media of younger people.
Although social media’s personal usage should be engouraged, according to Guesalaga (2016) to increase the organizational competence and commitment there was found the difficulty because increase of the personal social media usage can lead to risk of lower productivity. In addition, because of social media, customers expect that salespeople are available and accessible all the time. Salespeople feel that they are “plugged in” all the time and they have to be available all day because customers are expecting total access. This means that there are high pressures towards salespeople (Marshall et al. 2012) which can lead to salespeople’s burnout and decrease of motivation. The findings of this study support this because it was found that time management was seen as a risk because in social selling there is no clear line between work and free time because salespeople are present all the time in social media. But on the other hand, findings of this study propose that this risk depends of the personality of the salesperson that what is the suitable way for working for him/her. In addition to risks that where found in previous research, the findings of this study give new insights to the risks which develop the theory of selling. The findings propose that there is a personal risk in social selling. If an
employee of the company is doing well in social selling and he/she has gained a a good personal image, awareness and trustworthiness in social media it is a significant risk to the company if this person leaves. Personal risk is a quite significant for the company because usually the social selling is personified to a certain person in a company or at least to few people. In addition, findings of this study suggest that some salespeople might seen social selling as a shortcut to happiness which can be a risk because selling is still a hard work and there cannot be blind trust to social selling and forget all the good traditional selling tools. Social selling is a good servant but not a suitable master which means that social selling has to be used as a tool rather than only way to sell. There cannot be blind trust in it and forget all the good traditional selling tools.
Even though there are risks in social selling, if the company decides to not use social media in their sales, they will put their company and salespeople at a competitive disadvantage (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012).
Social media is affecting to B2B sales performance. Schultz et al. (2012) proposed that if the salesperson is using social media, there is a higher probability for high overall sales performance. Although companies knowledge that they should be active in social media because it is where the customers are and there is a need to understand how it affects to sales performance but it is possible that they do not know how they should use social media effectively, what performance indicators they should measure and how (Hanna, Rohm &
Crittenden 2011; Agnihotri et al. 2012). Previous research has provided knowledge that through technology, sales performance can be improved including for example administrative efficiency, tasks related to relationships and effectiveness in sales processes (Hunter &
Perreault 2007). If the reasonable objectives for social media strategy outcomes are not set, sales performance can decrease and lead to dissatisfaction (Agnihotri et al. 2012). Because of the qualitative nature of this study, the results of the research done cannot give assumptions about sales performance but rather about sales outcomes that are researched in this study. The findings of this study suggest important matters for theoretical contribution. Because of social selling, the quality of sales is better because salespeople are able to know more and detailed information about the customer when they can give a personal touch to the business relationship. In addition, the sales process is more efficient because of social selling and the information available in social media. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, visibility and awareness of the company and its products and services is better and the amount of invitations for tenders and straight sales have increased which eventually means more money to the company. Finally, because of social selling and visibility and awareness gained from it, the
customers know who to contact if they need a certain product or service and this is a significant
customers know who to contact if they need a certain product or service and this is a significant