Limitations of this study must be acknowledged to be able to estimate the quality of this research. As mentioned earlier, this study is explorative because there were only few interviews and interviewees were from the different industries so this study does not try to generalize because there is not enough evidence for that. In addition, most of the interviews were conducted through Skype or phone and not face-to-face and the interviews were not that long which can affect to the quality of the research. The reason for choosing the Skype and phone as an interview instrument was the time efficiency of these instruments, suitability of them for my research topic and also the distant location of the interviewees. Also, it has to be acknowledged that when doing interviews, the participants are telling their own opinions and views and it is possible that the answers are missing something that affects to the results and findings of the study. Moreover, all the participants were men, so there cannot be any gender generalization either. Furthermore, only two participants were from the company that is doing both international and domestic business, so the study cannot give any generalizations to the
international business. Finally, it also has to be acknowledged that personal branding is strongly affiliated to social selling but because of the scope of this study it was not included in the research but it could be a possible topic for the future research.
Social selling is rather new concept in business and therefore there is a lot of future research possibilities. There is a previous research of social media usage in B2B sales but not that much particularly concerning concept of social selling so basically all the research areas are possible in the future. Still, there are few research areas that are more relevant for the research.
Most of the studies concerning social media usage in sales or social selling are qualitative researches, so quantitative research is needed to be able to do the generalization. Also, sales performance and ROI (return on interest) of social media usage in B2B sales are marginally researched and there is basically no research at all of these aspects considering concept social selling so research of these matter would be spesifically important. In addition, most of the studies are focusing on social media usage or social selling in B2B sales so B2C context would be another intriguing topic to study. Finally, this study considered strategy for social selling but because of the importance of it and minor study done about it, more research about it is also needed in the future.
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1. Interview questions BACKGROUND QUESTIONS:
1. Does your company use social selling in B2B sales?
2. What social media channels does your company use in B2B sales?
a. Facebook
3. Does your company use social selling in B2B sales in domestic and/or international sales?
4. Who uses social selling in B2B sales in your company?
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:
1. When and why did your company start using social selling in B2B sales?
2. What does your company want to achieve through social selling in B2B sales and why?
3. Does your company use social selling in different stages in B2B sales process? Why and how?
a. Prospecting/Customer retention and deletion, how and why? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
b. Preapproach/Database and knowledge management, how and why? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
c. Approach/Nurturing the relationship, how and why? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
d. Presentation/Marketing the product, how and why? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
e. Overcoming objections/Problem solving, how and why? What the benefits and/or disadvantages?
f. Closing/Adding value/Satisfyings needs, how and why? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
g. Follow-up/Customer relationship maintenance, how and why? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
4. Overall, how social selling usage in B2B sales has affected to your company?
a. Benefits, why and how?
b. Disadvantages, why and how?
c. Risks, why and how?
d. If there are disadvantages or risk how they are tried to prevent, why and how?
5. Has social selling usage in B2B sales affected to your company’s sales outcomes?
How and why?
6. What is your social selling index?
a. Overall
b. Establish your professional brand c. Find the right people
d. Engage with insight e. Build relationships f. People in your industry g. People in your network
7. Does your company have a strategy for social selling in B2B sales?
a. Why or why not?
b. How this strategy has implemented in your company?
c. How is the strategy monitored or fixed?
8. Does your company use push or pull strategy in social selling in B2B sales? Why?