Overall benefits, disadvantages and risks of social selling in B2B sales process

Interviewees felt that overall benefits, when using social selling in B2B sales, are awareness and visibility of the company and its products or services which brings more money to the company. Even if there is no sales, the people know the company and they know who to reach if they need a particular product or service when it is a significant benefit. In addition, the company is able through social selling change the image of the industry and wrong kind of beliefs which can finally turn to advantage of the company. Also, better reachability of the customers was a one benefit that was brought up by participants. One participant said that the benefit of social selling is that ”when contacting companies for the first time and you say our company’s name, in principle they know at least something about what kind of crew we are talking about and what our company is doing in general”. The trust was found to be one benefit because when the salesperson is commenting to some company’s post and then contacting this company, the trust is already build a little and it might be easier to reach the person and get an answer.

Furthermore, in social selling, you cannot please everybody but with the ones that truly likes your personality and character, the salespeople are able to market themselves and the company and build trust. In addition, one participant brought up the cheapness of social selling as a benefit: ”I have been able to sell my own face and people realize through that and they buy from the face more than from the company and the benefit is that it is significantly cheaper to make your own face familiar compared to for example headword usage or marketing which we of course do also as a supporting marketing --You can do it with very little effort efficiently if you make at least a little effort to be unique and do not afraid to put your own face present”.

Also, one participant said that benefit of social selling is overcoming your own beliefs and

fears. He described that social selling gives a challenge to everybody that how one takes control of the the social media and at the same time it is a growth story through repeats and feedback.

Furthermore, one participant brought up that invitations for tenders, followers and direct sales had grown because of social selling. Moreover, the overall image of the company is positive and the company is there where the customers are and in this way it is more reachable to the customers. Even if there is not collaboration possibility in that moment but there can be in the future when the customers know where they can get help. ”Because of social selling, we do not have to approach customers that much anymore because the customers will approach us more through contact invitations, invitations for tenders or if they need an advice”. One participant said that in social media, the company can help customers when it is not giving a signal that the company only wants a money from the customer but it is there to help. In addition, one participant said that the media visibility has grown drastically because of social selling. Their company has been in the news and papers because of the social selling they have done.

Furthermore, social selling can increase the amount of recommendations and negotiations can start in a different spirit in a good way when the other participant of the meeting already knows that who the other person is through social selling that has been done. Consequently, one benefit of social selling is that ”you have to understand that when you ask bravely and do and be personal there will be always people who do not like you or are not interested about you but when you hit and you contact 100 people and there are 20 % with whom you simply match from the beginning you know that in a country of Finland’s size you will have work and opportunities in the rest of your life”. Finally, one participant found that the benefit of using social selling is that some of the companies want to do business with the companies that want to keep themselves updated and using social selling signals to the customers that the company is developing their company and its actions all the time.

Participants did not find that much overall disadvantages of social selling. One participant found one disadvantage to be that you have to spend the time to do social selling but on the other hand he said that it is time well spent. It was also brought up that there can be people in social media who are talking a lot but when it is time to do the work they dissappear. Social selling also requires encourage and if the person does not have it and she/he does not want to bring his/hers opinions or ideas out loud or he/she is not natural in writing, it cannot be done by force. Other participant said the important matter and at the same time disadvantage of social selling because in today’s world, social media is present in everyday life: ”Time management design and maybe it affiliates also in sales to such matter as life balance and recovery and

coping at work and if you have had for example phone before and have used to do business from eight to five or eight to four or whatever the time is and after that the phone is quiet but social media is never quiet and you have to do regardless of the time of the day, from morning until evening, from night until morning. Pretending to be smart things but if kept going for a long time, certainly at some point there will be problems with the coping and it is certainly such a challenge that it is general in nowadays and it can be also seen in this social selling at the same way. Your selling channel is with you all the time that customers, competitors, colleagues and partners are all the time active in social media so why not you too, so it takes the ability to set boundaries that there I am going to do that and there I am going to do that”. However, in contrast to this, one participant said that the coping in social selling depends on the person and his/her personality because for example he does not feel, at least for now, that he has any problems with coping even though he is available in social media 24 hours per day.

When asked about risks, participants found that there might be a risk that somebody is posting something inappropriate to social media but they did not see that as a great risk because employees have understood that in social media a person is at the same time representing the company. Also, two participants found that some of the salespeople can see the social selling to shortcut to happiness that when they are active in social media they will get the sales but they forget at the same time that it is hard work and salesperson still has to take the sales process to the finish line even though using the social selling, so it does not replace the systematic action.

”Also there is that starting with the silver bullet thinking that you are very strongly in social media in such industry where it can be said in advance that it is not going to work and you put all the eggs to the same basket and forgot all the ways that used to work in the past”. ”Some people seem sometimes that the good puff is important to them and there is a risk that if you really want to do business you have to remember that you cannot sit behind the computer hours in a day and write things that you have a good puff but you have to understand that it is a tool that helps you in a big picture to become more known and you can serve (customers) but the raw business is done in the field face-to-face. It does not remove that you have to be active in the same way with the customers. Social media is a good servant but do not let it be a master and it is an addictive tool that when you get addicted that how many likes did you get today and how many comments you have got, it is a bad thing”. In addition, personal risk was brought up that if the company has a person that is really active in social media and has a strong personal brand, he/she is very wanted so it is a risk to the company that the person leaves. Furthermore, it was seen as a risk if the target goal is missing. There can be nice people and nice writings but

if the goal is missing or the people does not know what the particular person is selling, nothing can be reached. Moreover, some of the industries can accept a lot of bold and personal writings but some of the industries can be less approving but it still has to be remembered that when there are people and feelings involved it has to be taken into account that when you are representing yourself and the company and there are a lot of other people involved e.g. other employees it has to be considered when writing texts so it can be a risk.