Business School
IMPACT OF SOCIAL SELLING ON B2B SALES PROCESS AND SALES OUTCOMES
Master’s Thesis
International Business and Sales Management Juulia Ruuskanen (275374)
May 8, 2019
Abstract
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies DepartmentBusiness School
Author
Juulia Ruuskanen
Supervisor
DSc. Mika Gabrielsson
Title
Impact of Social Selling on B2B Sales Process and Sales Outcomes
Main subject
International Business and Sales Management
Level
Master’s degree Date8.5.2019 Number of pages
86+2
Abstract
The objectives of this thesis are to clarify and increase the knowledge of how social selling can be used in B2B sales process and what kind of benefits, disadvantages and risks there are when using it. In addition, the study consideres outcomes of social selling and strategy for it. The study is explorative and it does not seek to generalize. The topic was researched through companies that are actively doing social selling in B2B context in Finland and/or internationally.
The study was done as a qualitative multiple case study using semi-structured interviews. There were six interviews of which participants were from different companies and industries. The theoretical framework of the study was formulated based on the research questions and literature review. The framework consisted two main parts; sales process and sales outcomes. Social selling was a moderating effect in the theoretical framework. Theoretical framework was also used as a basis for interview questions.
The findings of the study present that social selling mainly has benefits in B2B sales process but there are also disadvantages and risks though they are playing a smaller part than benefits.
Findings of this study suggest that companies should use social selling despite the industry or size of the company because it can lead to better visibility, awareness and credibility of the company which increases invitations for tenders, followers and direct sales. Furthermore, the reachability of the customers is better through social selling compared to traditional selling and according to the findings, companies do not have to reach customers that much but the customers will reach companies because of social selling. Although previous literature shows that strategy for social selling is important, results of this study show that not all the companies have a clear strategy for social selling or it is not well implemented or communicated to salespeople. The findings of the study suggest that in social selling strategy it should be remembered that to gain best results, a salesperson or a company can not only market their product or company but they have to provide also other content that is personal, interesting and in addition, helpful for the customer.
Key words
social selling, social media, sales process, sales outcome, social selling strategy
Tiivistelmä
ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO
Tiedekunta
Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta YksikköKauppatieteiden laitos
Tekijä
Juulia Ruuskanen
Ohjaaja
KTT Mika Gabrielsson
Työn nimi
Sosiaalisen myynnin vaikutus B2B myyntiprosessiin ja myynnin tulokseen
Pääaine
Kansainvälisen
liiketoiminnan ja myynnin johtaminen
Työn laji
Maisteritutkinto Aika 8.5.2019 Sivuja 86+2
Tiivistelmä
Tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, miten sosiaalista myyntiä voidaan käyttää B2B myyntiprosessissa ja minkälaisia hyötyjä, haittoja ja riskejä on sitä käytettäessä. Lisäksi tutkielma käsittelee sosiaalisen myynnin tuloksia ja sen strategiaa. Tutkielma on eksploratiivinen ja se ei pyri yleistämiseen. Aihetta tutkittiin yritysten avulla, jotka tekevät aktiivisesti sosiaalista myyntiä B2B kontekstissa Suomessa ja/tai kansainvälisesti.
Tutkielma tehtiin laadullisena monitapaustutkimuksena käyttäen menetelmänä puolistrukturoitua haastattelua. Haastatteluun osallistui kuusi henkilöä, jotka olivat eri yrityksistä ja toimialoilta. Tutkielman teoreettinen viitekehys muodostettiin tutkimuskysymysten ja kirjallisuuskatsauksen pohjalta. Teoreettinen viitekehys koostui pääosin kahdesta osasta: myyntiprosessista ja myynnin tuloksista. Sosiaalinen myynti oli muuttuvana tekijänä teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä. Teoreettista viitekehystä käytettiin myös pohjana haastattelukysymyksille.
Tutkielman tulokset osoittavat, että sosiaalisella myynnillä voidaan saavuttaa pääasiassa hyötyjä B2B myyntiprosessissa, mutta siihen liittyy myös haittoja ja riskejä, jotka ovat kuitenkin pienemmässä roolissa hyötyihin verrattuna. Tulokset antavat viitteitä siitä, että yritysten kannattaisi käyttää sosiaalista myyntiä riippumatta toimialasta tai yrityksen koosta, sillä sen avulla yritys voi saavuttaa parempaa näkyvyyttä, tietoisuutta ja luotettavuutta, mikä taas lisää tarjouspyyntöjen, seuraajien ja suorien kauppojen määrää. Lisäksi asiakkaiden tavoitettavuus on parempi ja yritysten ei tarvitse lähestyä asiakkaita niin paljon, sillä asiakkaat itse lähestyvät yritystä. Vaikka aikaisempi tutkimus osoittaa, että strategia sosiaaliselle myynnille olisi tärkeä, kaikilla yrityksillä ei ole selkeää strategiaa sosiaaliseen myyntiin tai sitä ei ole toteutettu tai viestitty riittävästi myyjille. Tutkielman tulokset esittävät, että saavuttaakseen parhaat tulokset, myyjien ja yritysten tulisi sosiaalisen myynnin strategiassaan muistaa, että he eivät voi vain markkinoida tuotettaan tai yritystään, vaan heidän täytyy tarjota myös muunlaista sisältöä, joka on persoonallista, mielenkiintoista ja lisäksi hyödyllistä asiakkaalle.
Avainsanat
sosiaalinen myynti, sosiaalinen media, myyntiprosessi, myynnin tulos, sosiaalisen myynnin strategia
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ... 6
1.1 Background ... 6
1.2 Research gap ... 7
1.3 Research problem and objectives ... 8
1.4 Concepts ... 9
1.4.1 Social media ... 9
1.4.2 Social capital theory ... 10
1.4.3 Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM) ... 10
1.4.4 Customer engagement ... 11
1.4.5 Business-to-business (B2B) sales process ... 12
1.4.6 Social selling ... 12
1.4.7 Sales performance ... 13
2 LITERATURE REVIEW ... 14
2.1 Evolution of B2B sales process ... 14
2.2 Social selling in B2B sales process and its benefits ... 17
2.2.1 Prospecting/Customer retention and deletion ... 22
2.2.2 Preapproach/Database and knowledge management ... 24
2.2.3 Approach/Nurturing the relationship ... 25
2.2.4 Presentation/Marketing the product ... 26
2.2.5 Overcoming objections/Problem solving ... 28
2.2.6 Close/Adding value/Satisfying needs ... 29
2.2.7 Follow-up/Customer relationship maintenance ... 30
2.3 Impact of social selling on B2B sales performance ... 32
2.4 Strategy for social selling and its implementation ... 34
2.5 Risk and challenges of social selling in B2B sales process and how to resolve them ... 39
2.6 Theoretical framework ... 42
3 METHODOLOGY ... 45
3.1 Research design ... 45
3.2 Data collection ... 46
3.3 Data analysis ... 48
3.4 Research evaluation ... 49
4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS ... 52
4.1 Social selling and its benefits, disadvantages and risks in B2B sales process ... 52
4.1.1 Prospecting/Customer retention and deletion ... 52
4.1.2 Preapproach/Database and knowledge management ... 53
4.1.3 Approach/Nurturing the relationship ... 54
4.1.4 Presentation/Marketing the product ... 55
4.1.5 Overcoming objections/Problem solving ... 56
4.1.6 Closing/Adding value/Satisfying needs ... 57
4.1.7 Follow-up/Customer relationship maintenance ... 57
4.1.8 Overall benefits, disadvantages and risks of social selling in B2B sales process ... 58
4.2 Social selling strategy ... 61
4.3 Social selling outcomes ... 64
5 CONCLUSIONS ... 65
5.1 Discussion ... 65
5.2 Managerial implications ... 73
5.3 Limitations and future research ... 75
REFERENCES ... 77
APPENDICES ... 87
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Social media platforms: active user accounts (in millions) ... 18
Figure 2. LinkedIn audience: adult penetration (aged 18+) ... 18
Figure 3. Process evolution of social media in sales ... 36
Figure 4. Theoretical framework ... 42
LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The evolution of the seven steps of selling. ... 16
Table 2. Case interviews. ... 47
1 INTRODUCTION
“Social media selling has risks, but sitting on the sidelines is the greatest risk of all”
(Giamanco & Gregoire 2012, 90).
Social selling refers in this study to sales acitivities done through social media and applying social media to entire sales process. Business-to-business (B2B) sales have challenges in today’s environment. For example, competition has increased and customers are more and more demanding. In addition, there are difficulties to find right kind of customers in B2B sales (Moncrief, Marshall & Rudd 2015). The purpose of this study is to introduce the new emerged concept, social selling, and how it affects to B2B sales process. In this introduction chapter, the background of the study, research gap, research problems and objectives and key concepts are presented.
1.1 Background
There have been a lot of changes in sales recently and one of the main reason for this is the emergence of new technology. Technology, new ways of selling and globalization are influencing to salespeople (Moncrief & Marshall 2005). During the recent years, there has been a huge growth in the use of social media and it has also affected to business. Use of social media in business-to-business realm has increased drastically (Moncrief et al. 2015.) New concept, social selling, has emerged as a new era where “professional selling is predicated on the strength of social media allies within a social enterprise” (Agnihotri, Kothandaraman, Kashyap & Singh 2012, 341). According to Hudson (2014, 56), ”social selling is the practice of leveraging social networks and the associated tools in the overall sales function, from lead generation to closed deal to account management”.
Before, social media has mainly been used in B2B context by marketers but it has also started to find its way to sales. Social media is changing the way the business is done (Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp 2012) and it can be used in every step of the B2B sales process. The numbers of social media users worldwide are supporting the reason why companies should use social selling in B2B sales because it is the place where their customers are. In 2019, the number of unique mobile users is 5.11 billion (2 % increase in a one year), the number of internet users is 4.39 billion (9 % increase in a one year) and the number of social media users is 3.48 billion (9 % increase in a one year) (We Are Social & Hootsuite 2019).
“In our online socially connected world, finding and contacting people has become simpler than ever before” (Offenberger 2016, 54). Buyers are more open because they post information about themselves online, ask questions and post comments. Salespeople can gain sales lead only by listening the prospects (Offenberger 2016). In social media era, the customers are changing from passive consumers to active partners who are taking part to information creation and sharing (Trainor 2012).
Even though customers have an enthusiasm towards interaction that occurs in social media, sales organizations are not keeping up fast enough with the social media use (Moncrief et al.
2015). Social selling is usually done by individual salesperson separate from the company and companies do not have coherent or clear social selling strategy that is implemented to employees. Despite organization’s slow adaption to social media as a selling tool, it has become important in every step of the B2B sales process (Andzulis et al. 2012). Social selling also affects to sales performance and sales outcomes. In addition to benefits of social selling, there are also disadvantages and risks in it that should not be forgotten. Finally, personal branding is strongly affiliated to social selling but because of the scope of this study, it is not included to this research.
1.2 Research gap
As mentioned earlier, social selling is a new concept in business and there is basically no research at all which uses that concept. There is previous research about social media usage in B2B sales which is also a quite new research area and according to Guesalaga (2016), there is a need for more research to find ways to use social media tools effectively and efficiently.
Previous research is mostly concentranting on social media usage in B2B sales process but there is still need for more research in that area. In addition, research of effect of social media usage on sales performance and outcomes in B2B sales is significantly minor. Similarly, research of strategy for social selling and implementation of it is very little. Furthermore, in the media, mostly only the benefits of the social selling are presented but there is always the other side of the coin which is the reason that more research is needed about risks and challenges of social selling.
According to Safko (2011), 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, Schwepker & Good 2012). In addition, there has been wide problems with automation of sales force which has increased the skepticism towards use of social media in sales processes (Speier & Venkatesh 2002). These findings confirm that more research of social selling is needed to be able to increase the knowledge of social selling and its effect on business. This study aims to fill that gap by doing research of social selling in B2B sales process, its effect on sales outcomes and strategy for it.
1.3 Research problem and objectives
Social selling is a new trend that has emerged in business recently. Salespeople are always looking for new ways to sell because customers are more demanding and aware what they want and they know how to search what they are looking for. This makes salesperson’s job even harder because they have to be in a right place in a right time. Social selling is bringing the new approach to selling in every step of the B2B sales process and it is changing the way the business is done but still there are a lot of companies and salespeople that are not using it. The purpose of this study is to understand previous research of social selling in B2B sales process and also bring new insights to the topic due to its newness through empirical research.
The structure of the whole study after introduction is the following: the second chapter concentrates on previous research of the topic. The literature review aims to give more knowledge about social selling. It starts with explaining the evolution of B2B sales process and how social selling can be used in every step of the B2B sales process and what are the benefits of it. Its purpose is also to provide information about how social selling affects to sales performance and what is the strategy for social selling and how it should be implemented. The literature review aims to provide also the knowledge about risks and challenges in social selling and how they could be resolved. At the end of the second chapter, the theoretical framework is presented. The third chapter concentrates on methodology of the study and how the research is designed, data collected and analysed. Also, the evaluation of the research is made. The fourth chapter disclouses the empirical results and findings of the study and the final chapter concludes the whole study, gives managerial implications and presents the limitations of the study and what could be researched in the future.
The goal of the research done in this study is to bring additional knowledge to previous literature but also find new emerging topics or views about social selling. The primary and secondary research questions are the following in my thesis:
Primary research question is:
How social selling is affecting to B2B sales process?
Secondary research questions are:
1. How social selling benefits different steps in B2B sales process and is there disadvantages and risks in it?
2. How social selling strategy should be implemented to company’s overall strategy?
1.4 Concepts 1.4.1 Social media
There are many definitions to social media. Social media is defined to be a tool for people to share ideas and content online and form relationships (Scott 2009; ref. Rodriquez, Peterson &
Krishan 2012). Moreover, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) explained social media to be Internet- based applications that are based to Web 2.0 and they allow users to share, create and exchange content or any tool or service which eases the conversations in the internet. This was also agreed by Rodriquez et al. (2012). Further, previous research defines that people can through social media, in addition to sharing and creating content, communicate and build relationships (Agnihotri et al. 2012). Finally, according to Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvestre (2011), social media can be part of maintaining and developing relationships.
Social media distributes information and content through various methods in interactions between individuals or organizations and it is referring to communication that is continuous and it aims to development of relationships and finally co-creation of value (Moncrief et al.
2015). In addition, Marketo (2010) explained social media to be an event where online social interactions and platforms are used to produce, consume and exchange information (Guesalaga 2016). It can also be “the technological component of the communication, transaction and relationship building functions of a business which leverages the network of customers and
prospects to promote value co-creation” (Andzulis et al. 2012, 308). According to Ploof (2009), social media enables companies to tell their stories online. Moreover, social media has to be treated as an explicit strategy activity (Andzulis et al. 2012). In this study, social media is referring to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter and Youtube that can be used in sales and where the people can share their content, communicate, form relationships and sell their product or service. However, for example WhatsApp is not seen as a social media channel in this study because it is more a messaging application.
1.4.2 Social capital theory
In social capital theory, the connections and social relations are at the center and it explains why social relations are important for the company to achieve goals (Lin 2001, 1) and it explains why social media is of great worth for organizations (Rodriquez et al. 2012). In business community, people are taking leverage of relationships to find solutions (Rodriquez et al. 2012) and when they are taking part to these networks they are communicated about and helped to generate opportunities which lead to higher rates of return (Burt 1992, 13). Social capital is developed when people are information creators and controllers in a network (Burt 1992, 9) and it eases information sharing and flow, trust among the members, problem solving and makes transactions more efficient (McEvily & Marcus 2005).
As mentioned earlier, social media is about sharing content and creating a network. Salespeople can find easier ways to traction with the customers when contacting is done through shared means and not only by doing cold calls. Organizations are able to increase their social capital if they are using social media constantly to expand their network and at the same time increase their performance. (Rodriquez et al. 2012.) In addition, when there is increase in social capital, organizations are able to create collaborative transactions with their customers which are not that expensive. Finally, risks are reduced because there is a mutual trust and the business decisions that are being made benefit both parties. (Van Deth 2003.)
1.4.3 Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM)
Customer Relationship Management relates to strategy, effective use of data and technology, increase in knowledge of the customers and relationship development which aims to long-term
relationships with the customers that are profitable to the company. In addition, it includes that this knowledge is distributed to the right stakeholders and customer value is generated through process integration inside the company and between the network of companies. (Boulding, Staelin, Ehret & Johnston 2005). Social media is a logical step after customer relationship management and some practitioners call it social customer relationship management (Rapp &
Panogopoulos 2012).
Social Customer Relationship Management came when social media developed into an important part of companies’ strategy, when they were using social media tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook Twitter et cetera to communicate with the customers (Rodriquez et al.
2012). Greenberg (2010) referred to customers as social customers and every interaction between the company and the prospect or customer shoud be seen as a new collaboration and a significant element of customer relationship management. Trainor (2012, 319) defined social CRM based on Greenberg’s (2010) definition: “Social CRM is the integration of traditional customer-facing activities including processes, systems, and technologies with emergent social media applications to engage customers in collaborative conversations and enhance customer relationships”. When sharing content and communicating with the customers, companies can create deeper and more important relationships with the prospects, customers and partners (Rodriquez et al. 2012) and this next level of CRM helps companies to use social media also in sales (Panagopoulos 2010; ref. Rodriquez et al. 2012).
Social CRM is concentrating more to integrate customer transactions and customer interactions compared to traditional CRM which was concentrating only customer transactions (Greenberg 2010). Social CRM pursues to build trust to be able to establish relationships with customers (Rapp & Panagopoulos 2012). Social CRM focus to integrate the traditional activities when approaching the customer such as processes, systems, and technologies with social media applications to enhance customer relationships by engaging the customers to have collaborative discussions with the company (Greenberg 2010).
1.4.4 Customer engagement
According to Bowden (2009), in customer engagement, there is a calculative commitment which leads to consequent buying. In addition, it can lead to emotional commitment which on the other hand is necessity for buyer loyalty. Furthermore, customer engagement leads to increased trust and involvement of the buyers. (Bowden 2009.) Customer engagement in social
media is defined to be the activity of important customer of the organization to use social media tools (Guesalaga 2016). The acitivity of the customers to use of social media has an effect to social media usage of the sales company (Jelinek, Ahearne, Mathieu & Schillewaert 2006).
Customer engagement can be build through interactive customer experiences that are aiming to value co-creation. Customer engagement is important for the companies because engaged customers are the ones who give referrals and recommendations. (Brodie, Hollebeek, Juric &
Ilic 2011.)
1.4.5 Business-to-business (B2B) sales process
Sales processes are explained to be those operations that salespeople do to ensure a lead, make it into a prospect and then finally into a customer (Rodriquez et al. 2012). Before, the effective sales process practice included product and service selling but nowadays sales processes are focusing more to increase customer productivity (Leigh & Marshall 2001) and organizational performance (Rodriquez et al. 2012). Sales are proposed to be several activities in sales which are done by the sales force of the selling company and of which goal is relationship and business engagement with the possible buyer (Viio & Grönroos 2014). Process of these activites by a seller in order to sell is defined to be sales process (e.g Storbacka, Ryals, Davies & Nenonen 2009). In B2B sales process, buyers’ risk is higher because also the value of the sales is higher.
Customers need the right information that they are able to do the best purchase decision.
(Schultz et al. 2012.) According to Storbacka et al. (2009), sales process is nowadays more about creating a relationship than only selling a product. The B2B sales process is based on relationships and trust and in social media era, buyers are considering recommendations, reviews etc. to make their purchase decision (Seley 2011).
1.4.6 Social selling
Agnihotri et al. (2012, 341) defined social selling to be ”new era in which professional selling is predicated on the strength of social media allies within a social enterprise”. Social selling uses social networks to prospect search, relationship building and sales making (Offenberger 2016). According to Hudson (2014, 56), ”social selling is the practice of leveraging social networks and the associated tools in the overall sales function, from lead generation to closed deal to account management”. Companies are using power of social media to achieve relational benefits (Agnihotri et al. 2012). Social selling will probably occur when the social CRM technology is implemented to sales processes and technologies that already exist in the
company (Trainor 2012). According to Curtis and Giamanco (2010), salespeople can draw attention, communicate and close business with the potential customers when doing social selling (Schultz et al. 2012). Social CRM enables the salespeople to develop deeper knowledge of their customers and it has rised the need for social selling which uses the knowledge from social CRM resources. Social selling is also explained to be knowledge of the customers and their network of relationships that can be leveraged in sales. (Trainor 2012.) According to Kim and Talbott (2018), in social selling, salespeople concentrate to understand the customer and his/her pain points through communications in social media channels. In this study, concept of social selling is referring to sales acitivities done through social media and applying social media to entire B2B sales process.
1.4.7 Sales performance
Sales performance is explained to be behavior that is linked to input to achieve the company’s goals (Johnston & Marshall 2006, 412; ref. Rodriquez et al. 2012). Sales performance can be for example customer leads, close rates, retention, revenue etc. (Sullivan, Peterson & Krishnan 2012). Brown & Peterson (1994) defined sales performance narrowly to be outcomes that are instrumental to the organization. Sales performance can be divided into two parts: relationship performance and outcome-based performance. The previous one, relationship sales performance, is focusing on the measures that focus on behaviors which are strengthening the relationship between buyers and sellers. (Hunter & Perreault 2007.) The latter, outcome-based sales performance, is focusing on the measures that are concentrating to measure salesperson performance (Anderson & Oliver 1987; Cravens, Ingram, Laforge & Young 1993) which include for example increase in billing and sales productivity and overall revenue gain (Rodriquez et al. 2012).
In this study, the term sales performance is used in the literature review but the theoretical framework, results and conclusions are focusing to sales outcomes such as benefits and disadvantages because this study is a qualitative study and sales performance can not be measured by qualitative means. However, it is still included in this study in the literature review section because it is an important topic in social selling and possible for research in the future.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews previous literature that is affiliated to topic of this study. Literature review contains social selling in B2B context and how it is affecting to B2B sales process and sales outcomes. This literature review is divided to six sections. The first section presents the seven steps of B2B sales process and how those steps have evolved and what are the reasons for this evolution. The second section goes through all the steps of the B2B sales process and explains how social selling brings benefits to each of these steps. The third section discusses about social selling’s impact on sales performance. Next, in the fourth section, the importance of strategy for social selling and the implementation of the strategy is highlighted. Section five brings contrast to previous sections of the study by presenting the risks and challenges of social selling and how to resolve these issues. Finally, the theoretical framework of the study is presented.
2.1 Evolution of B2B sales process
Seven steps of selling is one of the first and commonly used paradigm in sales (Dubinsky 1980/1981). These steps are prospecting, preapproach, approach, presentation, overcoming objections, close and follow-up (Moncrief & Marshall 2005) and they are representing the process to make a sale (Hawes, Anne & Widmier 2004). This selling process has stayed the same for almost 80 years (Moncrief & Marshall 2005).
In the first step, prospecting, salespeople are looking for new and potential customers through for example networking and cold canvassing to broaden their customer base (Moncrief &
Marshall 2005). A right prospect is the one that is responsive for contact from organization and who has a need and a buying power (Jolson & Wotruba 1992). Preapproach step is occuring before actual visit with a potential customer and it includes research of the potential customer, familiarizing the needs of the this potential customer, previous correspondence and all the other materials that can help to do the sales. Approach step is referring to the beginning of the meeting which includes for example opening talk, eye contact and overall good impression. The next step is presentation. It can be only one presentation or several presentations in a certain period of time. In this step, the buyer should get adequate information of the product and it has to be well prepared. Salesperson has to be prepared for the objections and in this step, overcoming objections, salesperson should convince the customer of his/her doubts that she or he could have about the sales. Last steps are close and follow-up. Close is a completion of the sales presentation that the customer is buying the product. This can be a difficult step for the
salespeople because it is possible that they are not actually asking customer to do the order.
Follow-up means that the salesperson is contacting the customer after the sales and making sure that the customer is satisfied with the purchase. (Moncrief & Marshall 2005.)
As time has passed, the selling methods have changed towards more relationship selling (Schurr 1987; ref. Moncrief & Marshall 2005) which is concentrating more to long-term relationships with the customers that are the most profitable for the firm (Johnston & Marshall 2006; ref.
Rodriquez et al. 2012). The change towards relationship selling has happened because of e.g higher customer expectations and demands, globalization and consumer avoidance of negotiations between buyer and seller (Anderson 1996). Also technology, new ways of selling and globalization are influencing to salespeople (Moncrief & Marshall 2005). Companies have to always look for new ways to sell to be able to answer the needs of the customers and make sales.
There are transformative factors in every step which have influenced to the evolving of sales process. These include for example emerging of the telemarketing, internet selling, technology and concentrating more to the customer. The evolved steps are customer retention and deletion, database and knowledge management, nurturing the relationship, marketing the product, problem solving, adding value/satisfying needs and customer relationship maintenance. In contrast to traditional seven steps of selling, the evolved steps are not sequential and it is possible that not all the steps are occuring in every sales. Traditional steps did not focused on customers that much but when the customers became more demanding, companies had to consider them more and concentrate to build long-term relationships with them in order to maintain their business. (Moncrief & Marshall 2005.) The relationship selling sees customer more as a partner in a long-term which will bring more value both to the company and the customer.
Customer retention and deletion step is concentrating more to retain the current customers which are profitable to the company (Moncrief & Marshall 2005). When the time is consumed with these customers, it will have a positive impact on performance (Sengupta, Krapfel &
Pusateri 2000). Also, some customers may cost money for the company when it is not profitable for the company to keep these customers. In these days, companies are spending a lot of money and effort to databases and knowledge management which gives salespeople easy access to customer’s information. This evolved step has made possible that salespeople can better answer
to the needs of the customers. The next step is nurturing the relationship which is focusing to consider key customers as partners and provide solutions that are profitable to both the company and the customer. Marketing the product step is bringing salespeople closer to the marketing.
They are getting more involved in marketing the product to the customers in order to get sales.
Problem solving is also a good example of building the relationship and partnership with the customers. Salespeople are no longer concentrating to overcome objections of the customer but they are trying to solve the problems of the customer through the product or service they are selling. Salesperson can work in this step more as a consultant for the customer. Close step is replaced with adding value/satisfying needs which is the key goal in evolved selling process.
Also, in this step, the mutual goals are identified and solutions should benefit both parties.
Futhermore, customer loyalty is pursued. The last step is customer relationship maintenance.
This step has changed more efficient because of the emerge of the technology which makes the contacting easier. (Moncrief & Marshall 2005.) When the contacting is easier, company is able to keep continuous communication with the customer and maintain their relationship better.
The evolution of the B2B sales process and reasons for the change can be seen in a Table 1.
Table 1. The evolution of the seven steps of selling.
Resource: Moncrief and Marshall 2005.
2.2 Social selling in B2B sales process and its benefits
In today’s business, companies are facing a lot of different challenges. In B2B sales, companies are finding difficult to explore right kind of customers and decision makers. Also, for example, world economy has slowed down and competition has increased which brings more challenges to the companies to keep their business. (Rodriquez et al. 2012.) Moreover, companies are facing difficulties to implement the technology to their sales processes even though it would bring a lot of benefits, clarify the communication with the clients (Rodriquez et al. 2012) and create deeper customer relationships (Hunter & Perreault 2006; Rodriquez & Honeycutt 2011).
Social media has a remarkable impact on global economic. In 2019, the number of unique mobile users is 5.11 billion (2 % increase in a one year), the number of internet users is 4.39 billion (9 % increase in a one year) and the number of social media users is 3.48 billion (9 % increase in a one year) (We Are Social & Hootsuite 2019). Increasing number of social media accounts leads to the fact that companies have started to search for benefits from social media (Lacoste 2016). The following figure 1 presents the active user accounts in different social media platforms worldwide. Figure 2 gives an example of adult penetration of one of the social media platforms, LinkedIn, that is a professional social media platform and commonly used in B2B sales. These figures give insight to the fact why social selling can be a significant tool in B2B sales process and that there can be differences among the countries of how they use a specific platform. As said earlier, the figure 2 uses LinkedIn as an example but the same statistics of other social media platforms can be found in the report of We Are Social and Hootsuite (2019).
Figure 1. Social media platforms: active user accounts (in millions) (We Are Social & Hootsuite 2019)
Figure 2. LinkedIn audience: adult penetration (aged 18+) (We Are Social & Hootsuite 2019)
Social media is rather a new phenomenon when contacting B2B customers (Rodriquez et al.
2012) but in customer relationships it has started to play a role as a facilitator (Tedeschi 2006).
Nevertheless, B2B companies are adapting the use of social media slower compared to the B2C firms (Michaelidou, Siamagka & Christodoulides 2011). This was changed upside down because of the study by Moore, Hopkins and Raymond (2013) which presented that there are differences in sales process in B2B sales and B2C sales (Lacoste 2016). They concluded that in B2B sales, salespeople use more professional social media channels (e.g. LinkedIn) and one reason for this is that salespeople in B2B sales are concentrating more on relationship-oriented selling (Moore et al. 2013; ref. Lacoste 2016) which was previously founded by Michaelidou et al. (2011) who claimed that in B2B, relationship marketing is playing a crucial role. Also, Bauer, Grether and Leach (2002) and Sharma (2002) found that technology in internet could be used in relationship building. Furthermore, Ahearne, Jones, Rapp and Mathieu (2008) stated that long-term relationships are one of the basic tasks in B2B sales and if there is any technology which can ease the communication between the seller and the customer it should be suitable for tasks of relational selling. All of these views are giving ground for the significance of social selling in B2B sales process and how companies can benefit from it.
Social media is affecting to the buying process of the customers and companies have started to look benefits from it. Social media is not the same for every customer and company. It seeks to increase the value for every communication the company has with the prospect and customer rather than replace the traditional communication. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) Customers’ social media (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and Twitter) usage has grown drastically as mentioned earlier. Agnihotri et al. (2012) referred use of social media among the salespeople as any social interaction with the help of technology to creat content and develop networks.
Social media brings advantages for communicating because it enables communication to be two-way, 24 hours per day in seven days a week with fast updating and personalization of the message (Svatovatošová 2012). Järvinen, Tollinen, Karjaluoto and Jayawardhena (2012) proposed that social media can ease the transaction process with the firm’s current customers.
In addition, buyers are changing the selling process more to virtual interaction with social media and sellers have to adapt to this (Schultz et al. 2012).
If companies want to take part to social business environment they have to knowledge the changes in buyers’ behavior. Customers and prospects are using social media to search information and make purchases. 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. According to Business.com, customers are using social media when they are searching information about the product or service and this is the reason why salespeople should use social media in sales because there are the customers.
(Giamanco & Gregoire 2012.) Furthermore, there was a global survey of salespeople and they said that almost half of the buyers are seeing that social media is affecting to their buying process (Featherstonebaugh 2010). Even though the number is significant, only nine percent of salespeople were found to use social media in their sales (Featherstonebaugh 2010) and many companies are skeptical to the use of social media in their sales processes (Agnihotri et al.
2012).
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 this study were not using social media in their sales or they were only exploring the use of it (Guesalaga 2016). Safko (2011) suggested same results and according to the 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). Later, also Guesalaga (2016) found that social media is not used that much in B2B sales even though it has significant benefits and it is a potential tool in sales. For instance, costs, time and lack of knowledge slow down the understanding of how social media could be used to benefit from it (Gupta, Armstrong & Clayton 2011; ref. Guesalaga 2016). Furthermore, there has been wide problems with automation of sales force which has increased the skepticism towards use of social media in sales processes (Speier & Venkatesh 2002).
There have been research findings that social media has a positive relationship with sales processes (Rodriquez et al. 2012). With the social media usage, companies can be more agile which typically in today’s marketplace means more sales and higher revenues and at the end higher profits (Andzulis et al. 2012). Curtis and Giamanco (2010) proposed that using social media in sales is more a change in a mindset than focusing to the latest technology usage and the objective of this mindset change approach is to find the best technology for the spesific company that they are able to find efficiency and effectiveness in their sales (Schultz et al.
2012). Social selling will probably occur when the social CRM technology is implemented to sales processes and technologies that already exist in the company (Trainor 2012). According
to Curtis and Giamanco (2010), in social selling, salespeople can draw attention, communicate and close business with the potential customers (Schultz et al. 2012). There have been found positive effects in sales process when using social media e.g. in prospecting, qualifying leads and managing relationships with the customers (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012). People have found social media applications as an information source in addition to content sharing and status updates (Andzulis et al. 2012). According to Schultz et al. (2012), if a company is using social media in their sales they are able to have better communication with the customers, and through which, they can gain higher revenues, decrease costs and improve the efficiency.
Salespeople who are using social media in their sales, can increase loyalty of the customers and reduce costs and get better customer feedback. According to Ingram, LaForge, Avila, Schwepker and Williams (2012) salespeople ”obtain leads, build awareness, prospect, maintain good business relationships, obtain referrals to other potential prospects, communicate thoroughly and connect with customers to keep them feeling important” in their every-day work (Schultz et al. 2012, 78). According to Seley and Holloway (2008), social media usage can save time and effort in a sales process (Schultz et al. 2012). Salespeople can identify better sales opportunities if they have better information of the customers and social media usage can help to achieve this by bulding positive customer relationships and enhance the communication (Schultz et al. 2012). When customers are having deeper and loyal relationships with the salespeople, they will share information more easily which helps salesperson to forecast customers’ needs better, customize the products and in general increase value creation.
Moreover, when relationships are stronger and customer perceive value, long-term contracts are more possible which reduces costs in transactions and negotiations. (Bendapudi & Berry 1997.) All of these actions can be facilitated by the use of social selling.
Social media enables salespeople to communicate naturally with customers and it gives the access to them to information that was difficult to get earlier. With social selling, company can improve its sales and customer relationship management. Salesperson efficiency can be increased through real-time data of customers from social media because then salespeople can concentrate more to build and maintain relationships with the customers than spend time for data collection and integration. Also, salespeople can gain deeper knowledge of the social networks of customers and prospects and be able to join these networks which increases the effectiveness of salespeople. (Trainor 2012.) Through social media, companies can inform customers for example about new developments and have a communication with the customers quickly. So, through social media, the company can offer better service for the customers.
(Agnihotri et al. 2012.)
There have been studies that are providing practical proof of the importance of social media usage in B2B sales (Schultz et al. 2012). For example, Sanbolic Inc. increased their leads by using blogs and tweeting to connected LinkedIn accounts to offer training materials to stakeholders. In addition, in GridGain Systems, there was 20 % increase in Web traffic which was a result from using social platforms to communicate with the customers about new ideas (Bannan 2011; ref. Schultz et al. 2012.) Furthermore, Molex Inc. improved its sales opportunities by using the social platforms e.g. blogs, Twitter and YouTube (Callahan 2012).
As explained earlier, sales process is facing a significant change because of the emergence of social media (Andzulis et al. 2012). Customers are more social-driven and salespeople have started to pay attention to provide ”right content into the hands of the right buyers at the right time through the right channel” (Hutchison 2014, 1). Managing relationships is important in the every step of the sales process and when it is done properly, an ending of the one sales process can lead to a new one. Social media’s greatest potential is in the beginning and end of the sales process. (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012.) According to Featherstonebaugh (2010), selling is now a social event. Andzulis et al. (2012) argued that social media has an effect to every step of the sales process and it enhances the use of salesperson’s network which was agreed by Schultz et al. (2012) and Moncrief et al. (2015) who claimed that social media should be used in every step of the sales process. Next, the social selling usage is presented in every step of the sales process and how the company can benefit from it in each of these steps.
2.2.1 Prospecting/Customer retention and deletion
Based on the information available in social media, companies are able to concentrate only to prospects that are suitable for the company which is the one reason that prospecting has changed more towards customer retention and deletion. In addition, because of social media, companies can found spesific information of the suitable prospects that helps them to build the relationship with the customers already in an early stage of the sales process.
Curtis and Giamanco (2010) proposed that social media can be used in the beginning of the customer relationship where there are awareness stage, building the lead and prospecting (Schultz et al. 2012). Prospecting has previously contained cold calling but the return of it has
decreased considerably during last years (Agnihotri et al. 2012) and it has taken a lot of time and money (Moncrief et al. 2015). Social media saves time and effort of salespeople when they can with the help of social media qualify the leads early because of the open information which helps them to concentrate only to the right prospects. When qualifying leads, salespeople have to define the budget of the customer, who has the authority to purchase, what is the need of the customer and in what timeline. Surprisingly many of these informations can be found in social media in real time. (Rodriquez et al. 2012.) For example, through Facebook and LinkedIn, salespeople can search for detailed information of a prospect (Rodriquez et al. 2012) which makes social media as a tool to qualify leads (Shih 2009 ref. Rodriquez et al. 2012). This is a lot more efficient than traditional prospecting where the salespeople could work with the prospects that are not even qualified (Lacoste 2016). This was also found by Rodriquez et al.
(2012) who concluded that by using the social media to find the right prospects and increase the social capital, salespeople are saving time when they are only focusing to ideal customers.
In addition, social media usage has a positive relationship to creating opportunities by the companies when they are prospecting and operating their relationships (Rodriquez et al. 2012).
Moncrief et al. (2015) found that social media can direct prospects towards the organization.
Social media is changing the prospecting because social media platforms generate referrals, interest towards the company and likes in social media pages that can be used when prospecting the new customers (Moncrief et al. 2015). It is possible that customer do not even need the salesperson in the first steps of their buying process. As a result, companies can use social media to create digital baits: beliefs and points of view, expertise and invitations and offers.
Beliefs and points of view contains the beliefs of the company and what it is representing. It will not attract every customer but it will attract the ones who believe in the same matters.
Expertise represents high-quality information which is expected from the sellers in the customer point of view. Invitations and offers are the ones that are giving the opportunity for people to engage. Furthermore, companies should consider that their customers and prospects are leaving digital footprints of their indications of buying when they are e.g. using keywords in social media. Companies can use these digital footprints as sales leads. (Featherstonebaugh 2010.) In addition to gain leads, salespeople can search people from LinkedIn by e.g. industry, job title, keywords etc. to be able to define prospects who are looking for what the company is selling in a short time (Offenberger 2016). With the help of social media, salespeople can explore and exploit informal and direct relationships with the people outside the organization e.g prospects and customers. They are able to capture and organize specific information of their potential
customers through social media which reduces the cost of acquiring customers. (Agnihotri et al. 2012.) Also, customers can learn more about the salesperson in these platforms which decreases salesperson’s efforts by sharing important information (Anderson & Narus 1990).
Sales blogger Jim Keenan concluded that ”A lead today can be a complaint on Twitter, a question on LinkedIn, or a discussion on a Facebook page” which makes easier for the companies to contact the potential customers because they have already expressed the interest towards the company (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012, 91). Also, there was a research by CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization study (2011) that found that salespeople can spend 25
% of their time to find right kind of prospects (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012). With the help of social media, salespeople are able to find right prospects easier and spend only 1 % to searching which transfers their time to actual selling (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012).
2.2.2 Preapproach/Database and knowledge management
Enhanced CRM technology and technology that are exploiting information from social media have made possible that salespeople are able to handle the database of the customers better and also gain more and deeper knowledge of the customers based on the information available of the customers in social media as explained previously. This has affected to the change of this step from preapproach to database and knowledge management. Social media has made this step of sales more efficient and useful for the salespeople and salespeople are able to concentrate to the particular needs of the customer or potential one and increase the value of the relationship based on the information available in social media.
In today’s marketplace there is a lot of competition and companies are offering same kind of products or services and providing similar benefits. With the help of social media, salespeople are able to personalize their sales message to the customers and also be able to find new business opportunities and create relationships with potential customers (Schultz et al. 2012).
Relationships should be built in a way where salespeople are doing activities that benefit the both parties, selling and buying companies (Hunter & Perreault 2007). This step is highlighting the importance of listening. Listening the potential customer is one of the most important part of sales process because customers want to be heard, understood and appreciated. Social media can help in this part because it enhances the listening of the customers and makes it easier
because of the information of the customer in social media. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) According to Hudson (2014, 54), ”social selling begins and ends with listening”.
Social media is bringing companies for example priviledged access to customers and discovery what the customers need (Agnihotri et al. 2012). Salespeople can gather information of the prospects and at the same time prospects and customers can gain the knowledge of the company when they are participating to social media groups (Andzulis et al. 2012). Salespeople can collect detailed and personal information of their potential customers more easily and handle this information better with the help of social media tools. If the salesperson knows this detailed information of his or her potential customer, he/she is able to give a personal touch to the business relationship. (Agnihotri et al. 2012.) When salespeople are using social media tools, they can increase the social capital and form deeper relationships with the customers when they are targeting the product information for the specific prospect (Rodriquez et al. 2012).
Salespeople can at its best to gain recent news and information that is relevant of the prospects in social media to open the communication (Greenberg 2010). Salespeople can for instance use trigger alerts for the necessary changes e.g. acquisitions, new products or other changes in the company which can be used for the personalized sales message for the customer (Giamanco &
Gregoire 2012). In addition, for example LinkedIn and Facebook connections can be transferred into company’s CRM software and more information of the prospect can be gathered which makes the future meeting or conversation more familiar and pleasant experience. (Andzulis et al. 2012.)
2.2.3 Approach/Nurturing the relationship
As relationship-oriented selling has evolved, the companies are concentrating more to the relationships with the customers and building the relationship with the possible ones.
Companies are communicating with the customers in social media. Customers and potential customers are seen as partners and salespeople are concentrating to offer solutions that are profitable both to the company and the customer (Moncrief & Marshall 2005) which is more nurturing the relationship than a traditional approach. Again, the information in social media has made possible and obligatory that a salesperson can more easily tailor offerings that are suitable for the customer but also for the company. In addition, the contacting of the customer
is easier when the relationship can be nurtured with less effort and at the same time make even better offerings for a spesific customer.
There was a survey of Inside View and according to it, 90 % of C-level executives said that they are not getting that much response from cold calls or e-mail messages but in contrast, short messages in social media are getting more responses from the potential customers. For example, company called PAKRA, which offers game-based training, send connecting and following up invitations through Twitter, e-mail and phone. From 20 people group, 17 accepted the invitation in 36 hours. After the connection, company send message which was personalized to these people and which offered also a link to company’s website. Half of these people responded which offered a base for a conversation. (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012.)
Through social media, companies do not have to concentrate only a few customers at the same time but they can interact with the numerous customers simultaneously and in a personalized way to a specific customer (Moncrief et al. 2015). Furthermore, according to Moncrief et al.
(2015), in social media customers can be the ones who are contacting the organization before the salesperson has even contacted the potential customer. Approaching a potential customer can also be done for example by posting something to social media platforms. When generating discussion blogs, salespeople can uncover the needs of the customers. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) As mentioned in a previous step, the listening of the customer is important. 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 (Andzulis et al. 2012). If the social media communication and interaction between buyer and seller is constant, it can lead to a stronger customer engagement (Brodie et al. 2011). Moreover, salespeople can connect e.g. with the prospects and customers in the social platforms and engage with networks and communities.
For example, in LinkedIn, there are a lot professionals connected and this is the reason why it is an especially good platform in B2B sales. (Agnihotri et al. 2012.)
2.2.4 Presentation/Marketing the product
As explained previously, pure presentation of the product has changed more towards marketing the product which means that salespeople have to take part also to the marketing actions.
Emergence of social media has made a good and inexpensive platform for marketing the
product or service of the company where it reaches the right potential customers. Social media enables that salespeople can also be part of the marketing quite easily.
Social media usage in sales has made the selling process more personalized to the customer and more efficient. The previous research presents that it is of great worth that sales and marketing departments are coordinating when using social media functions (Marshall, Moncrief, Rudd &
Lee 2012). Also Sheth and Sharma (2008) proposed that marketing and sales strategy should be aligned with each other and the company should be more a customer-focused firm. The reason for the importance of coordination between in sales and marketing department is that nowadays they are significantly close to each other and both of the departments can benefit from the support of the other.
In this step, the salesperson has a solution for the customer. If a salesperson is using social media in presentation, it can increase opportunity, flexibility and ability to share information when communicating. (Agnihotri, Rapp & Trainor 2009.) Social media offers a platform for presentation of value creation and appropriate solutions which can shorten the sales cycle.
Social media also offers a channel where a company can educate their customers of their products. The value of the products can be presented for example through online videos.
(Andzulis et al. 2012.)
Even though it migh seem improbable that B2B customers whould connect with the seller in social media platforms, it is quite general. Duration of the connection depends on that how valuable the seller’s content is for the customer. In social world, there has to be giving which will not immediately mean return for the company. Salespeople have to offer content and materials for free with the risk that it is not leading to sales but it is necessary if the salespeople want to change from transactional approach towards value process. (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012.) In addition, through social media, salespeople can create and offer more targeted presentation to the targeted prospect (Rodriquez et al. 2012). In contrast, salespeople can no longer determine all the information that is provided to the customers. Markets are significantly fragmented and competition has increased drastically which has led to the situation where customers are dictating exactly what they want and need and they expect that they demands are met and if the company is not able to do it fast enough, customers are going somewhere else.
Social media has a great effect to this because there the information is available and customers
do not necessarily need a face-to-face contact with the company. (Moncrief et al. 2015;
Marshall et al. 2012.)
If the salesperson wants to create a relationship with a customer or a prospect, he/she should be active in social media. Social media helps salespeople to create content that is personalized for the customer which lead higher customer-perceived value (Lacoste 2016). At the same time, salesperson is at the core of this community and part of the customer’s social network which will bring value for them (Agnihotri et al. 2012; Stephen & Toubia 2010). Content that she/he is sharing should be up-to-date and create discussion and engagement from the customer. If the engagement of the customer want to be reached, the content that is shared, has to be interesting for the customer. To be able to do that, company has to listen the customer that what she/he is looking for or about what he/she is interested to hear. One thing to remember is that the people in social media are normal people like the salesperson him-/herself and all the content does not have to be always so professional. (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010.) Moreover, through listening, company and customer can together define what is needed to improve the product or service (Andzulis et al. 2012). According to Vargo and Lusch (2004), professionals have recognized the value of social co-creation where the customer is part of the development process of product and information. This increases the partnership between the company and the customer which eventually leads to customer engagement (Andzulis et al. 2012).
2.2.5 Overcoming objections/Problem solving
In this step, the change towards problem solving from simply overcoming objections is a good example of that companies should concentrate to keep the customer in the center and solve his/her problems rather than only overcome their objections to survive in a competitive market.
Social media has increased the competition due to the increased information from the companies and social media marketing. In social media, customers can find recommendations and reviews of the certain product or service which can affect to the purchase decision of the customer (Seley 2011). When the salesperson is focusing to solve customer’s problems, the customer is more willing to buy. Again, information of the customer in social media forms a good base for the salesperson to identify the problems of the customer and find solution for them. In addition, social media is a good platform to offer for example successfull customer experiences where the problem of the customer has been solved which can affect to potential customer’s opinion about buying in a positive way.
In social media, customers can rely on stranger’s opinion or experience versus the information from the company (Marshall et al. 2012). According to Marketo (2010), expectations of the customers have increased and this has affected that customers want to express their concerns somewhere where it can be seen by other people (Andzulis et al. 2012). Through social media, company is able to overcome the objections of the customer and offer more solutions to customers’ problems. Objections can be overcomed in public forums in social media and company can for instance offer testimonials from other customers. This can make the closing easier and not so complicated because the customer is already being informed about the product and value proposition has been delivered. If the customers have questions in addition to price, quality and etc., salespeople are able to answer to these concerns in real time in social media.
(Andzulis et al. 2012.)
One important aspect in this step is trust building (Boujena, Johnston & Merunka 2009) which can be enhanced through social selling. Trust is defined to be that ”one party has confidence in an exchange partner’s reliability and integrity” (Morgan & Hunt 1994, 23). It is achieved when both of the parties can rely that other will behave in a way that benefits are achieved in the long- term (Crosby, Evans & Cowles 1990). According to Frazier, Jaworski, Kohli and Weitz (1994), harmony and stability in a relationship is produced from trust and when there is stability, cooperation between both parties increases when more information is shared and emerging problems can be solved which will improve the creativity and in addition risk-taking in decisions are incresing (Bauer et al. 2002). Trust building includes patience and flexibility when communicating with the customer (Ahearne, Jelinek & Jones 2007). Also, 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). For example, salespeople can achieve trust by sharing links and answering to comments from customers and guide customers to social networks of the salespeople (Agnihotri et al. 2012).
2.2.6 Close/Adding value/Satisfying needs
Like other steps, also closing step has started to see customer as a partner and focus more to the relationship with the customer which as evolved more to the situation where the value is added and needs are satisfied. Internet and especially social media are reasons that this change is
needed because in social media, customers are able to see and find all the possible product or service options available and if the company is not pursuying to satisfy the needs of this certain customer and not treating him/her in a personal way, the customer will go somewhere else. In this step, social media is helping salesperson to add value to the customer and satisfy his/her needs through the detailed information in social media which helps to find solutions that benefit both of the parties.
According to Andzulis et al. (2012), social media usage helps closing through overcoming objections or preventing them, offering testimonials and using references from previous clients.
In addition, social media eases and accelerates the close through value adding in the previous steps in sales process. When the salesperson asks for the sales, it can be easier because the customer already knows about the product or service from social media and how the value is provided through this spesific product or service (Andzulis et al. 2012). In addition, in social selling, closing a sale can be done by guiding the customers from social media platforms to a sales channel (Andzulis et al. 2012). Furthermore, salespeople can help customers to achieve their goals with the use of social media in this step. It also increases trust, if the salesperson is proposing critical proposals and solutions for the customer (Ingram et al. 2015, 22). In social selling, the closing the sales can happen without making the actual sales call which is the consequence of the fact that customers are in the lead in the sales process (Moncrief et al. 2015).
In relationship selling, satisfying the needs of the customer is important. Satisfaction is according to Gruen (1995, 456-457), ”the extent to which benefits actually received meet or exceed the perceived equitable level of benefits”. There is a positive relationship between satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth (Dwyer 1993; ref. Bauer et al. 2002).
2.2.7 Follow-up/Customer relationship maintenance
The last step of the sales process is now focusing more to the relationship with the customer than doing only a one time after-sales call. Customers want to be treated as partnerts and long- term relationships are pursued. Companies do business in a very competitive field and long- term relationships are a way to succeed in B2B sales. Again, social media and internet overall is showing all the options available for the customers and if the relationship maintenance is not excellent, the customer will change the supplier. Social media brings great tools for the customer relationship maintenance which are discussed next.
