UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

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

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Abstract

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

Department

Business 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

Date

8.5.2019

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

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Tiivistelmä

ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO

Tiedekunta

Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta

Yksikkö

Kauppatieteiden 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

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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

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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

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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).

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“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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

16

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.

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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).

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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)

19

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

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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

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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.

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(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

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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

24

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

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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

26

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

27

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

28

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.

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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

30

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.

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Customer relationships have to be managed. Companies should acquire long-term relationships

with the customers and in-depth knowledge of the customer is a significant way to it (Giamanco

& Gregoire 2012). Customer relationship maintenace should be seen as a partnership where the

both parties are committed to it. Commitment in a business relationships is considered to be a

desire for a balanced relationship, short-term sacrifices that are done to be able to retain the

relationship and confidence that the relationship stays balanced (Anderson & Weitz 1992) and

in addition, there is a positive relationship between a commitment and willigness to share

information (Frazier et al. 1994; ref. Bauer et al. 2002). Commitment also has a positive

relationship with trust in a business relationship (Dwyer, Schurr & Oh 1987).

In this step, the social media usage is significantly useful. With social media, 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.) Customer relationship maintenance is not anymore a

one call but it is a continuously process in social media where the product or service is being

reviewed and companies are fully informed what was a success or a failure. Customer

relationship maintenance step has an important part in sales process because in this part, the

new sales opportunities can be made through positive reviews about the experiences with the

specific company. (Moncrief et al. 2015.) In this step, it is important for the salespeople to

engage the customers. Customer engagement is a necessity for companies because engaged

customers give recommendations (Brodie et al. 2011) and this is the reason why customer-

oriented salespeople try to find ways to communicate and engage the customer (Jones, Busch

& Dacin 2003) to work as a partner with them and co-create value (Brodie et al. 2011). In B2B

sales, customer engagement is more visible compared to B2C sales because relationships are

closer and more important because sales and buying processes can take a significant amount of

time and effort (Swani, Brown & Milne 2014). Relationships between buyer and seller can be

enhanced through continuous communication in social media which can lead to customer

engagement (Agnihotri et al. 2012). According to Chu and Kim (2011), salespeople should

offer possibilities to search, give and share opinions about the products in social media to

enhance the customer engagement (Agnihotri et al. 2012). Through engaged customers

companies can get referrals and with them the company is able to create new opportunities to

sell or improve the product (Andzulis et al. 2012). In addition, Schultz et al. (2012) proposed

that B2B salespeople can use social media to accomplish referrals that they can use with other

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potential customers. Also Agnihotri et al. (2012) found that social media generates referrals and

through it, salespeople are able to increase their credibility.

2.3 Impact of social selling on B2B sales performance

Although companies acknowledge that they should be active in social media, it is possible that

they do not know how to do social selling efficiently, what indicators they should use for the

performance and how to measure them (Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden 2011, 265). It is important

for the salespeople to understand how social media affects to sales performance because

increasing number of customers are using social media nowadays (Agnihotri et al. 2012).

According to Muczyk and Gable (1987), it is of great worth for the company to measure and

manage performance because it will have an effect to company’s success or failure. Previous

research has provided knowledge that through sales technology e.g. social media, salespeople

are able to improve sales performance including for example administrative efficiency, tasks

related to relationships and effectiveness in sales processes (Hunter & Perreault 2007). In

addition, prospect development and customer acquisition are central when discussing about

sales performance in B2B sales (Rodriquez et al. 2012).

Social media is changing the role of the customers from passive consumers to active partners

who are taking part to information creation and sharing (Trainor 2012). Also, customers are co-

creating the value with the company (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004). If the company is able to

provide value creation to the customers, it influences to company’s ability to manage the

relationships. This will increase the sales performance of the company. (Sullivan et al. 2012.)

Previous research proposes that in sales performance, relationship building plays a key role

(Anderson & Oliver 1987; Cravens et al. 1993; Hunter & Perreault 2007). Managing customer

relationships through social media companies can influence to their firm’s performance because

social media can increase customer engagement and value that has developed in conversations

between the company and the customer (Trainor 2012).

Salespeople are through their social connections best located to improve sales performance

(Bristor 1992). Relationships inside the company and coordination strategies are key factors for

high sales performance (Plouffe & Barclay 2007; Steward, Walker, Hutt & Kumar 2010).

Efficient use of social media in these factors will lead to improved sales performance (Lacoste

2016). If the reasonable objectives for social media strategy outcomes are not set, sales

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performance can decrease and lead to dissatisfaction (Agnihotri et al. 2012). According to

Schultz et al. (2012), there is higher probability for high overall sales performance for the

salespeople who are using social media which offers management a reason to invest to social

media activities. Also, Mathieu, Ahearne and Taylor (2007) and Trainor (2012) found that sales

technology usage has a positive impact on performance. Through social media usage,

productivity can be improved and therefore social media should be included to training and in

addition, the software that assists its use should be developed. If management is doing so, they

can show that they are willing to provide assistant to the salespeople of social media usage in

order to accomplish objectives. (Schultz et al 2012.) Effective use of social media can bring

plenty of benefits to salespeople because for high sales performance it is necessary to have

internal working relationships and coordination strategies (Plouffe & Barclay 2007; Steward et

al. 2010). Schultz et al. (2012) presented that there is a positive relationship between the

outcome-based performance and use of social media. In contrast, Rodriquez et al. (2012) found

that relationship was nonsignificant between social media usage and outcome-based

performance but it was significant between social media usage and relationship sales

performance. Social media has a direct effect to relationship performance and indirect effect to

outcome-based sales performance from sales processes e.g. through relationships that are

formed in social media and can be used to identify the prospects, improve the current

relationships with existing customers and overall, increase customer retention (Rodriquez et al.

2012).

Due to the increased amount of social media usage and platforms, companies have started to

notice the need of combining the social media platforms to their customer relationship

management (CRM) systems (Guesalaga 2016). Trainor (2012) proposed a framework to

compine social media technologies and CRM which will have an effect to performance.

According to Trainor (2012), social media can have a positive effect to company’s performance

even if the company is not investing to traditional customer relationship management systems

or activities.

As said earlier, the term sales performance is only used in this chapter and not in the theoretical

framework, results and conclusions where the focus is more in the sales outcomes such as

benefits and disadvantages because the qualitative research cannot measure sales performance

but the qualitative research was a better choice for the explorative study. However, the sales

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performance is included in this study in this chapter because it is an important topic in social

selling and not widely research so it is also a suitable option for more research in the future.

2.4 Strategy for social selling and its implementation

There are no clear guidelines from the top management on how to use social media in sales

process because of the absence of clear return on investment (ROI) (Gupta, Armstrong &

Clayton 2011; ref. Guesalaga 2016). Social media usage in sales requires nowadays a strategy

and management of it so that the benefits of social media can be maximized and in contrast the

disadvantages of it can be avoided (Rapp & Panagopoulos 2012). Also Giamanco and Gregoire

(2012) found that salespeople of the company can be already part of the social media and using

it even in their sales but if the company wants to succeed in social selling, it should make a

clear strategy for it and how the social selling is performed in practice. According to Andzulis

et al. (2012), strategy for the social media should consider relationships, product/service,

customer, price and find a way to use those to increase customer engagement. Schultz et al.

(2012) found that if salespeople have knowledge of social media usage, they can identify better

the most efficient ways to contact prospects and achieve the outcomes they are looking for.

In social media strategy, the used social media platforms should be identified. Social media

platforms are changing all the time and something what is up-to-date today may not be that

tomorrow. In addition, there are dozen or even hundreds social media applications and

companies can not be part every one of them. The choice depends on the purpose of the usage

and the target group the company wants to reach. There can be various platforms that the

company is participating to get the best possible reach. If the company is part in several

platforms, it should ensure that all the messages and activities in these platforms are aligned.

(Kaplan & Haenlein 2010.) Companies can obtain knowledge of customers’ wants and needs

through social media (Brown 2010) and it is the main driver for the company to choose the

social media platform they should use (Andzulis et al. 2012). For example, are the customers

only looking a platform where they can get more information about a product or a service or do

they want to have an interaction with other customers before their purchase decision or do they

want to be rewarded of their loyalty towards the company. If the company fails to determine

the requirements of the customers, they are wasting time and effort and at the same time they

are not able to connect and collaborate with the customers. For these reasons, social media

usage requires a strategy and implementing it to sales process requires listening of the

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customers in every step of the process. If the company manages to do it, customers will become

advocates and share positive word-of-mouth. (Andzulis et al. 2012.)

Agnihotri et al. (2012) used in their research ”pull” and ”push” in salesperson strategies which

affiliated to customer access to information in social media. When salespeople pull customers

towards the content that salesperson has created by using social media, the customers are able

to control the information, create and share it. In contrast, salespeople push information to

customers by using social media in order to ease the development of networks. In this strategy,

customer do not have much control over the communication they are receiving. (Agnihotri et

al. 2012.) According to Rapp and Panagopoulos (2012), social media has impacted that

organizations can use more a pull strategy than a traditional push strategy.

In social media strategy, there should be focus in desired behaviors and outcomes. Managers

should offer clear outlines for the performance evaluation criteria and how it will be rewarded

or punished to keep salespeople highly motivated and satisfied (Challagalla & Shervani 1996).

There can be for example milestones for salespeople which can include effort milestones (e.g.

number of tweets or number of customer contacts in social media) and outcome milestones (e.g.

number of leads generated through social media). Also, there should be objectives and

subjective outcomes. Objectives are for example change in customer support costs and

subjective outcomes are for example positive recommendations from customers in social

media. ROI (return on investment) should be reasonable in social media tools investments so

they can be justified. Usually the social media tools do not have high financial costs but they

take a significant amount of salesperson’s time and effort. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) Salespeople

should aim with their social media strategy to social capital increase and customer engagement

(Agnihotri et al. 2012).

According to Andzulis et al. (2012), there are four steps that companies have to perform with

social selling (see figure 3). First step is to arrange that social media is present and information

is coming from company to customer. Second, company has to find a way that the customers

and prospects are using social media. Company also has to pull customers and prospects to use

social media pages of the company even though they might not have a specific plan to that yet.

When the customers are in the company’s social media pages, they will become more

demanding. First two steps are not yet tied to sales strategy. In step three, company has to find

social media as a primary or secondary selling tool and at the same time there is a transformation

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in sales strategy. In this step, the customers are able to co-create value. Lastly, in company’s

sales strategy, social media is integrated to overall sales strategy which means that social media

is there to facilitate learning processes, co-create value and enhance real-time pricing and

service which will make the product or service more compelling for the customers and drive

them more towards purchase decision. (Andzulis et al. 2012.)

Figure 3. Process evolution of social media in sales (Andzulis et al. 2012)

According to Levy (2011), there are five steps in strong social media strategy: define business

goals, know your target audience and how they use social media, keep an eye of the competitors,

keep track of the market events and set milestones to track the progress. Salespeople must set

clear objectives to the use of social media so that resources and processes of the organization

are used in an effective way. Using social media without clear outlines or achievable goals may

even produce sales productivity losses. (Agnihotri et al. 2012.) “If we do not learn from the

past, we are forced to repeat it” (Andzulis et al. 2012, 306).

As mentioned earlier, social media has changed the power from company to the customer (Baer

2010) and it causes that company is implementing social media to its overall strategy which

requires commitment and resources (Andzulis et al. 2012). Although social media

implementation is inexpensive, it requires collaboration between sales and marketing and there

is no one approach for every company which is the reason that research is needed that the

company is able to identify which approach is best for their organization and customers

(Agnihotri et al. 2012). Even though sales and marketing should join their forces to increase

their customers’ value and involve sales function into marketing strategy development, it is not

happening in real life (Guenzi & Troilo 2007; Homburg, Workman & Krohmer 1999; Rouziés,

Anderson, Kohli, Michaels, Weitz & Zoltners 2005; Slater & Olson 2001). In addition, sales

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can be left outside the strategy planning (Viswanathan & Olson 1992) and it is seen as a tactical

implementer and playing a small role in value creation (Kotler, Rackham & Krishnaswamy

2006). According to Donath (2004), this can lead to the situation where the company is losing

productivity which could be avoided if the sales and marketing departments coordinate.

When implementing social selling into company’s strategy, it has to be a dynamic process and

it requires significant commitment and continuous observation. When a company is considering

to implement social selling its business it should first set the goals for it, understand the value

propositions and demands of customers because customers need to perceive and get value from

social media usage of the company. In addition, measures to define the success of social media

efforts have to be set and they have to set considering the industry and customer base of the

company. (Andzulis et al. 2012.)

Salespeople are required to have new skills and abilities to exploit the use of social media as a

selling tool (Andzulis et al. 2012). Salespeople need ability to work in different channels, adapt

to different situations with the customers and have constant interaction with them. According

to Hunter and Perreault (2006), salespeople who have greater ability to use sales technologies,

e.g. social media, can leverage information which means that they can make the information

which is available to them more effective. Sales managers can help this by providing the

situation where the salesperson is comfortable with the new selling tools and is able to succeed.

(Moncrief et al. 2015.)

There are a few factors that are affecting to social media usage of the individual and the

company and they are discussed briefly next. Social media competence of individual is referring

to ability to use and familiarity with social media tools of individual and social media

commitment of individual as an active use of social media (Guesalaga 2016). Avlonitis and

Panagopoulos (2005) argued that if the sales manager’s ability is high with social media, it is

more likely that they will use social media in their business. If the sales managers are adopting

the social media in sales, it will increase the use of social media in selling among the B2B

salespeople because of the social pressure (Avlonitis & Panagopoulos 2005). Competence in

social media of organization is referring to selling company’s social media knowledge and

ability to use it. Social media commitment of organization is on the other hand referring to

resources that selling company has invested to social media and how they have formed and

communicated the social media strategy. (Guesalaga 2016.) Companies have to not only buy-

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in the use of social media but commit to it continually if they are looking for engagement and

collaboration (Andzulis et al. 2012).

Motivation impacts to behavior and every person has a unique motivation. This is a challenge

to sales managers because they have to find different ways to motivate different kind of

salespeople. Working smarter has become a new concept which means that working is more

effective with less effort. Social media is helping salespeople to work smarter. There is a lot of

information available of both selling and buying companies. Young salespeople are bringing

their personal social media platforms part of their selling process whereas older generations are

using social media as a separate selling tool. Also, younger generations prefer doing business

without face-to-face contact in selling situations. Sometimes face-to-face meetings are needed

and sales managers have to find a way to motivate younger salespeople to do so. As contrast,

they should find ways to motivate older salespeople towards using social media more in sales

process. (Moncrief et al. 2015.) Schultz et al. (2012) found that there is a negative relationship

between salesperson’s age and use of social media. This was also found by Keinänen and

Kuivalainen (2015) that young people use social media more in their business than older ones.

In addition, they found that those managers who are using social media in their personal life

are using it more in business (Keinänen & Kuivalainen 2015). Moreover, younger generation

have a high knowledge of social media usage and they are used to work in a digital world which

makes them valuable employees (Schultz et al. 2012). Younger generations will include social

media in their sales if they see the value of it. Older salespeople see advantages of using social

media in sales but also difficulties. (Speier & Venkatesh 2002; Glass 2007.) Although, younger

salespeople are using technology more in their sales than older ones (Harris & Pike 1996;

Hunter & Perrault 2006; Senecal, Pullins & Bueher 2007) and one reason for this is that younger

generation’s personal use of social media which they link to their professional work as

mentioned earlier (Cisco 2011). 30 % of young salespeople find that internet has a similar

significancy than fundamental human resources e.g. air and water (Cisco 2011) which reveals

the mindset of the younger salespeople towards social media usage (Schultz et al. 2012). Also,

it was found that the salespeople who are not using the social media in their sales process, are

more likely to believe that there is no significant impact of social media usage to sales which

makes it difficult for managers to include social media in sales of the organization. (Schultz et

al. 2012.) According to Campbell (1998), if the salesperson has had previous success in selling

with traditional selling tools, he or she is not that willing to try new selling tools. Sales

organization have the possibility to hire younger salespeople who are more familiar with the

39

use of social media or their can use training in order to include social media in sales processes

(Schultz et al. 2012).

When companies are integrating social media usage in their sales they should enhance the

organizational competence and commitment. Organizational competence can be done through

hiring the right people with the ability to use social media tools and provide training to the

existing salespeople. Companies should hire the executives that have a strong ability to use

social media and engourage the use of social media in personal purposes. (Guesalaga 2016.) It

was found by Mathieu et al. (2007) that executives commitment and enthusiasm for sales

technology e.g. social media has a positive effect to salespeople’s adoption of sales technology.

2.5 Risk and challenges of social selling in B2B sales process and how to resolve them

Even though social media is bringing great tools for selling that make the sales process more

effective and more meaningful, there are also risk and challenges related to it. The shift from

traditional communication methods to social media communication tools is affecting to the way

buyers and sellers communicate with each other. Interactions are more efficient when using

social media because face-to-face interactions are decreasing. Although the reduction of face-

to-face interaction brings efficiency, it may harm the quality of the relationship. (Marshall et

al. 2012.) The disappearing traditional methods of communication lead to the fact that

communication for example about customers’ needs 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. This should

be considered in salespeople training that a salesperson is able to overcome these challenges.

Although competitors can see company’s social media behavior, salespeople can in contrast

discover competitor’s communication with its customers online and track initiatives of the

competitors in social media. Moreover, if the salespeople are following their competitors’

behaviors and interactions in social media, they can gain competitive intelligence. (Agnihotri

et al. 2012.)

In addition, power of information is changing from sellers to buyers (Rollins, Nickell & Wei

2014). Results show that there can be even situations where the customers know more about

the products of the company than the salespeople of the company do (Marshall et al. 2012).

One additional challenge is that salespeople feel that the selling processes are changing fast but

40

their firms are not keeping up with it (Fetherstonhaugh 2010). Also, firms are not utilizing

social media part of their sales processes and performance enough (Gupta et al. 2011; ref.

Guesalaga 2016). In some companies, the social media is not considered to be a professional

tool and its use can be forbidden (Fagard 2015; ref. Lacoste 2016) or there is no clear guidance

to use it (Lacoste 2016). Some of the companies do not want to lose the control and have a risk

for mistakes so they do not want their salespeople to use social media in sales even though their

customers would buy from social media (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012). Futhermore, the privacy

rules in social media are tightening all the time which creates challenges to data collection of

the customers (Kumar & Mirchandani 2012). Companies are concerned for example wrong

kind of posts that could affect to company’s image and cause even a PR crisis. E.g. ”false

representations, unguarded disclosures and copyright violations that could bring legal exposure;

leaks of confidental company information; and the possibility that competitors will learn too

much about client relationships and early-stage opportunities”. (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012,

92.) Also, social media can be mishandled or customers can have different kind of responses

which can have a negative impact to outcomes (Agnihotri et al. 2012). If the company decides

to not use social media in their sales, they will put their company and salespeople at a

competitive disadvantage. Companies can avoid the risks by setting the right policies for social

media usage and train their salespeople for the use of it. The importance of good judgement,

respect towards others, obligation of confidentiality and giving the credit to whom it belongs

should be highlighted. In training, company has to teach salespeople how they can use social

media to network and create profitable relationships, do prospecting and find relevant

information of the customers from social media. There should be clear guidelines what to do

and what not. Sales managers can also connect with their salespeople in social media to

supervise the use of social media. (Giamanco & Gregoire 2012, 93.)

Social media implementation to sales faces the same kind of challenges and difficulties than

any other change in the company (Abhijit 2009). Employees can consider that it places their

jobs at risk which can increase the resistance towards social media implementation (Andzulis

et al. 2012). Some of the salespeople do not see clearly the benefits of using social media in

sales (Curran & Meuter 2005) which makes them resist to change (Schultz et al. 2012).

Moreover, according to Gatignon and Robertson (1991), some of the salespeople see

technology usage in sales more as a cost and not worth to use (Schultz et al. 2012). As in every

change, employees should be taken part of the implementation process and communication

should be enhanced during the change process. With the good communication, employees will

41

understand that they are not going to lose their jobs and social media can make company grow

and move forward which makes the social media implementation easier because it is done with

the employees and by listening to them (Andzulis et al. 2012).

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 different kind of

salespeople. One important part of managing the salespeople in social media era is that

managers have to know the trends in social media and also methods that salespeople can use in

different markets with the different customers (Moncrief et al. 2015). Also, training should be

offered to salespeople that are not that familiar with the social media usage.

Although social media’s personal usage should be engouraged, according to Guesalaga (2016)

to increase the organizational competence and commitment, there was found a difficulty

because increase of the personal social media usage can lead to a risk of lower productivity.

This can be enhanced if the use of social media is engouraged but it is through training lead to

more to professional use which increases the effectiveness and efficiency in sales (Guesalaga

2016). It has been found that salespeople who are part of the social media and using social and

professional networks have higher probability to succeed (Kim & Talbott 2018).

Connectivity explains the availability and connection of salespeople to customers. Salespeople

feel that because of social media they do not have a place to hide anymore. Because of social

media, customers expect that salespeople are available and accessible all the time. Some of the

salespeople felt that customers think that they can contact them through social media, if the

company is part of for example Facebook, but actually they are wasting a lot of salesperson’s

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). This can lead to salespeople’s burnout and decrease

of motivation. This can be avoided through right kind of training and with a clear social selling

strategy that considers workload of an individual salesperson.

Giamanco and Gregoire (2012, 90) concluded the risks of social selling well: “Social media

selling has risks, but sitting on the sidelines is the greatest risk of all”.

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2.6 Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework of this study is based on the literature discussed in the previous

chapters. The literature review included B2B sales process and how social selling affects to it.

In addition, literature review considered sales performance and outcomes when using social

selling in B2B sales process, how the company can benefit from using social selling and what

are the risks and challenges of social selling usage in B2B sales process. Strategy for social

selling and its implementation was also discussed in the literature review and its importance

was highlighted.

Figure 4 presents the theoretical framework for the study. It summarizes the literature review

and gives insights for empirical research of the study. There are two main parts in the

theoretical framework; sales process and sales outcomes. Social selling is a moderating effect

in this theoretical framework which means that it affects to direction and/or strength of the

relation between sales process and sales outcomes. In the figure 4, the steps of the sales process

are the ones from traditional B2B sales process and not from the evolved B2B sales process to

clarify the framework.

Figure 4. Theoretical framework

The first part, sales process, presents the every step of the B2B sales process and how social

selling can have an effect to all of them. According to Moncrief and Marshall (2005), sales

process consists seven steps which are prospecting, preapproach, approach, presentation,

overcoming objections, close and follow-up. Different transformative factors have affected that

43

sales process has evolved towards more customer-oriented process. Those evolved steps in the

sales process 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. (Moncrief & Marshall 2005.)

The second part, sales outcomes, refers to positive and negative sales outcomes. Positive sales

outcomes can be new leads, new customers, new sales or increase in sales or enhanced customer

relationship maintenance etc. Negative sales outcomes can be losing customers, decrease of

market share, bad overall image etc. The arrow between sales process and sales outcome

outlines the relationship between them and how the matters done in different parts of sales

process are affecting to sales outcomes. As said earlier, social selling is representing a

moderating effect in the framework and this study focuses on how the social selling in different

steps of the B2B sales process affects to the sales outcomes either positively or negatively and

what are the risks and challenges when using social selling in B2B sales process.

There have been research findings that social media has a positive relationship with sales

processes (Rodriquez et al. 2012). With social selling, company 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). In order to accomplish the benefits and deal with risks and

challenges of social selling, there has to be clear strategy and implementation plan for it.

Previous literature and empirical research conducted aim to answer to research questions which

are the following:

Primary research question is: How social selling is affecting to B2B sales process?

Secondary research questions are: How social selling benefits different steps in B2B sales

process and is there disadvantages and risks in it? How social selling strategy can be

implemented to company’s overall strategy?

The primary research question strives to increase the understanding of social selling and what

is the impact of it to B2B sales process. Secondary research questions concentrate to deepen

the understanding of what are the actual benefits, disadvantages and risks of social selling in

each of the steps in the B2B sales process and overall. There is previous literature which deals

44

with social media usage in B2B sales process but for example research about social media’s

effect to sales performance and outcomes are limited in the same way as research about strategy

and risk and challenges of social media usage in B2B sales process. Therefore, more research

about these topics affiliated to social selling is needed and empirical research of this study is

meaningful to accomplish. As defined in chapter 1 in the research gap section, there is some

previous literature about social media usage in B2B sales but almost no research at all using the

concept social selling because of its newness in business.

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3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter will explain and justify the methodological and method choices of this master’s

thesis. In this chapter, research design and used methods are presented and how the research

data was collected. In addition, the analysis techniques for the data are described. Finally, the

validity, reliability and generalizability of the research are discussed.

3.1 Research design

Generally, the research methodology can be divided to quantitative and qualitative

methodology. According to Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008, 4), qualitative research is usually

explained by comparing it to quantitative research because comparing them is a lot easier than

defining them. Silverman (2001, 29) states that there is internal variety in these methodologies

which makes the straight comparison not enough between qualitative and quantitative research

(Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 4). Even though the unclear definition, quantitative research is

more suitable for collection and analysis of empirical data that is structured and strandardized

(Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 5). Qualitative research is suitable when the topic is new and the

research tends to be explotary and flexible (Ghauri & Gronhaug 2005, 202; ref. Eriksson &

Kovalainen 2008, 5). The topic of social selling is quite new and it is not widely known or used.

This is the reason why qualitative research approach is more suitable for this research because

it can produce more relevant insights to this topic.

There are two research models, induction and deduction. Deduction refers to research where

the knowledge is gained from theory and it proceeds through hypothesis to empirical analysis.

In inductive model, theories are outcomes of empirical research. There is also a third model of

research called abductive research model. It is found that strictly deductive model is not suitable

for qualitative research and it is rare that research model is purely inductive. This is the reason

why the abduction model has emerged because it compounds these two models. (Eriksson &

Kovalainen 2008, 21-23.) This study follows the abduction model. There are previous literature

of the topic whereof the research questions and notions for empirical research are drawn. But

furthermore, this study aims to bring new insights of this topic because the previous literature

of it is rather recent.

Case study research generates knowledge that is detailed and holistic and which is drawn from

analysis of several empirical resources (Tellis, 1997; ref. Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 117).

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According to Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008, 117), case study research aims to not use research

designs that are too simplistic but rather designs that have space for diversity and complexity.

According to Eisenhardt (1989, 1991), the goal of a case study is the theory building. This study

is explorative which is the reason that case study research and more spesifically extensive case

study research is suitable for the strategy of this research. Extensive case study means that there

are number of cases where the elaboration, testing and production of generalizable theoretical

structures can be done (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 118).

3.2 Data collection

The data collection was done through semi-structured interviews. Interviews do not give a

straight access to the facts (Silverman 2006, 117) or to people’s experiences but rather present

indirect ”instead offer indirect representations of those experiences” (Byrne 2004, 182; ref.

Silverman 2006, 117). ”Interviewer and interviewee actively construct some version of the

world appropriate to what we take to be self-evident about the person to whom we are speaking

and the context of the question” (Silverman 2006, 118). Semi-structured interviews can study

both ”what” and ”how” questions and it provides flexibility because for example wording and

question order can be different in every interview (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 81). Interview

questions in my study were both open ended and closed questions. My interview research is

considered to be positivist interview research, which means that the approach is interested in

facts and during the analysis the focus is combaining the information from different interviews

and comparing the participants to be able to find the true image. Also, my interview research

consisted constructionist interview research approach which concentrates to interactions

between the interviewer and interviewee and how those interactions generate meanings. This

enables the discussion to go to different directions. The first approach is focusing to ”what”

questions and the second to ”how” questions. (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 80.) According to

Holstein and Gubrium (2004), these two approaches should be combained in order to get the

best results so the interview includes both of these question types (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008,

80). In addition to interviews, background information for the study was collected from

participants’ social media pages, expecially from LinkedIn.

My aim for the interviews was to find companies that are actively using social selling in their

B2B sales process either in domestic markets or international markets. As said earlier, this study

is explorative and it does not seek generalize but rather find new insights of the topic. Because

of the explorative orientation of the study, I focused to find companies of different sizes which

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were from different industries and also companies that have B2B sales both in domestic and

international markets.

I chose the interview participants based on their activity in social media and accessibility of the

company. The interviewees were chosen from these companies based on their role in the

company that had to do something with the sales. Interviews were done during the spring 2019.

There were six interviews and one of them was done face-to-face and the rest of them through

Skype, Appear in or phone. All of the interviewees were men and all the interviews were

recorded with the permission of the interviewees. In addition, all the interviews were done in

Finnish so the comments and views from interviewees in this study are translated from Finnish

to English. One of the interviewees wanted to remain anonymous. In addition to one

participant’s anonymity, the references of interviews used in the section ”results and findings”

can not be affiliated to any particular participant. The detailed information of the interviews is

presented in the Table 2.

Table 2. Case interviews.

Company and its

industry

Title and name of the

interviewee

Length of the

interview

Domestic/

International

Digital marketing and

IT service company

Sales representative 30 min Domestic and

International

LähiTapiola, Insurances

and pension insurances

Account Manager,

Teemu Sairanen

30 min Domestic

Talentree Oy,

Management consulting

Head of Sales, Pekka

Hyvärinen

45 min Domestic

Myynnintuottajat

Group, Consulting and

recruitment

CEO, Mikko

Heiskanen

30 min Domestic

Kas-Telineet Oy,

Scaffolding and

weather protection

Account director,

Patrik Sarinko

1h 5 min Domestic

KTI Partners,

Billing, debt collection

and law

Head of Social

Selling, Sami

Saarenpää

40 min Domestic and

International

Interview questions (see Appendix 1) were derived from theoretical framework. The questions

were divided to four parts. The first part of the questions were background questions of the

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interviewee and what kind of social media channels the company or the interviewee is using in

B2B sales process and who else is using social selling in the company. The second part of the

questions were dealing with the overall social selling usage in B2B sales. The third part of the

questions were going through all the steps of the B2B sales process and how the social selling

is used in these steps and why. Also, it considered what kind of benefits and disadvantages the

interviewee or the company has got from social selling usage in B2B sales process. The last

part of the questions were focusing to B2B sales outcomes when using social selling and social

selling strategy of the company.

3.3 Data analysis

After the data collection, I started the data analysis with the transcription of the data which was

done from the interview recordings. Transcriptions of the interviews were done instantly after

each interview. I used content analysis to analyse the data. Content analysis can be used to

analyse written, verbal or visual messages of communication (Cole 1988) and through content

analysis, researcher is able to test theoretical issues to be able to understand the data (Cavanagh

1997). Content analysis assumes that words and phrases can share the meaning when they are

categorized (Cavanagh 1997). Content analysis includes three phases; preparation, organizing

and reporting but there are no systematic guidelines for the analysis but the main factor of

content analysis is that words or phrases are classified into smaller categories (Elo & Kyngäs

2008). Preparation phase includes selection of the units of the analysis (Cavanagh 1997;

Guthrie, Yongvanich & Ricceri 2004) which can be for example a word or a theme (Polit &

Beck 2004; ref. Elo & Kyngäs 2008). Next, a categorization matrix has to be developed and

data has to be coded according to this matrix (Elo & Kyngäs 2008). According to Eriksson and

Kovalainen (2008, 128), in case study research, systematic coding is generally used when the

research is based on existing theory or it aims to improve the theory or test it. In this type of

coding, the codes are based on the theory rather than empirical data (Eriksson & Kovalainen

2008, 129).

My actual data analysis consisted five parts. First, I outlined all the words and phrases from the

transcription that affiliated to social selling usage in B2B sales process, sales outcomes of social

selling and social selling strategy. Second, I formed categories based on the themes and

similarities between different interviews. These categories were: 1) Benefits of social selling

usage 2) Disadvantages of social selling usage 3) Objectives for social selling usage 4) Risks

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of social selling usage 5) Employee’s separation from the company considering social selling

usage 6) Social selling strategy. After categorization, I chose a different color for each of the

categories and highlighted the words and phrases with the right color that represented certain

category. After highlighting, I attached highlighted words and phrases under the right category

to make the analysis more manageable. At this point, I tried to find the most relevant and

meaningful insights to my study. Finally, I started reflecting the data through the teoretical

framework and comparing the different interviews with each other. In addition, I analysed the

new emerged topics from interviews that were not part of the theoretical framework. These

results are explained in the chapter four.

3.4 Research evaluation

Qualitative researcher has to convince the readers of the research of its quality and

trustworthiness (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 290). There are three evaluation criteria which

are in general used in business research. These are reliability, validity and generalizability.

However, there is a divided view among the qualitative researchers if the exactitude of

interview can be evaluated by using reliability and validity.

Reliability explains the extent of same results achieved of the study if the same measures,

procedures and instruments are used (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 291-292). In this study, the

reliability is increased by giving detailed instructions of how the research is designed, data

collected and analysed so that anyone could do the same research again in a similar way by

following the instructions.

Validity refers to ”the extent to which conclusions drawn in research give accurate decription

or explanation of what happened” (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 292). Research findings to be

valid they have to be true and certain (Schwandth 2001 ref. Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 292).

Based on the interviews and analysis done of them in this study, it is possible to answer to

research questions which means that the correct methods have been used. In qualitative

research, the goal of validity is make sure that the report or description is correct. For example

analytic induction and triangulation are practices to confirm the validity. (Eriksson &

Kovalainen 2008, 292.) Analytic induction means that after coding there should be analysis of

the data included (Glaser & Straus 1967, 102 ref. Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 292). Analytic

induction is used in my study in a section ”data analysis” where the analysis of the data is

50

explained in detail. Triangulation is explained to use multiple perspectives to process and clear

the findings of the study. According to Guba and Lincoln (2005), there are different forms to

do triangulation and these forms can be used either separately or combined (Eriksson &

Kovalainen 2008, 292). In this study, the forms of triangulation used were triangulation of data

and triangulation of theories which means that empirical data was collected from multiple

sources and multiple theories were used to explain, understand and interpret the case.

Triangulation is also needed to establish a good case study. (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 133.)

Triangulation of data was performed by collecting the empirical data from different sources,

cases, that where different to each other by industry, size and market segment. Also, theories

of the studied topic in this research where collected from multiple reliable sources which were

both old and new. Triangulation in this study increases its validity as explained earlier.

Generalizability signifies whether the results of the research can be used in a wider context in

some way. In qualitative research, it refers that the research cases or people selected are well-

grounded and –argued. (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 293). In analytic generalization there has

to be comparison between empirical results of a case study and previous theory. According to

Yin (2012), replication is possible to require if the same theory can be promoted by two or more

cases. (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 294.) This is done by comparing the empiral results and

previous literature in a ”discussion” part of my study. Also, in a section ”research design” the

selection process of research cases is explained to increase the generalizability of this study.

Case study to be good it has to be unique and significant. In addition, the issues researched

should be theoretically or practically interesting and relevant. One evaluation criterion for a

case study is that it has to be complete. This is done through accurate attention to case definition

and context of it. Also, all the relevant proof has to be gone through and researched. In case

study, the researcher should include also supporting and challenging evidence to his/her

conclusions of the study. (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 133.) This study is unique because

there is not that much previous research of the topic and because social selling is a new trend

in sales this study is also a significant. Furthermore, the study was done by carefully and widely

studying the previous literature of the topic and analysing the empirical data completely.

Lincoln and Guba (1985) proposed trustworthiness to evaluation of qualitative research which

contains credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability (Eriksson & Kovalainen

2008, 294). Credibility answers to the questions if the the topic is familiarized enough and the

51

data is sufficient. Also, strong links between observation and the categories of the researcher

are assessed. (Eriksson & Kovalainen, kpl 19, s. 6.) Credibility is ensured in this study by

collecting the data and theories from multiple different sources and investigating the previous

literature for so long that the information of the research topic has saturated. Transferability

refers to connectivity to previous research done (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 294). As

explained earlier the empirical results of this study is connected to previous literature by finding

similarities and differences between them in the discussion section. Dependability concerns the

research process that is logical, traceable and documented (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 294).

This is ensured overall in methodology chapter which goes through the entire research process

in detail. Lastly, conformability refers to linking the findings and interpretations to the data in

an understandable way (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008, 294). Conformability is presented in

results chapter where the findings and interpretations of the empirical data is presented step by

step based on the empirical data gathered.

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4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS

This chapter presents the findings of this study. Findings are based on the empirical data of

which collection and analysis process were explained in the previous chapter. This chapter is

divided to three parts. The first part presents the benefits, disadvantages and risks of social

selling in every step of the B2B sales process and overall. The second part deals with the social

selling strategy and the last part concerns outcomes of the social selling and what can be

achieved with it.

4.1 Social selling and its benefits, disadvantages and risks in B2B sales process

When asked from the interviewees the background questions, it arised that Facebook,

Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most used social media channels in B2B sales process

and especially LinkedIn. The participants used social selling the most to find the right people

and build relationships according to their LinkedIn’s social selling index. Through social

selling, companies want to achieve visibility of the company, create personal brand, expand

their network, achieve more sales, develop trust, differ from competitors and achieve

acknowledge of the potential customers and the current ones. All the participants where asked

about social selling usage in each of the steps in B2B sales process and what kind of benefits

and disadvantages they have seen when using social selling in a particular step.

4.1.1 Prospecting/Customer retention and deletion

All of the participants were using social selling in a prospecting/customer retention and deletion

step. Social selling usage in this step was found to be a great tool when searching potential

prospects. Social media is offering a great deal of information of the potential companies and

its decision-makers. Social media makes the information searching faster compared to

traditional ways. For example, information of previous employers of the decision-maker, what

kind of person he/she is and his/her preferences can be seen from social media. In addition,

through social selling, company can gain leads. One of the participants described social

selling’s benefits in this step this way: ”At its best, social media can function as a demand

grower and it can bring leads which may end up as prospects. For example, if there is a like to

some of my posts from a company or decision maker that can be interesting for me and belongs

to ideal customer profile, target group, it can be a lead for me and I can call him/her”. In

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addition, one participant brought up the importance of listening in social media: ”In LinkedIn,

you can spot discussion openings that hit to your offering and also in social media you can spot

a news or acquisition or such a change that you know that the buying window is open”. It was

also presented that through social media, the salesperson can find a industry that gives an idea

and is relevant right now to the company when the salesperson can start searching right kind of

prospects based on that idea. In addition, the participants found some disadvantages and risks

when using social selling in prospecting. One issue was that not every company is in social

media and if the salesperson blindly trusts only to social selling, he/she can lost some of the

leads. In some industries, the companies can be more inactive in social media and then social

selling might not be that useful for prospecting. In addition, if the salesperson wants to find

prospects from a particular small area, for example LinkedIn does not give opportunity to this

which can bring unefficiency to prospecting.

4.1.2 Preapproach/Database and knowledge management

All of the participants were using social selling in a preapproach/database and knowledge

management step which is closely related to previous step. In this step, it was seen essential to

know more about the potential customer or the customer before an actual meeting to be able to

serve the customer or the potential one better. Salesperson is able to find detailed information

of the company or its decision makers from social media channels and information of who is

working in the company, what kind of roles there are in this company and who this customer

is, what they are telling about themselves to public, who are their competitors and also get an

overall image of the business. Participants saw that it is important to check the company’s social

media channels that what they have said or written there. One participant pointed out that ”it

can be seen from there (social media) that if the company is expanding or not et cetera and

what could be the possible needs”. One participant said that through social selling, it is easier

to prepare for the meeting: ”When I sit in the meetings I already have an understanding what

this company does when I start to talk about objectives and needs and especially in our job, if

you know what kind of industry the company is representing, it already helps a lot”. It was also

seen in this step, similarly to previous one, that a disadvantage can be if some company or its

decision makers are not active in social media, social selling is then not an effective tool in

preapproach/database and knowledge management because you cannot find enough

information and background of the potential customer. In addition, one participant brought up

that sometimes he had prepared the meeting too much based on the information from social

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media and created some kind of assumptions of the customer which were not that beneficial in

a meeting. Furthermore, it was pointed out that information in social media can be unlimited

and sometimes it can be a disadvantage: ”There is so much information that if you think

different kind of seller profiles, really analytical and too pedant and too detailed seller can

spend too much time because you do not have that kind of situation where you are ready

because there is no limit how much you can read what is going on with the company and so on,

so it is really important that you settle for the time that you have reserved for it and state that

now I know enough, I do not know everything, but I know enough.”

4.1.3 Approach/Nurturing the relationship

In an approach/nurturing the relationship step, five out of six participants used social selling in

this step. The ones that used social selling found that LinkedIn is a good channel to approach a

potential customers and set a meeting time or send reminder messages of the meeting. Some

participants said that they feel that the reachability in this step is better through social media

compared to traditional ways. I asked one of the participants who used social selling in this step

that does he feel that is it easier to approach potential customer through LinkedIn compared to

traditional ways. His response was that ”I do not know if it is easier but let’s say that nowadays

people are busy and it is difficult to get them to the phone so however the message goes through

it (LinkedIn) forward and people will then browse it and for example decision makers can

browse it from their sofas in the evening”. The better reachability was also mentioned by the

other participant. He said that through LinkedIn he had discussed with the CEOs that are very

busy and would not have answered to the phone call but through social media they could be

reached. Three of the participants found that social selling has made possible in this step that

the customers are the ones who are doing the first contact and they contact the company through

social media: ”I found that the answering procent is a lot more worse in there (social media)

compared that I get the customers contact me a lot more easier”. One participant said that he

had tested the social selling in this step but did not find it useful: ”If I was a buyer, I would

experienced it more personal if somebody calls me and says that hey I have got to know you

and your company and I have three ideas where I could help you and I thought that I will tell

you these and we can see if our conversation will continue in a meeting or not. I would feel

from that call that this guy has really thought about me and was bothered to call me. If I get a

generic message in LinkedIn I do not react to them – For me the first contact goes better through

phone”. One of the participants found that maybe he does not know enough how to do social

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selling in this step that the message through social media would feel personal and not too much

selling because it easily can feel like: ”Okay who else did you send this message and how many

I was in your list. In a phone call you can differ yourself better and in that phone call you can

actually talk and you have space to react. If you say something to me, I can react but if I write

to you and you answer whatever you answer it is not like that, it is really difficult in social

media for example to use emotional intelligence in that conversation so you could in a way to

understand difference of the people. It is easier in the phone. It is not easy but it is easier”. In

addition, in this step, it was found that if a potential customer do not even have social media

accounts, you cannot approach them through social media. Finally, one prospect pointed out

that in his opinion, the messaging to the customer can be a interference of the customer and a

better way to approach is offer some content to the customer and get she/he contact the

salesperson themselves for example through calendar service because nowadays the customer

should have the freedom to decide when she/he is contacting the company.

4.1.4 Presentation/Marketing the product

In presentation/marketing the product step, three out of six participants said that they are using

social selling. All in all, the content used to present or market the product in social media should

be personal and unique to be able to differ oneself from the others. One of the participants

presented that they document their succesfull customer experiences to their web pages and then

exploit them actively in their social media and in their sales process. However, in this company,

social selling was not used to present each project because they differ with each customer so he

did not see that it is necessary to present the actual process in social media. One of the

participant brought up that he uses social selling to present himself and that way set up a

meeting but social selling was not used to present the actual product or service because he did

not see the use of social selling in this step necessary. Other participant brought also up, similar

to previous steps, that if the company do not actively use social media or does not have social

media accounts, it is not possible to use social selling. In addition, one disadvantage brought

up in this step from one participant was privacy and security matters: ”In this stage, you have

got information of the customer and handled it and there is identified information and there

can be that much sensitive material that as such our product information can be found from

our websites but when we start offer customer tailored product, you have to be more careful

that what information and to which channel it is distributed”. Two participants claimed that

they are not using social selling in presentation/marketing the product step, but when I looked

56

up their LinkedIn profiles they had posted texts in their profile that where exactly presenting

the product, so it is possible that the participants are unknowingly using social selling in this

step or other steps.

4.1.5 Overcoming objections/Problem solving

Three out of six participants used social selling in overcoming objections/problem solving step.

One of the participant said that the objections had not come to light in social media but in emails

or phone calls and the participant did not see reason to move this step to social media because

it is better to handle through discussion for example in a phone call. One participant said that

”in this stage in the sales process, when the solution proposal has gone through and it is edited

and so, the face-to-face meeting is valuable and that you can see other person’s gestures and

expressions and tone, it is a lot more than just writing private messages in social media”. One

participant found that social selling offers a great tool to change the wrond kind of beliefs of

the customers about the company or industry that could be an obstacle for buying. This can be

done through videos in social media or other content that presents the fact about the product,

the company or the industry. Even though one participant said that they are not using social

selling in this step, he also claimed that ”it is possible that in this kind of situation we

unknowingly tackle the objection when we have some content in social media. So knowingly we

do not use but unknowingly we can well use it. If the company has some kind of assumption,

thought or attitude towards us or what we represent and it changes because of the act we have

done in social media”. Furthermore, other participant said that they have not used social selling

to handle individual objections but rather they are using it to post that kind of content to their

social media channels that tell about their company and share good image that will prevent the

objections. One participant said that if he sees an objection in social media, he responses to it

immediately so the objections can come to light more easily and they can be handled through

social media quicker. Furthermore, one participant brought up a disadvantage of social selling

in this step that when doing the objection tackling through phone, the salesperson has more

time and flexibility to overcome the objections and problems can be solved compared to social

selling because the phone call is open so long the customer accepts or the salesperson feels but

in social media it can be over quicker without accomplishing the goal.

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4.1.6 Closing/Adding value/Satisfying needs

Consequently, in a closing/adding value/satisfying needs step, social selling was not that

actively used. Three out of six used social selling in this step somehow but not continually. One

participant who uses social selling when closing sales, said that the reason to do the closing in

social media was the reachability. It is possible that the person who he is trying to reach is not

answering the phone so then the social media channel might be a good place to do the closing.

He also pointed out that in the beginning of the sales if using social selling the face is missing

from the process but for him social selling is still a suitable option in some of the cases. Other

participant who uses social selling in closing, said that in this step, it is an additional tool with

phone and email because some of the messages can made through social media but he pointed

out that ”if you send a LinkedIn message, let’s say that there has to be some kind of good

relationship and trust already built, because if there is not, it can be a little dangerous tool at

this point”. He also pointed out that ”it (social selling) is not enough to be used individually

and you have to have an eye for the game so you understand that for example in our industry

there is let’s say traditional people who can think of it (social selling) as a taboo”. He

highlighted that there has to be understanding of the customer that when it is suitable to send a

message through social media and when it is time for a phone call. Other participants said that

they do not want to do closing in social media either because it is not possible if the customer

does not have social media channels or because it does not feel right and they find phone calls

or text messages more suitable for closing. As a disadvantage, one participant said that some

parts of the closing can be done in social media for example a decision to buy, but the actual

contracts has to be done somewhere else because of the confidentiality issues.

4.1.7 Follow-up/Customer relationship maintenance

Social selling was used by all the participants in follow-up/customer relationship maintenance

step. Participants found beneficial that they can follow and network with their customers in

social media and notice if there is a change in their business or with their decision makers which

might open up a new need of the customer that requires reacting. Also, one participant said that

”when you follow your customer’s Facebook and Instagram you prove that you have interest

towards that customer”. Other participant brought up the same matter that in social media you

can show your interest towards the customer if he or she for example has a birthday or some

event when you can present your congratulations. One participant said that once he did a follow-

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up through social media because he could not reach the customer through phone. Because of

that message sent in social media the customer bought more. In addition, other participant

brought up the reachability that it is easier to get in touch with the decision-makers through

social media in this step. None of the participants found any disadvantages of social selling

usage in customer relationship maintenance and it was only seen as a beneficial and useful tool

in this step. Although, one participant said that similar to previous steps there has to be eye for

the game that if the customer is really close and significant customer, sometimes it is a good

idea to pick up the phone and call to that customer.

4.1.8 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

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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

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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

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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.

4.2 Social selling strategy

Interview questionaire included questions about risk management and strategy for social

selling. Four interviewed participants said that their company has a strategy for social selling.

One participant whose company did not have a clear strategy for social selling said that he does

not know if the company has a strategy for social selling or at least he does not know about it.

Other participant said that he does not know clearly what is the strategy for social selling and

he brought up that it is due to his own passivity because the company has for example social

media clinics each friday where the personnel can participate and discuss about social media

usage in work. This participant had got some guidelines from somebody that common sense

has to be used but courageous and acitivity are the starting point for the social selling. Even

though of the clinics, it seems that if all of the employees do not know the strategy, it is not

well implemented. It could be seen from the participants’ social media pages and their

company’s social media pages that even though there can be posts in company’s social media

pages, the social selling is usually personified to a particular person of the company.

The one participant who said that his company has a social selling strategy said that it is also

the reason why there is no risks because there is a clear policy for social selling. The reasons

for social selling strategy were the risk management and so the company has a united and a

right message regardless of whom from the company is doing social selling. In this participant’s

company, the social selling strategy is implemented to the company through meetings where

everything is gone through and planned that who will post what, how and when. This participant

said that he is controlling and checking what has been posted but there has not been need for

any correction. The other participant, who had a strategy of his own and a strategy for the

company of social selling, said that his social selling strategy is 70-20-10 model which means

that 70 % of the posts is affiliated to companies or sales or management in general, 20 % of the

posts are bringing stronger the matter of their industry so people are linking that which is the

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business of the writer and 10 % of the posts are purely advertising. When only 10 % of the posts

are purely advertising, the people do not feel intimated that the person from the company only

advertises his/her business. This was seen from many of the participants LinkedIn profiles that

they are providing also other content addition to pure marketing of the company or its products.

It could be seen from social media that the participants actively participate in social media

channels, especially in LinkedIn, where they are actively liking and commenting other people’s

posts, providing posts themselves which contain news from their business or personal life,

discussion about current topics, fun posts, important and helpful information for the potential

customers and current ones and marketing of the company and its products. In addition, usually

there was a certain personal hashtag that was used in all of the posts of a certain participant.

This highlights the importance of providing other than marketing content because when the

person is posting all kind of personal and interesting materials and only a small amount of pure

marketing, the marketing part merges naturally with other content and does not irritate the

receiver.

One participant brought up that purpose of the overall social selling strategy of the company is

to signal that the company has a good and relaxed atmosphere but the business is done

professionally and in addition increase the humanity that who are the people behind of this

business. Strategy is shared with the employees who are doing social selling and if there are

changes in it. The changes are done quite quickly if there is something that is not working and

has to be changed. One participant said that their strategy is to provide personal content in

several different social media platforms because eventually the company will reach the people

and get contact from the potential customers that can even be from unexpected people or

situations. It could be seen from the participants’ social media pages, especially from LinkedIn

that some of the participants were more careful with their social selling considering the

personality of the social selling but it could be seen that those who were courageous with their

social selling and their personality and humor showed clearly in their activities in social media

were usually the ones who got more visibility for their posts in social media. For example, one

participant said that the videos that included his dog, got significantly more attention compared

to the videos where only he was. This is a good example that salesperson should create

imaginative content that stands out to succeed in social selling. The review of the participants’

social media pages are not connected to a spesific company used in this study to remain

goodwill and avoid personal evaluations of the participants and their social selling.

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Furthermore, participants want to instead of straight selling, provide help and information to

the customers. This can be seen from some of the participants’ LinkedIn profiles that they are

providing helpful posts or articles of some topics that their potential ccustomers, customers or

other interested people can find help and get more information of some topic for free. In

addition, one participant found that companies should make sure that the contacting of the

company is easy and effortless in every social media platforms and when the customer contacts

the company, the answer and reaction has to be quick from the company’s side. If there is any

new social media platforms, they want actively look for the opportunities for the business and

sales from that platform. One participant brough up that ”do not compare if somebody gets 200

likes and you get 20 that you would be inferior but you have to understand that what is your

target group because sometimes five likes can be better than 500 if they are straightly people

from your target group. -- If there is five likes and they are from the wrong group then you have

to change your strategy and do something differently”.

One participant said that he thinks that younger generations have an advantage in social selling

because they have born with the phone in their hand so they know better what to do in social

media. In addition, he found that social selling requires perseverance and there has to be strategy

and systematic doing and in some point it can be seen that somebody knows that person and

there will be new opportunities. Even though the clear vision for his own doing, the company

where he was working does not have own strategy for social selling. He brought up that ”we

should have a better documented sales processes and we have not taken it to that far that we

could and I have trusted in this that doing replaces, so the systematic and hard doing replaces

the same amount of systematic and hard planning so we do not have (strategy) and to be honest

we have not had a need and we have not got any crisis that somebody would have put the brand

down the toilet and it should have been digged up from there because many times the crises are

the ones that give the wake up call that we should have some kind of guidelines to this social

media”.

When asked from participants do they use push or pull strategy in their social selling most of

the participants used pull strategy in social selling which means that they try to pull customers

to their social media platforms and create discussion with the prospects and customers. Some

of the participants also used social media platforms to inform prospects and customers about

their company or products and contact them through social media which is more a push strategy.

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4.3 Social selling outcomes

When asked about sales outcomes when using social selling one participant found that they had

not found that many leads and take those to sales but he found that ”I would say that we are

doing sales that are better quality when we are checking the backgrounds of the decision

makers and without that we would not be that good what we are doing and of course the overall

experience is in that a lot more better when you have for example a phone call and then there

is a LinkedIn invitation and you wrote a little there, so kind of you can influence to sales

elsewhere than only in that phone and meeting -- and were are known a lot better and the better

our specialists are known the more credible we are”. Also other participant found that the social

selling has surely affected to sales outcomes through visibility and awareness. In addition, one

participant said that because of social selling the invitations for tenders and straight sales had

grown which means that there are overall more sales because of social selling. Some of the

participants did not know how the social selling has affected to company’s sales outcomes

which tells that the company is not communicating about sales outcomes that much to the

employees.

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5 CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this chapter is to conclude the study. This chapter is divided into three sections:

discussion, managerial implications and limitations and future research. Discussion section

summarizes the research and compares the findings with the previous research done. In

addition, this section presents the theoretical contribution which is linked to the previous

literature. It introduces the new or differing insights of the topic from this study that develop

the theory of selling. Managerial implications section gives implications and practical views to

management. Finally, the limitations and future research section acknowledges the limitations

of this study and gives insights to possible research in the future.

5.1 Discussion

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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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customers know who to contact if they need a certain product or service and this is a significant

competitive advantage for the company.

Social media usage in sales requires nowadays a strategy and management of it so that the

benefits of social media can be maximized and in contrast the disadvantages of it can be avoided

(Rapp & Panagopoulos 2012). Giamanco and Gregoire (2012) found that salespeople of the

company can already be part of social media and using it even in their sales but if the company

wants to succeed in social selling, it should make a clear strategy for it and how the social media

usage is performed in practice. This was also supported by the findings of this study that it is

common that some of the salespeople in the company are using social selling but it can be very

separate from the company and it is possible that there is no clear strategy from the company

to how to use social selling or at least it is not well communicated or implemented in the

company. In addition, salespeople are coming more part of the marketing which is necessary

for salespeople to keep up with the competition in changing environment (Moncrief et al. 2015).

The previous research presents that it is of great worth that sales and marketing departments

are coordinating when using social media functions. (Marshall et al. 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.

In social media strategy, the used social media platforms should be identified. If the company

is part in several platforms it should ensure that all the messages and activities in these platforms

are aligned. (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010.) This was acknowledged in the findings of this study

that support the previous research that in social selling strategy, the coherent social media

message should be created and share among the employees that they know how they should act

in social media. According to Andzulis et al. (2012), companies should acknowledge what they

customers are looking for and in what social media channels they are present. If the company

fails to determine the requirements of the customers they are wasting time and effort and at the

same time they are not able to connect and collaborate with the customers. For these reasons,

social media usage requires a strategy and implementing it to sales process requires listening

of the customers in every step of the process. If the company manages to do it, customers will

become advocates and share positive word-of-mouth. (Andzulis et al. 2012.) The findings of

this study support this that companies should be active only in social media platforms where

they can reach their customer efficiently. However, findings show that some of the companies

73

do not understand or see the advantages of social selling strategy or they think that it takes too

much time or it is not needed and therefore they do not have the social selling strategy.

Andzulis et al. (2012) found four steps for social selling strategy. First step is to identify that

social media is present and information is coming from company to customer. Second is to

identify how the customers and prospects are using social media and drive them towards

company’s social media pages. These two steps are not tied to sales strategy. In step three,

company has to find social media as a primary or secondary selling tool and there is a

transformation in sales strategy. Finally, sosial selling is integrated to overall sales strategy.

(Andzulis et al. 2012.) Levy (2011) found that there are five steps in strong social media

strategy: define business goals, know your target audience and how they use social media, keep

an eye of the competitors, keep track of market events and set milestones to track the progress.

Salespeople must set clear objectives to the use of social media so that resources and processes

of the organization are used in an effective way. Using social media without clear outlines or

achievable goals may even produce sales productivity losses. (Agnihotri et al. 2012.) When

implementing social media usage into company’s strategy it has to be dynamic process and it

requires significant commitment and continuous observation (Andzulis et al. 2012). There was

no same strategy for social selling in case companies. The findinds of this study bring new

insights to social selling strategy. The companies who have strategy for social selling, found

that it is important that the company is not only advertising the company or its products but

rather gain awareness by other means. And the most important matter to remember in social

selling strategy is that company should be there to help the customers and provide free

information rather than only sell their product because this will lead to the awareness and

visibility of the company which will bring more customers. The salespeople who showed

bravely their personality in their content in social media and provided content which is personal

and has humor usually got the most visibility in social media. Furthermore, it was found

significantly important in social selling strategy that company should make sure that the

contacting the company is extremely easy for the customers because when the customer is the

one who is contacting, he/she has a different kind of mindset for buying in a positive way.

5.2 Managerial implications

Several recommendations can be drawn from empirical findings of this study to increase the

understanding of social selling and how the company can benefit from it in B2B sales process

74

and how the risks in it can be managed. The implications in this section are based on the

empirical findings and theoretical knowledge. Even though the study did not strive to

generalize, the findings of this study give references that social selling can be used regardless

of the industry or size of the company.

Social selling can be used in every step of the B2B sales process but most commonly it is used

at the beginning and end of the sales process because there the most significant benefits can be

seen. Social selling needs encourage and personal way of communication in social media to

succeed. When the content the salesperson or company posts is imaginative, they are able to

increase the visibility and awareness of themselves and the products or services the company

is providing. 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

competitive advantage for the company. In addition, companies and individual salespeople

should provide content that is truly helpful for the customer and provide for example a link

amongside of this content where the customer is able to set a meeting or a phone call with the

company withouth any strings attached. This signals that the company wants to help its potential

customers and current ones and does not only seek to take their money. Furhermore, when the

customer is the one who is contacting the company, he/she has a different mindset for the

buying which is the reason that company should make the contacting of it easy and effortless

in every social media platform to gain customers.

In addition, to succeed in social selling and the company be able to avoid the risks in it, it should

have a clear social selling strategy that it is implemented to company’s overall sales strategy.

Clear objectives should be defined that what the company wants to achieve with social selling

so the resources of the company are not wasted. After defining the objectives, the strategy to

the social selling has to be created so that the messages communicated and posted in social

media by the salespeople are coherent and lined with the determined strategy. There can be

different social selling strategies for different companies and they have to create the strategy

that is suitable for the specific company considering their expectations and clients’ needs. But

it should be remembered that in social selling, the best practice can be done by not only

marketing the company and its products but by posting other contents to achieve visibility for

the company. Next, the strategy has to be implemented and communicated to the employees. If

the strategy planning is done together with the employees, the strategy is also easier to

implement to the company. Finally, the strategy has to be monitored and corrected if necessary.

75

Managers should encourage salespeople to use social media in their sales processes because

especially older generations can be reluctant to use social media in their sales. In addition, the

marketing and sales department should collaborate to gain the best results.

Salespeople should be trained to use social selling that they know what is the best way to do

social selling and that it is coherent with the company’s objectives. When the salespeople know

what they should do and how, they are more eager to use it in their sales process and they are

able to succeed in it. In addition, training is needed that salespeople are able to manage with

the pressure social media brings because due to social selling, salesperson is basically

connected to social media 24 hours per day which blurs the line between a work and a spare

time which could affect to coping of the salesperson.

Even though social selling brings significant benefits to B2B sales, companies should not forget

the traditional ways of selling that have worked already in the past. In addition, there should be

eye for the game that when the social selling is the best way option considering the customer

and current situation with that customer. Social selling is an amazing tool in B2B sales process

but it is not a shortcut to happiness. When remembering these, companies can gain significant

benefits from social selling in B2B sales.

5.3 Limitations and future research

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

76

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.

77

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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

b. Instagram

c. LinkedIn

d. Twitter

e. Youtube

f. What else

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?

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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?