Leveraging Social Media in the World of Sales: An Untapped Potential

Abstract

With the explosive growth in the use of social networking and media comes the consideration for the use in firms in general, and salespeople in particular. Firms are uncertain about the fit between social media tools and their overall sales strategy. Social networking skills are becoming essential for personal branding, corporate and product branding. This article attempts to address this issue, by developing a theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms through which salespeople's use of social media operates to create and deliver value, and propose a strategic approach to social media use in sales call. The proposed framework describes how social media tools can be leveraged by salespeople to perform, and lead to value creation.

Headnote

Abstract

With the explosive growth in the use of social networking and media comes the consideration for the use in firms in general, and salespeople in particular. Firms are uncertain about the fit between social media tools and their overall sales strategy. Social networking skills are becoming essential for personal branding, corporate and product branding. The paper attempts to address this issue by developing a theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms through which salespeople's use of social media operates to create and deliver value, and propose a strategic approach to social media use in sales call. The proposed framework describes how social media tools can be leveraged by salespeople to perform and lead to value creation.

KeywordsKeywordsKeywords Keywords KeywordsKeywords

Social Media, Sales Call, Sales Performance.

1. Introduction

The arrival of social media has impacted everyone's life. Customers are swiftly adopting social networking sites for downloading applications for smartphones and computer tablets to enrich their social lives, engaging in micro-blogging and encourage sharing and communication with friends and family. Besides simply using social media for posting status updates, sharing pictures and updating check-in, customers and members of society in overall have found that social media applications can really empower them when considering the flow of information. This is essentially important considering that it has been assessed that a week's worth of reading the New York Times covers more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 1800s [1].

However organizations have been sluggish to adopt these technologies but are rapidly seeing the potential value in their use.

Seeing the power of social media applications at the customer level, many firm have incorporated the ability of these tools to spread their message. Among the various functional areas of firms that have witnessed the potential effect of social media, the sales function is the one that has intensely transformed by these technological innovations. Fundamentally all aspects of sales management could be inherently affected by these technologies. Significantly, social media is not limited to technologies available for public use (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Google+) but also includes network tools and internal social media being offered by companies such as Salesforce.com. Still there has been little research on the role of social media and its influence on sales management practices or the selling process. Reviewing the above, the purpose of this paper is to provide a contextual of social media and its role in an organizational structure. Precisely, in context to the marketing-sales interface, we explore whether social media should be incorporated in the marketing or sales department and the virtual strengths and weaknesses associated with it. We examine various stages in the sales process and how social media may influence the behaviours of a salesperson or customer in that stage. We conclude with implications for sales managers and salespeople on how to look forward for social media acceptance in order to gain a competitive advantage.

2. Evolution of Internet Technologies

In the initial days of the Internet, companies disagreed as they required determining exactly what was meant by an Internet presence. Both organizations and researchers advanced through many stages of to be define Internet adoption life cycle. There were various strategies and tactics adopted by the company to define not only how the Internet would change their interaction with customers, but how they would see it to transform their sales processes [3]. Companies that invested heavily in internet technology to join the so called mantra of -the new way of doing business" have sometimes either ignored their consumers or the practice of sound business principles with cautious attitude toward the balance sheet. Earlier only information based web sites were there, with the aim of driving business to existing sales channels partners. Some companies believed that having presence on Internet is an unfruitful attempt. Other companies realised the potential of the Internet and worked to accompaniment their present sales channels by using the Internet to interact with their clienteles, perhaps even allowing orders, and accepting payments. This was the start of the -bricks-and-clicks" revolution. Some companies completely abandoned the traditional sales channels and went -all in" on an e-commerce approach and this happened in all industries and sector of the economy, and winners and losers quickly emerged in each case [4]. In the same way, companies today are struggling with how to implement social media into their business strategy.

3. Evolution of Sales Empowering Technologies

Over the past 30 years, the evolution of communications technologies has had a direct impact on how businesses manage their sales channels. 30 years ago, sales activities were carried out largely thru person-to-person interactions. To empower such interaction, businesses needed little more than telephones and fax machines. The arrival of e-mail, social networking technologies and, more lately, mobile communities has steadily widened businesses' options when it comes to engaging their customers. The most recent technical developments have also transformed the context in which sales occur. Traditional boundaries are no more present. From an organizational viewpoint, sales departments now work hand in hand with marketing, R&D and customer service to better understand customers' desires. In this new sales regime, many more employees become -touch points" to the marketplace. From a consumer viewpoint, decision-making has become a similarly collaborative exercise. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and innumerable blogs allow individuals' networks of friends to interfere in on purchasing decisions and brand preferences. Easily available product reviews and recommendations are important factors of purchasing behaviors.

Definitions of Social Media

While some authors define social media as the medium by which companies now communicate with their customers, others might choose to describe it as a mechanism for personal or individual interaction. Social media is defined differently for different customers and companies. It does not look for to replace telephone, e-mail communication or transactions. Instead it looks for to pair them or enhance the value of each interaction with the customer. Social media was defined by Marketo [5] in The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media as -the production, consumption and exchange of information through online social interactions and platforms." Similarly, Greenberg [6], without defining social media directly, claimed that all customers are now -social customers" and every interaction is part of a new collaboration between company and customer: a vital part of customer relationship management. Ploof [7] defines that social media simply -create opportunities for companies to tell their own stories." The bottom line remains the same, desire by companies to amplify the sales experience and improve relationships with their customers. We view engagement of, and collaboration with, customers as the principal building blocks of social media. Social media, then, can be defined as -the technological constituent of the communication, transaction and relationship building roles of a business which leverages the network of customers and prospects to endorse customer value." Social media, at each step of the sales process, entails a strategy and a framework for implementation and transformation as it progress with the customer.

Sales Interface with Social Media

Available practitioner articles on social media may have however not finalized best practice, but they do agree on several points. First, it's important. Secondly, -the balance of power has moved, inexorably and forever, from the company to the customer" [8]. (Baer 2010). And, lastly, it requires commitment, resources, and seamless integration with all elements of the organization and its overall strategy. Implementation of social media is not just about selecting a few of strategies that everyone else appears to be doing. Although implementation of social media is not expensive still it requires research to identify which tactics make business sense for the industry and organization. Social media involves collaboration outside and inside the company, which means that corporation between sales and marketing, is supreme. Since sales and marketing are regarded as two profit centres within an organizational framework [9], it is vital that the two business units be flawlessly integrated. Many researchers [10, 11, 12] have given the idea of integration of sales function to be involved in marketing strategy discussions and functions to create, deliver superior customer value, but it is often not put into practice This negligence can lead to let-down of both the strategy and the sales force due to lack of understanding by both units, or misalignment with genuine business practice [13]. A firm must decide the suitable goals associated with the social media implementation. It needs to recognize and understand the value proposition for the customer also along with the firm. Reiterating, social media is about engagement and collaboration. Customers need to perceive value from the social media effort. It is been said, a savvy sales or marketing organization will expected have some knowledge of what present and potential customers want and will want from their relationships in the future. If organizations do not understand what customers' demands, they will need to procure this understanding. Some practitioners would call it a -social audit" [14]. Establishing a presence on social media that does not attract customers or deliver added value is a full waste of resources and a lost opportunity to integrate and collaborate. A company would not just allow any employee to speak on behalf of the company, instead building a communications team; similarly social media must be managed as a joint communication effort from both sales and marketing. Social media demands a strong strategy, and not just a collection of disorganized practitioner strategies. Customers now demand more, and will command on which approaches are mandatory, indeed setting the minimum acceptable bar going forward. Social media's role and application at each step of the sales call must always be done with a keen eye and ear on the customer. Social media allows a company to meet all of these needs and more. As stated earlier, social media cannot be a disjointed, or non-integrated, approach employed by one department of the business with no input from other departments of the firm. Social media will change the way business is done and require functional and departmental collaboration because, for all purposes, it may likely become the most customer-facing part of a business. Customers will demand satisfaction, service, and problem resolution in regard to countless issues from this one new point of contact. If the customers get what they look for, they will become advocates and share their positive experiences in that forum. However, if they do not proper resolution, they may use the same social media or others to damage the brand. Evidently, the implication of social media is vital to the health and reputation of the firm. Social media has the potential to make or break a brand. Thus, social media requires not only the unanimous efforts from all parts of an organization but a real-time commitment of resources to continue to the engagement, collaboration, and brand development efforts. Social media should be -owned" by the departments of the firm that understands its customer best; sales and marketing. Though, while some of the activities in relation to social media usage are specific to marketing (e.g., brand building, market research and advertising messages), others are specific to sales (e.g., customer relationship management and other boundary-spanner roles). Therefore, an integrative ownership structure that allows marketing or sales to own only those facets of social media that are directly related to their function's responsibility is acceptable. This approach is in line with prior literature signifying that sales and marketing perform different activities over different crucial issues [15]. Corporate communications and public relations departments also have established relationships, knowledge, analytics and expertise in customer interaction and customer communications, so their roles are also vital and should be formalized. The ownership structure of social media is a complex issue. The things that are clear is the adoption, implementation, and integration will require devoted human resources and management to be assigned to the effort and, in the time of a crisis, the potential for 24/7 real-time interaction.

Measure of Social Media Success

Keeping in mind that social media is about engagement and collaboration, most practitioners agree that traditional metrics and tools used to measure the impact need to be redefined [16]. The key here again is to understand the customer and the value proposition. Questions those are important for determining the proper measures of success include the following: (a) What does a customer get from the equation? (b) Will the customer's positive opinion about the firm increase or decrease from the social media presence? (c) Does the customer stand for the brand? Metrics must be tailored to produce actionable data for use in decision making related to the social media effort. Risks and challenges associated with the social media adoption will be similar to any change to corporate culture, especially the all too common silo mentality that exists in many organizations [17]. The prime role of the chief executive of the organization that will implement the social media function, is to adequately include members of every functional unit in the firm from the beginning and to be sure to communicate exactly what is being developed (and why) throughout the organization as the progress is done. When employees understand that their survival are not at risk and that social media is the key strategy that can unite the organization going forward and that integration inside and outside the company will be necessary, they will better understand and appreciate the flexibility and benefits that social media has the potential to bring to the organization. An additional benefit of social media is its ability to allow an organization to be much more agile in its responsiveness to customers and the market. Agility in the market place usually means sales and more sales means higher revenue and hopefully greater profits. In fact the most disconnected employee would appreciate that any effort that add to the company's bottom line has the potential to affect the individual's compensation.

Strategy and Social Media

Typical strategies related to relationship, product/service, customer, and price are not mutually exclusive. Social media has the potential to affect each of the strategies in different ways at different times, but they are all related to enhanced engagement with the customer. Looking at the relationship strategy, one thing is universal that it is built on trust. Social media boosts the value proposition in this context by offering an open forum for customers to be heard. Listening is a principal component in building trust with a customer. Customers want to be listened, understood and appreciated. Social media at its core promotes and encourages listening. Social media, when properly adopted means relationship. Similarly, the product/service strategy is a beneficiary of the social media push because customers are now in direct interaction with the organization when it comes to issues related to what they purchase. The customer can provide immediate feedback to the organizations on current products or services and even propose new ones thru forums such as My Starbucks Idea [6], which can be directly routed to the research and new product development group. Now in real time, the customer and organization may collaborate to identify which products and services the market demands, how they can be further improved, and when the change expected. The customer (communication/knowledge) strategy also benefits from social media in a similar fashion. Now the sales professional supplement the sales call with real-time feedback from other customers, competitors, and even experts who meet virtually to discuss them in various social media forums. Social media is the mechanism by which re-intermediation [18] begins to take place. As decade back, the disintermediation brought on by the Internet as customers started to remove the relationship from the sales call. Social media have permanently changed the process by which customers choose to learn about what an organization offers. Lastly, with regard to price strategy, many practitioner articles discuss to the case of Dell Computers and its successful implementation of deal and discounts it offers through Twitter and other social media. Similarly, many organizations now use social media to reward customers for loyalty, offering them, discounts, coupons and other benefits for becoming their fans, for providing critical information to the company or even for simply updating the status -check in" when they visit. If done properly and with strategic intent, social media has the power to directly impact the front line by allowing a company to be more responsive to the demands of the customers than its competitors and again, agility and responsiveness means sales.

4. Incorporation of Social Media into Sales Call

The past few years have seen a fundamental shifttoward user-driven technologies such as blogs, social networks, and video-sharing platforms [19]. These social networking technologies have empowered a revolution in user-generated content, global community, and the publishing of customer opinion that is now flourishing into the sales domain. The ability to leverage the different configurations of personal and work-related networks has now become supreme [20]. No matter how an organization views the sales funnel, we claim that social media has the potential to intensely affect every step in the process to better leverage a salesperson's network. It is understandable that a salesperson's job changes over the course of a sales interaction, as each phase requiring a specific set of skills and abilities. Each stage in the sales cycle, each tactic, and each strategic plan has the potential to be affected by the organization's implementation of a social media presence or strategy [21, p.1047]. We believe that every step of the sales call now has a role to play in social media. Below, we provide the framework of implications for each stage in the sales call. To gain enhanced understanding of the potential influence of social media technologies, we casually interviewed a group of 8 salespeople and sales managers from various industries. Among the questions we asked, one question was: -At which stage of the sales call can social media have the utmost effect?" Interestingly, all the respondents have the same answer -lead generation" and -prospecting" (understanding the customer). As they respondent on the sales process, they presented their experience on how social media could influence every step. With this thought in mind, it is tough to identify any specific step as the most important when considering social media, but we believe, as stated by Fisher [22], -[U]sing social media encourages open communication and conversation. . . . Through the combined use of data analytics and social influence methodologies, it's possible to engage and change consumer perception to increase your brand awareness."

Understanding the Customer

Understanding the customer is the first step of the sales call, wherein a salesperson will do a proper research on an account before any interaction with the customer. The main accountabilities in understanding the customer is to collect knowledge, generate leads through prospecting, determine communication mode, and calculate potential perceived risks in the buying situation. A salesperson should be aware of some basic information and knowledge of the company they are calling on. We strongly believe that the use of social media can help to expedite this process. Success at this stage, depends on the salesperson, how he or she acquire accurate and timely information about opportunities from contacts in the marketplace [20]. It is important to keep in mind that social media offer a two-way communication. By simply joining and participating in social networking sites, salespersons can easily access and view prospect' information as easily as a prospect can view theirs. With this view in mind, it is logical why salespeople and managers would view social media as a successful tool for lead generation. Salesperson should keep in mind that collecting contact information is only the first step in an effective sales call.

The best sales professionals are gathering update news and other relevant information about prospects and companies by looking at social networking sites for the competitive intelligence needed to drive the conversation [23]. This step of the sales call is directly link between social media and listening. Organizations have now developed the ability to -listen" to customers by simply monitoring the questions, concerns, and experiences shared by other existing customers that are present in the various social media forums. Companies are now playing an active role in the conversation where they may be able to add value, or they may gather real-time user feedback to share with the concern departments of their organizations to better tailor products and marketing campaigns to meet the present and future needs of their consumers. Understanding the customer leads directly into making the next step of the sales call; the approach.

Approach

The early approach to the customer gives an opportunity for salespeople to build relationship, gain the prospect's undivided attention, and introduce themselves while establishing credibility. To assist sales teams integrate social media information into the CRM process and software, Clara Shih of Salesforce.com developed an application called -Faceconnector." If prospects or potential business partners agree to these online relationships it becomes easier to identify shared interests and keep relationships progressing. For example, if a sales professional attends any business networking event and introduce himself to someone that could become a potential business partner, the sales professional can send an invitation on Facebook or LinkedIn. Now that salesperson will have access to information about that person, his shared contacts, and perhaps even his or her birthday, which will get transferred into the company's CRM software. This may initiate a meeting or conversation with much more familiar and positive experience. Similarly, there are almost unlimited ways to approach the customer and build rapport in person, there are as many, if not more, ways to do the same thing virtually via social media. The one big advantage is that the contact can be as passive or as active as the customer or business seems appropriate. Social media aids a firm to build trust in a non-indiscreet way, by meeting the small-small needs that a customer might express in a timely manner, without the awareness of a hard sell. Responding to comments or encouraging discussion through online polls allows the customer to join the discussion as necessary, but also help the company tobuild its reputation for receptiveness and caring; essentially to strengthen its reputation and brand.

Understanding Customers Need

Once the salesperson has successfully initiated the sales interaction, he or she needs to find the specific needs and wants of the prospect through effective probing, must listen attentively to the responses to identify latent needs. Effective social media may help to shrink the amount of questioning required to understand the specific needs of a customer. Though many salespersons understand that quality, price, durability, and service are always chief concerns across customers but there are other chief concerns as well. Social media enables customers or prospects to post their concerns or questions to a salesperson, thereby reducing similar concerns or query of future customers. This step of the sales funnel, when combined with social media, allows for collective learning. In many cases, customers will learn not only their real needs, but also get the answers to questions they did not even know they might have. This interaction with other customers and sales create a more enlightened buyer-seller relationship. Social media accelerates and improves the process in many ways that were only possible with countless phone calls and inquiries years ago.

Exhibition

After understanding the needs and wants, the salesperson comes up with a solution for the prospect. Success at this stage depends on the salesperson's ability to identify where the constituents of the solution exist in his or her own organization; as well as in his or her skill at mobilizing and organizing these resources. The boom of social media and user-generated content, mainly over the past few years, has really transformed the exhibition step of the sales process. In the exhibition stage, the salesperson should also establish the specific value propositions using visual aid and by confirming the prospect understanding. Prospects can also ask questions, within or outside their social networks, to collect product or service information, and anyone can answer these queries: not just the -experts," or salesperson. This create the necessity for the salespeople and marketers to take proactive approach regarding the monitoring of social media sites where prospects can and will share information. When prospects begin to gather information from outside of the salesperson's direct reach, it would seem that social media has the prospective of lengthen marketing cycles but shorten sales cycles, which eventually allows for higher-value conversations. With the help of social media, both salespeople and customers now take an active role in shaping the suitable solution and developing new sales drivers and value propositions, at times referred to as -customer co-creation of value." Consumer product strategy professionals gradually recognize the value of social co-creation engagements in including the customer directly in the product and information development process [23]. In some cases social media, offers the best channel for educating the consumer on products or services. As social media improves engagement and collaboration, the exhibition process becomes much improvised and its contents become the shared work of both, the customer and salesperson.

Close

Every sales call needs a sale or a close. Before asking the prospect for the sale, the salesperson need to clear any remaining objections, should confirm the terms of the sale, and also negotiate on any remaining details. If all the steps in the sales process are efficiently completed, there is a greater probability to convert a prospect to a customer and close the sale. Thus, if social media boot a salesperson's capability to engage in each particular step, it follows that social media will also facilitate the close. There are two precise ways that social media can help with closing the sale (a) through preventing objections and (b) in providing testimonials. Closing the deal might require the salesperson to use the contacts from prior sales to act as references. Social media platforms are a fool-proof method by which one can gather these testimonials and post them for public use. Even more valuable is the fact that these testimonials come directly from the satisfied customer and are not second-hand information provided by the salesperson. Secondly, the organizations can create a public forum for questions and answers; this will possibly help in preventing or anticipating common objections that may arise during a sales call. In fact, social media has that ability to abridge or expedite the close by adding value to earlier stages of the sales funnel. Closing the sale can be less complex when the customer is well informed and collaborates on the product, service and value proposition.

After Sales Follow-Up

The after sales follow-up and customer service are the most ignored pieces of a successful sales process, and this is a place where social media can be extremely useful-specifically the two-way communication which is possible by social media applications. In context to after sales follow-up, the salesperson needs to give emphasis to communication, to gain referrals for future sales, and discover other sales opportunities like cross-selling and up-selling. Organizations can create online forms for current customers to initiate service requests and for prompt correspondence. Organizations can also use social networking forums or groups to keep customers informed of events and innovations and encourage teamwork and collaboration. Firms should also develop inter organizational social media applications to connect internally with other members of the sales organization to determine the best possible solutions for service requests and to determine how to get maximum leverage out of current relationships. Social media should also be used to ask for referrals, communicate success stories, track customer activities; data mine for prospects, and interact or share information with customers to be proactive on customer service needs.

5. Implications and Conclusions

The goal of this paper was to present a broad overview of social media, how firms can fill their sales funnel and the role of social media in the sales process. Because this topic is comparatively new, there are numerous avenues to proceed with future research. Our approach was to explore what we believe to be the more significant and influential areas of social media. With this insight, we believe there are some serious take-away. Companies would be patient enough to listen to their customers, and at times, even competitors, and to begin exploring what a social media presence can do for their industry. It is all about engagement with the customers. It is about building a strong brand. And finally, it is about implementation a new, more responsive way of doing business. It does not have to be troublesome to company culture; it can be successfully implemented and made to be fun or exciting as this new channel evolves. Though social media will most positively be transformative in the years to come, but the essential thing is that the social media success story has yet to be written. The future of social media in marketing and sales hinges on both the customer and the firm. One area of research could be to include the typologies of social media, or the differences in their applications in business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) environments. There are clear differences between types of social media and the roles that each of them plays in different selling environment; it was beyond the scope of this paper to expose those issues. As discussed by Kaplan and Haenlein [24], there are other several categories of social media applications, all of which may have their unique functionalities that may impact the sales process in differing manners. Combination of these categories with the exclusive needs in B2B and B2C sales situations provides plenty of opportunity for future investigation in this field. There are also several areas for additional research that were exposed in writing this paper, including the role of technology, security/privacy concerns, corporate culture and pricing, just to name a few. We are confident that this paper opens the avenues for future research.

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