Industrial Marketing Management, volume 75, pages 31–36, November 2018 (accepted 21 March 2018)
- Target and position article
- Literature review
- Research agenda
- B2B
Free full text: the authors’ accepted manuscript, identical in content to the published article. Please cite the published version.
- social media
- B2B
- value creation
- sales
- business-to-business marketing
- B2B social media marketing
- social selling
- personal selling
- sales process
- salespeople's social media use
- buyer–seller relationships
- customer satisfaction
- B2B customer engagement
- industrial marketing
- LinkedIn for sales
- adaptive selling
- social media adoption
- technology acceptance model
- customer relationship management (CRM)
- return on investment (ROI) of social media
- social media metrics
- competitive intelligence
- digital exclusion
- data privacy and security
- literature review
- research agenda
- commentary
- sales management
- social media policy
- sales technology
Research shows that social media helps B2B sales mainly indirectly, by building relationships rather than closing deals. Reviewing a key study by Agnihotri et al. (2016) and the literature around it, this article sets out five research themes still open: adoption, platform roles, customer engagement, return on investment and risk.
Key findings
- Social media adds value to B2B sales indirectly, through relationships. Reviewing research on social media in business-to-business sales, Nunan et al. (2018) conclude that a consensus has emerged: the value of social media lies mainly in building and maintaining buyer–seller relationships rather than in closing deals directly.
- Customer satisfaction should be measured from the buyer's side. Nunan et al. (2018) argue that Agnihotri et al. (2016) assessed customer satisfaction through salespeople's own perceptions, which may inflate results, and that research should survey B2B buyers to reflect the dyadic nature of buyer–salesperson interaction.
- Research on social media in B2B sales falls into five streams. Nunan et al. (2018) organise the literature into five streams: the value social media creates in sales relationships, the practices that create it, the drivers of adoption by salespeople, why it creates value, and the conditions under which it does, placing Agnihotri et al. (2016) in the fourth.
- Five themes set the research agenda. Nunan et al. (2018) propose five themes for future research on social media in B2B sales: patterns of adoption, the roles of different platforms across the sales process, B2B customer engagement, modelling return on investment, and the risks of social media for sales relationships and firms, with 17 specific research challenges.
- Measuring ROI is hampered by who controls the data. Nunan et al. (2018) note a paradox: social media generates more data than ever, but the platforms control it and offer metrics built for consumer advertising, not the account-level measures B2B sales needs, so researchers fall back on self-reported surveys.
At a glance
- Article type
- Target and position article: a critical commentary on Agnihotri, Dingus, Hu and Krush (2016), Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172–180
- Approach
- Narrative review of research on social media in B2B sales, organised into five research streams
- Output
- A research agenda of five themes and 17 research challenges
- Focus
- Salespeople's and buyers' use of social media within the business-to-business sales process
Figure 1. From what is known to what to study next
Tables
Table 1. Research challenges by theme
| Theme | Research challenges |
|---|---|
| 1. Patterns of social media adoption | Barriers and enablers to salespeople's adoption of social media; models for multi-platform use and its synergistic effect on sales; the impact of legal and regulatory differences (e.g. access restrictions in China); the role of demographic and cultural factors. |
| 2. Role of platforms in the sales process | Integrating personal social media channels with formal sales technology; normative tools for choosing the most effective form of social media at each sales stage; how use and effectiveness differ by transaction size and relationship stage. |
| 3. B2B customer engagement | Conceptualising and measuring B2B customer engagement via social media, with its antecedents and consequences; its role when social media replaces face-to-face interaction; its role when used alongside face-to-face interaction. |
| 4. Modelling the ROI of social media | Metrics for ROI within the practical limits of data on proprietary platforms; accounting for use across devices and platforms; linking engagement metrics (clicks, shares, likes) to financial outcomes. |
| 5. Risks of social media in B2B sales | Fraud risks; risks of personal accounts giving access to sensitive data through hacking, espionage or competitive intelligence; enforceable organisational policies on salespeople's use; wider ethical issues, including public versus private identities and the use of big data. |
Summarised from Section 4 of the article.
The question
Research on social media in business-to-business settings lags far behind consumer research, even though buyers use social media to search, compare and connect with salespeople. Agnihotri et al. (2016) were among the first to show empirically how salespeople's social media use leads to customer satisfaction. We critically appraised their study, placed it within the fast-growing literature on social media in B2B sales, and asked what remains unknown.
Implications
Practical implications
Sales managers should treat social media as a relationship tool rather than a direct sales channel, combine it with CRM systems and face-to-face meetings, and train salespeople in its use. Because adoption is led by employees and customers rather than imposed by the firm, managers need clear and enforceable policies on how salespeople use personal accounts, how information is shared, and how risks such as fraud, data leaks and competitive intelligence gathering are controlled. Firms should also expect to build their own measures of return on investment, since platform metrics are designed for advertising.
Theoretical implications
The article organises research on social media in B2B sales into five streams and identifies gaps in each. It calls for buyer-side and dyadic data rather than salesperson self-reports, and for formal theory, such as the technology acceptance model, the elaboration likelihood model or engagement marketing theory, to explain how information communicated through social media turns into customer satisfaction. It extends consumer engagement to B2B settings, where engagement spans several platforms and depends on groups rather than individuals.
Limitations and future research
- The article is a commentary and review rather than an empirical study; its claims rest on the literature available in early 2018.
- Future research should test the role of social media in B2B sales with data from buyers as well as salespeople, and across countries, platforms and stages of the sales relationship.
- The agenda lists 17 research challenges, from measuring return on investment to the risks of personal social media accounts in sales.
Questions this paper answers
How does social media create value in B2B sales?
Mainly indirectly. Reviewing the research, Nunan et al. (2018) conclude that social media creates value in B2B sales by building and maintaining buyer–seller relationships, for example by helping salespeople communicate faster, respond to customers and adapt their selling, rather than by closing deals directly.
What are the main research gaps on social media in B2B sales?
Nunan et al. (2018) identify five themes: patterns of adoption by salespeople and buyers, the roles of different platforms across the sales process, B2B customer engagement, modelling the return on investment of social media, and the risks of social media for sales relationships and firms.
Why is the ROI of social media hard to measure in B2B?
Because the platforms control the data and provide metrics built for consumer advertising, while B2B sales needs account-level data that is often unavailable to marketers, so measurement relies on self-reported surveys (Nunan et al., 2018).
What risks does social media bring to B2B sales?
Nunan et al. (2018) point to misinformation, fraud, identity theft, malware and corporate espionage, the difficulty of controlling platforms salespeople adopt on their own, the blurring of personal and business communication, and stress from interruptions.
Key concepts
- Social selling
- Salespeople's use of social media to identify prospects, communicate with buyers and build relationships throughout the sales process.
- Adaptive selling
- A salesperson's ability to change their behaviour to fit the selling situation; social media is argued to strengthen it by improving access to information and communication.
- B2B customer engagement
- Engagement of business customers that, unlike online consumer engagement, spans several platforms and channels and depends on groups rather than single individuals.
- Return on investment (ROI) of social media
- The financial return from social media activity; hard to estimate in B2B sales because the metrics needed are held by platforms.
- Target and position article
- An Industrial Marketing Management format in which authors critically appraise an influential article and set out where the field should go next.
Open science and materials
- Accepted manuscript (PDF) Free full text, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- Published version Industrial Marketing Management (subscription)
- Article discussed Agnihotri, Dingus, Hu & Krush (2016), Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172–180
How to cite
Nunan, D., Sibai, O., Schivinski, B., & Christodoulides, G. (2018). Reflections on “social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales” and a research agenda. Industrial Marketing Management, 75, 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.03.009