A Review of Social Media and Implications for the Sales Process

James Mick Andzulis, Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos, and Adam Rapp

Technology-based research has a long, storied history in the sales discipline. Beginning with the role of computers to
laptops, moving to the influence of the Internet, onward to customer relationship management and sales force automation applications, and now to the role of social media, sales research is being shuttled into a new technological paradigm.
The purpose of this paper is to review the role of social media in the sales force and the sales process. We begin the paper
by providing definitions of social media and reviewing the role and importance of social media in business. An analogy
between the rise of Internet usage in the sales force and the advent of social media is presented and discussed. Next, we
discuss the challenges of social media in the sales and marketing interface and review four different business strategies
to determine who owns social media within an organization. We continue with a discussion of the different stages in
the sales process and offer ways in which social media influences each individual step, thereby outlining future research
opportunities.

With the advent of social media, consumers are rapidly adopting social networking sites, engaging in micro-blogging, and
downloading applications for smartphones and computer
tablets to enhance their social lives and promote sharing and
communication with friends and family. Beyond simply using
social media technology for updating pictures and posting
status updates, consumers and members of society in general have found that social media applications can actually
empower them when considering the flow of information.
This is substantively important considering that it has been
estimated that a weeks worth of reading the New York Times
contains more information than a person was likely to come
across in a lifetime in the 1800s (Richardson 2010).
At the organizational level, however, firms have been
slower to adopt these technologies but are quickly seeing the
potential value in their use. Witnessing the power of social
media applications at the consumer level, many marketers have
embraced the ability of these tools to spread their message.
For example, Ford Motor Company recently employed social
media to promote the release of their new model Ford Focus.
We selected 40 Social Media practitioners and gave them

James Mick Andzulis (MBA, Villanova University), Ph.D. student, Department of Management and Marketing, University of
Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, jmandzulis@crimson.ua.edu.
Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos (Ph.D., Athens University of Economics and Business), Assistant Professor of Marketing, Department of
Marketing and Communication, Athens University of Economics
and Business, Athens, Greece, npanag@aueb.gr.
Adam Rapp (Ph.D., University of Connecticut), Associate Professor
of Marketing, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, arapp@cba.ua.edu.

each a Focus to test at a test track in Spain, said Paul Venn,

executive vice president of Team Detroit, Fords advertising
agency. The videos were then distributed via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. The feedback from this
marketing approach is positive, given the number of views
and the tenor of comments from videos shot on the test drive
(Levin 2011). Similarly, Business Insider recently reported that
Procter& Gamble said it would lay off 1,600 staffers, including marketers, as part of a cost-cutting exercise in which
chief executive officer (CEO) Robert McDonald planned to
moderate his ad budget because Facebook and Google can
be more efficient than the traditional media that usually eats
the lions share of P&Gs ad budget (Edwards 2012).
Among the functional areas of firms that have witnessed
the potential impact of social media, the sales function has the
potential to be one of the most dramatically changed by these
technological advancements. Virtually all aspects of personal
selling and sales management could be inherently affected by
these technologies. Importantly, social media is not limited to
technologies available for public consumption (e.g., Facebook,
LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Spotify, Google+, Pinterest) but
also includes internal social media and network tools being
offered by companies such as Salesforce.com (i.e., Chatter).
Yet, to date, there has been little research on the role of social
media and its influence on salesperson behavior, the selling
process, or sales management practices.
With the above in mind, the purpose of this paper is to
provide a background of social media and its place in an organizational structure. Specifically, with regard to the marketing
sales interface, we discuss whether social media should be
housed in the marketing or sales department or sales business
unit and the relative strengths and weaknesses associated with
each placement. Our arguments on where a firms social media
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. XXXII, no. 3 (summer 2012), pp. 305316.
2012 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. Permissions: www.copyright.com
ISSN 08853134 (print)/ISSN 15577813 (online)
DOI: 10.2753/PSS0885-3134320302

306 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

function should be housed stem from the different strategies a

firm may embrace. From here, we investigate different stages
in the sales process and how social media may influence the
behaviors of a boundary spanner/salesperson or customer in
that stage. We conclude with implications for sales managers
and salespeople on how to advance social media adoption
in order to gain a competitive advantage. Throughout this
paper, we draw comparisons to the beginning of the Internet
revolution for theoretical grounding.
Background of Internet Evolution
To explore social media, one must first establish an accepted
definition. In the early days of the Internet, companies
wrangled with the same issue as they sought to determine
just exactly what was meant by an Internet presence. Both
firms and researchers progressed through many stages of a
yet-to-be-defined Internet adoption life cycle. There were
different strategies and tactics as each company struggled to
define not only how the Internet could and would change
their interaction with customers, but how they wanted it
to transform their sales processes (How Smart Agents Will
Change Selling 1995). Early adopters often blazed a trail,
but customers would ultimately dictate where the information
super highway would go, not executives or consultants residing
on the corporate side of the customercompany continuum.
Companies that invested heavily to be first fell victim to the
mantra of the new way of doing business and oftentimes
either ignored their primary constituents (customers), or the
prudence of practicing sound business principles with a keen
eye toward the balance sheet. At first, there were information
only Web sites with the aim of driving business to existing
sales channels. Companies believed that having an Internet
presence was a passive endeavor. Other companies saw the
potential of the Internet and worked to complement their existing sales channels by using the Internet to interact with their
customers, perhaps even allowing orders, and later accepting
payments. This was the beginning of the bricks-and-clicks
revolution. Still other companies completely abandoned the
traditional sales channels and went all in on an ecommerce
approach, elevating recently minted Ivy League MBAs above
veteran executives in a hurried attempt to slough off any connection to the old way of doing business. This happened in
every industry and sector of the economy, and winners and
losers quickly emerged in each of the aforementioned strategies (Aspray and Ceruzzi 2008). The one basic element that
links every one of the approaches at its core, however, is that
the customer, be it another business or a consumer, decided
which strategy would succeed and which would fail. In the
same way, companies today are wrestling with how to adopt
social media into their business models and strategy.

Shifting Paradigms
The only thing that is constant is change. It is indisputable
that MySpace created celebrities and altered the entertainment business, from music to movies. However, it was not
until Facebook displaced MySpace and began uniting tens
of millions of people around the world that most industries
recognized the potential for a more intimate relationship
with customers was (perhaps) just a few mouse clicks away.
The same questions about passive versus active presence faced
by business a decade ago are surfacing again as companies
acknowledge the role that Facebook, Twitter, and Chatter,
to name just a few, might play going forward as customers
demand almost instant satisfaction in their relationships and
contact with those with whom they choose to do business.
With increasing customer expectations, customers want a
forum to voice concerns (Marketo 2010). They also want a
mechanism to be rewarded for their loyalty to a brand or business, and demand special offers not available to the general
public or the business down the street. Customers also want
to be educated on the products and services that are offered,
as well as when, why, and how they might be changing.
With the proliferation of social media, it would seem
that the technology has the potential to dramatically influence a business or even an industry as technology did in the
Internet age. It is not simply enough to task a marketing or
sales employee with the job of creating a Facebook page,
tweeting on behalf of the company, or establishing a forum
on Salesforce.com. Social media should not be thought of as
simply another channel, another means by which to interact
with the customer, or another tool by which to manage brand
and firm reputation but, rather, all of those things (and likely
many more) simultaneously.
Internet and Social Media Comparison
If we do not learn from the past, we are forced to repeat it. It is not
difficult to draw analogies between the dawn of the Internet
and the nexus of todays push for social media adoption by big
and small business alike. What is decidedly unclear, however,
is whether the Y2K-age clamor by business to establish any
Internet presence, with the resultant life cycle adoption from
bricks-and-mortar to bricks-and-clicks, begins or simply ends
with a nascent Facebook and Twitter presence as companies
ask fans to like or follow them, or with a transformative
strategy that affects business-to-consumer (B2C) and businessto-business (B2B) commerce at its core. With this in mind,
this paper seeks to advance the collective knowledge base from
a series of disjointed practitioner tactics and guides, to instead
posit a strategy for social media adoption at every step of the
sales process, and to formally suggest who in the company

Summer 2012 307

Figure 1
Process Evolution of Social Media in Sales

rightfully owns social media and its associated implementation across all channels.
We argue that using current social media applications must
be viewed as a living, dynamic process in the firm. It is a strategy that will require substantial commitment and continuous
monitoring. In fact, parallels to the adoption of the Internet by
companies just over a decade ago can easily be drawn. Much
in the same way that companies entered the Internet age with
a simple, one-way (and often just one page) Internet presence
years ago, they must now realize that social media is a tool,
strategy, or way of doing business that will evolve through its
own life cycle that has yet to be written. An individual would
be hard-pressed to find a company that still uses the same
Internet page or adheres to the same Internet or ecommerce
strategy it adopted circa 2000. Although Darwin was able to
propose just a theory of evolution, it is essentially proven fact
when it comes to ecommerce, and adoption of the Internet,
that there is a life cycle through which businesses, big and
small, will all eventually pass. For example, Chris McCann
(2011), president of 1800Flowers.com, recently argued
that social commerce is in fact the fourth wave of business,
the logical next step in the evolution of online and Internet
business. We believe this same process of evolution is also true
within the context of social media itself. Figure1 depicts our
thoughts on how this process might evolve.
The earliest Web sites, as mentioned above, were primarily
informational. They provided little opportunity for two-way
communication, perhaps at best providing a mailing address,
email, or phone number for any further contact that might
be required. They existed because prevailing thought at the
time told firms they must be on the Internet, even if the
business case as to why had yet to be fully made. In the same
way, some companies today will decide that social media
means creating a YouTube channel, or perhaps a LinkedIn or
Facebook page simply for the purpose of having a social media

presence. This simple approach may satisfy some customers,

but it will do little to enhance a firms value proposition. It
will be, essentially, the equivalent of being listed in the white
page section of the Yellow Pages. Customers can find you, but
for answers to questions or for more substantive information
they will eventually demand more.
As Internet adoption increased, firms soon began to replace
informational, single-page Web sites with those that could
accept orders, and eventually even payments (Kaplan and
Haenlein 2010). The analogous social media experience will
likely involve firms establishing blogs or opening up comment
sections and forums to their customers and the public. The
strategy will further evolve as firms attempt to drive customers
and prospective customers to their social media pages, even if
they do not yet have a solid plan for what they expect them
to do once they get there. The customers will eventually and
ultimately define and demand more from the experience, and
the next step in the evolution will be quick to follow.
In the Internet age, brick-and-mortar stores became bricksand-clicks, while still many others moved entirely to (or were
replaced by) Internet-only ecommerce models. Much in the
same way, social media will witness a similar transformation as
some companies will view social media sites as an additional
sales channel, while others will work to promote them as the
primary channel. This may or may not be feasible (only time
and customer demand will tell), but social media will be the
backbone strategy that directs how customer and company
collaborate to co-create value in the sales process.
Finally, modern ecommerce is truly a remarkable thing in
that it has at last progressed to a state where customers not
only transact online, but Web sites learn about customers and
their buying habits to suggest other products or services (e.g.,
Amazon.com), something that was at one time unthinkable
and certainly not foreseeable in terms of strategy (Smith 2009).
Social media may make the same leap much more quickly as

308 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

companies and customers adopt the latest technologies and

demand more from their relationships with each other. Social
media already, in some instances, has the ability to resolve
customer issues in real time, mitigate crises, and provide realtime pricing offers to attract and influence customer purchases,
and this is just the start (e.g., Dell, Foursquare). Ultimately,
it may be the case that Internet ecommerce adoption and
social media are not so much on parallel lines of development
but, rather, just a short distance from intersection as the two
technologies/strategies/approaches become seamlessly intermingled, essentially one and the same.
Definitions of Social Media
Having presented some general background and an overview
of social media, it would be prudent to return to the very important task of actually defining what it is and what it means
to different people. A quick search of academic journals and
practitioner guides will likely yield almost as many different
definitions of the term. While some may seek to narrowly
define social media as the medium by which companies now
communicate with their customers enmasse, others might
choose to characterize it as a mechanism for personal or individual interaction. The truth is that it may in fact be all or
none of those things.
Social media is different for different customers and
companies. It does not seek to replace telephone or email
communication, or even transactions. Instead it seeks to
complement them or augment the value of each interaction
with the customer, existing or future. Social media was defined
by Marketo (2010) in The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media
as the production, consumption and exchange of information
through online social interactions and platforms. Similarly,
Greenberg (2010), without defining social media directly,
argued that all customers are now social customers and every
interaction is part of a new collaboration between company
and customer: a vital part of CRM (customer relationship
management) 2.0. Still others, such as Ploof (2009), insist
that social media simply create opportunities for companies
to tell their own stories. The common thread, as stated earlier,
is the desire by companies to heighten the sales experience
and improve relationships with their customers. With a nod
toward each of the definitions, and many others not detailed
here, we view engagement of, and collaboration with, customers
as the primary building blocks of social media. Social media,
then, can be defined as the technological component of the
communication, transaction and relationship building functions of a business which leverages the network of customers
and prospects to promote value co-creation. As such, social
media must be managed as an explicit strategic activity. It
cannot be left to define itself in a firms relationship with its
lifebloodits customers.

Social media, at every step of the sales process, requires

a strategy and a framework for implementation and transformation as it grows with the customer. Absent that, social
media will likely become another unharnessed element of
strategic drift as countless practitioner tactics are employed
with no clear direction in mind. Make no mistake, we do
not believe that social media should be rigid or inflexible,
but rather that it should be directed at every step, and should
be owned by a core function and executive. The following
paragraphs detail that strategy and make the case for social
media ownership.
Marketing and Sales Interface with Social Media
The dozens of available practitioner articles on social media
may have yet to find agreement on best practice, but they do
agree on several points. First, it is important. Second, the
balance of power has moved, inexorably and forever, from
the company to the customer (Baer 2010). And, last but not
least, it requires commitment, resources, and seamless integration with not just the sales organization and its strategy, but
with all elements of the organization and its overall strategy.
Social media is not just about selecting a handful of tactics
that everyone else appears to be doing, or is talking about
implementing. Rather, social media, although inexpensive to
implement, requires research up front to identify which approaches make sense for the industry, organization, and line of
business, and the commitment to attach the human resources
necessary to support the implementation and continued social
media effort (Lanz 2010). There is no one size fits all, or flip
the switch and forget about it, approach to which a CEO can
simply assign budget. Social media, at its heart, involves collaboration inside and outside the company, which means that
partnership between sales and marketing is paramount.
Considering that sales and marketing are viewed as two
profit centers within an organizational framework (Malshe
and Sohi 2009), it is essential that the two business units be
seamlessly integrated; however, this is not always the case.
Although this view of integration is held by many researchers (Cespedes 1993; Guenzi and Troilo 2007; Homburg,
Workman, and Krohmer 1999; Rouzis et al. 2005; Slater and
Olson 2001), the idea that the sales function be involved in
marketing strategy creation, and that both sales and marketing
functions synchronize their strategic and tactical activities to
create, deliver, and communicate superior customer value, is
often not put into practice. As offered by Malshe and Sohi
(2009) as well as the popular press, it is evident that the sales
unit is often not involved in strategy making (Viswanathan
and Olson 1992) but, rather, is treated as merely the tactical implementer of a strategic plan in which it might have
played only a little role in creating (Kotler, Rackham, and
Krishnaswamy 2006). This disconnect can lead to failure of

Summer 2012 309

both the strategy and the front-line/boundary-spanner sales

force due to lack of understanding by both units, tepid employee buyin, or misalignment with actual business practice
(Donath 2004).
Before a firm can enter the social media arena, it must
determine the appropriate goals associated with the social
media implementation. It needs to identify and understand
the value proposition for the customer, not just the firm.
Again, social media is about engagement and collaboration.
The benefits cannot be unidirectional or one-sided. Customers
need to receive, or at the very least perceive, value from the
social media effort. This will vary by industry, company, and
even customer. That being said, a savvy sales or marketing
organization will likely have some knowledge of what current
and prospective customers want and will want from their relationships in the future. If organizations do not realize what
customers want, they will need to acquire this knowledge,
perhaps through what some practitioners would call a social
audit (Brown 2010). It is this information that will drive, in
part, the initial selection of which types of social media (and
specific platforms) to pursue. Are customers simply looking
for a forum to better understand a product or service? Do they
want to interact with experienced customers to allay their own
fears before making a capital investment? Or, are they perhaps
looking for loyalty rewards for choosing to keep business with
one company over another? These are just a few examples of
the types of questions a company must use to craft its initial
approach to social media. Some firms may need to consider a
simple blog, whereas others may need a Facebook or Twitter
presence. Still others may find the most value in educational
videos posted on YouTube or similar file-sharing forums such
as Flickr. The customer drives this decision. Establishing a
social media presence that does not attract customers or deliver
additional value is a potential waste of resources and a lost
opportunity to connect and collaborate.
In the same way that a company would not simply allow
any employee to speak on behalf of the company, instead
favoring a communications team, social media must be managed as a joint communication from both sales and marketing.
Social media demands a strategy, and not simply an assortment of disjointed practitioner tactics. Companies cannot
choose to simply optin to the easy or convenient elements
of social media. Customers demand more, and will dictate
which approaches are mandatory, indeed ultimately setting
the minimum acceptable bar going forward. Being first for
the sake of being first, or forcing an approach on customers
without listening to their needs would be a costly mistake,
a lesson learned by many now defunct dot-coms and former
brick-and-mortar stalwarts of the Internet age. Social medias
role and implementation at each step of the sales process
must always be determined with a keen eye and ear on the
customer. Social media allows a company to meet all of these

needs and more, but who currently owns this function, and
who should?
After identifying the proper social media for a firms initial
foray into social commerce, it is imperative to include all functions of the business in establishing protocols for how it can
and will be used to facilitate business. As mentioned earlier,
social media cannot be a disjointed, or nonintegrated, tactic
employed by one part of the business with no input from,
or impact on, other elements of the firm. Social media will
change the way business is done and require divisional and
functional collaboration because, for all practical purposes, it
may likely become the most customer-facing part of a business
and, therefore, customers will demand satisfaction, attention,
service, and problem resolution in regard to myriad issues from
this one new point of contact. If they get it, the customers will
become advocates and share their positive experiences in that
forum. However, if they do not, they may use the same social
media or others to damage the brand. Clearly, the implications
of social media are paramount to the health and reputation
of the firm. Social media has the potential to make or break a
brand: to complement or enhance the existing campaigns that
may have preceded social media adoption by decades or even
in some cases, such as Johnson& Johnson, a century or more
(Ploof 2009), or to destroy the brand almost overnight.
Thus, social media will require not only the buyin from
all parts of an organization but a real-time commitment of
resources to continue to foster the engagement, collaboration,
and brand development efforts that it hopes to nurture. In light
of this, there may not always be a clear answer to the question
of which organizational unit should maintain ownership of the
social media function. Social media should be owned by the
functions of the firm that know its customers bestsales and
marketing. However, while some of the activities that relate
to social media usage are specific to marketing (e.g., brand
building, advertising messages, and market research), others
are specific to sales (e.g., relationship management and other
boundary-spanner roles). Accordingly, an integrative ownership structure that enables marketing or sales to own only
those aspects of social media that are directly related to each
functions responsibility is warranted. This approach aligns
with prior literature demonstrating that sales and marketing
perform different activities over different key issues (Homburg, Workman, and Krohmer 1999). However, corporate
communications and public relations departments also have
established relationships, analytics, knowledge, and expertise
in client interaction and consumer communications, so their
roles are also essential and should be formalized. Although the
ownership structure of social media is a complex issue, what
is clear is that the adoption, implementation, and integration
will require dedicated human resources and management to be
assigned to the effort and, in the event of a crisis, the potential
for 24/7 real-time interaction.

310 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Metrics of Social Media Success

The next step in social media implementation is to determine
how the firm will define success for its social media efforts. This
requires measurement, but measurement of what, exactly? Depending on the types of social media that have been adopted,
there will be different metrics and tools used to measure the
impact. Remembering that social media is about engagement
and collaboration, however, most practitioners agree that
traditional metrics will need to be redefined (Hoffman and
Fodor 2010). Success will vary by industry, company, and
customer, but goodwill, brand equity, and trust are the types
of intangibles that will likely keep a customer from becoming someone elses prospect. The key is to again understand
the customer and the value proposition. Questions that are
critical for determining the appropriate measures of success
include the following: What does the customer get from the
equation? Will the customers favorable opinion of a firm
increase or decrease from the social media presence? Does
the customer advocate for the brand? Does the prospect get
the information and positive reinforcement he or she needs
to move forward in the decision to risk capital by building
a relationship with the firm? Metrics must be customized to
yield actionable data for use in decision points related to the
social media effort. If they do not, a firm risks not only damaging the brand but also losing the opportunity to craft and
revise future social media strategy and tactics that enhance the
customer/company relationship.
Risks and challenges to social media adoption will be typical as with any change to corporate culture, especially insofar
as it disrupts the all too common silo mentality that exists in
many organizations (Abhijt 2009). Similarly, if it is perceived
in any way by employees, especially in a depressed economy,
to put any jobs at risk, chances are that substantial pushback
may be present at the outset of developing and implementing
a social media strategy. The role of the chief executive, and
of the marketing/sales organization that will house the social
media function, is to sufficiently 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 efforts progress.
When employees understand that their positions are not at
risk, that social media is the key strategy that can bind the
organization going forward, and that collaboration inside
and outside the company will be necessary, they will come to
better understand and appreciate the flexibility and benefits
that social media has the potential to bring to the firm. They
cannot be pushed to that conclusion, however, they must be
provided with the information and made to feel like a valued
part of the process so that they can come to accept and respect
it on their own terms.

It cannot be understated that an additional benefit of social

media is its ability to allow a firm to be much more agile in
its responsiveness to customers and the market. Agility in
the marketplace typically equals sales, and more sales equals
higher revenue and (hopefully) greater profits. Even the most
disconnected employee should appreciate that any effort to
add to the companys bottom line has the potential to affect
his or her individual compensation.
Strategic Initiatives and Social Media
The agility that social media brings to the equation is not
relegated to just one strategy. In other words, typical strategies
related to relationship, product/service, customer, and finally
price are not mutually exclusive. Social media certainly has
the potential to affect each of these strategies in disparate
ways at different times, but they are all bound by enhanced
engagement with the customer.
Looking first at the relationship strategy, it can be said that
most experts would agree that relationships, both personal and
business, are built on trust. Social media enhances the value
proposition in this regard by offering a forum for customers to
be heard. This, too, cannot be understated. Listening is a primary component in building trust with a customer. Customers
want to be heard, understood, and appreciated. Social media
not only allows that to happen, but at its core, it promotes and
encourages listening. Social media, when properly adopted,
makes the concept of transactional marketing obsolete. By
definition, there is now a relationship.
Similarly, the product/service strategy is a beneficiary of the
social media push because customers are now provided with
one more mechanism, or channel (perhaps the most responsive), for direct interaction with the firm when it comes to
issues related to what they purchase. The customer can often
provide immediate feedback to the company based on current
products or services, or even propose new ones via forums
such as My Starbucks Idea (Greenberg 2010), which can be
routed directly to the research and development (R&D) or
new product development group. In real time, the customer
and company may now collaborate to identify what products
and services the market demands, how they can be improved,
and when they are expected. Social media will not replace
focus groups; however, the potential impact on the sales
process is clear.
The customer (communication/knowledge) strategy benefits
from social media in a similar fashion. In the past, a sales representative might have been tasked with educating a customer
on the merits (and drawbacks) of a product, process, service,
or strategy, whereas now the salesperson may supplement the
sales process with real-time feedback from other customers,
competitors, and experts who meet virtually to discuss them

Summer 2012 311

in various social media forums. Similarly, some firms, such as

Johnson& Johnson, have crafted educational videos to share
via YouTube channels and the like to guarantee that customers are intimately familiar with their products or potentially
relevant health issues and concerns (Ploof 2009). Again, the
communication may be bolstered by social media comment
threads of others who share similar experiences. Social media, perhaps, is the mechanism by which re-intermediation
(Ahearne and Rapp 2010) begins to take place, reversing a
decade of disintermediation brought on by the Internet as
customers began to remove the relationship from the sales
process. The implication is clear, however. Social media may
have permanently changed the method by which customers
prefer to learn about what a firm offers.
Finally, with regard to price strategy, numerous practitioner
articles refer to the case of Dell and its successful implementation of discounts and deals it offers through Twitter and other
social media. Similarly, many firms now use social media such
as Facebook or Foursquare to reward customers for loyalty, offering them coupons and other benefits for formally becoming
fans, for providing information to the company, or even for
simply checking in when they visit. Social media is a catalyst
for this process and, again in a real-time fashion, the firm now
has the ability to experiment with its pricing initiatives in an
effort to provide value to its customers. Done properly, and
with strategic intent, social media has the potential to directly
impact the bottom line by allowing a company to be more
responsive to the demands of the market than its competitors
and, again, agility and responsiveness equal sales.
Social Media and the Selling Process
As discussed above, the past few years have been witness to
a fundamental shift toward user-driven technologies such as
blogs, social networks, and video-sharing platforms (Smith
2009). Collectively, these social networking technologies
have enabled a revolution in user-generated content, global
community, and the publishing of consumer opinion that is
now proliferating into the sales domain. As anyone in sales
can attest to the value of his or her social network, the ability to leverage the different configurations of personal and
work-related networks has now become paramount (stner
and Godes 2006). No matter how an organization views the
sales process or sales funnel, we argue that social media has
the potential to dramatically affect every step in the process
to better leverage a salespersons network.
It is evident that a salespersons job changes over the course
of a sales interaction, with each phase requiring a particular
set of skills and abilities. Every stage in the sales cycle, every
tactic, and every strategic plan has the potential to be affected
by the organizations adoption of a social media presence or

strategy (Avlonitis and Panagopoulos 2010, p. 1047). We

believe a case can be made that every step of the sales process
(understanding the customer, approach, needs discovery,
presentation, close, and followup) now has a role to play in
social media. Below, we briefly outline the implications for
each stage in the selling process and detail what types of social
media may be influential (see also Table1).
To gain a better understanding of the potential influence
of social media technology(ies), we informally interviewed
a group of 12 salespeople and sales managers from various
industries. Among the questions we asked was: At which
stage of the sales process can social media have the greatest
effect? Interestingly, all the respondents quickly answered
lead generation and prospecting (understanding the customer), but then as they reflected on the sales process, they
presented a case for how social media could influence every
step. With this in mind, it is difficult to identify any specific
step as the single most important when considering social
media, but we believe, as stated by Fisher (2011), [U]sing
social media encourages open communication and conversation.... Through the combined use of data analytics and social
influence methodologies, its 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 process, wherein a salesperson will research an account prior to
an interaction. The primary responsibilities in this first step
are to gather knowledge, generate leads through prospecting,
determine communication styles, and calculate potential
buying risks in the buying situation. A salesperson needs an
outline and some general knowledge of the company they are
calling on. We believe that the use of social media can help
facilitate this process.
Success at the first stage, for instance, depends on the
salesperson acquiring precise and timely information about
opportunities from contacts in the marketplace (stner
and Godes 2006). It is important to keep in mind that social
media offer a two-way street. By joining and participating in
social networking sites, salespeople can access and view others
information as easily as a prospect can view theirs. With that
in mind, it is understandable why salespeople and managers
would view social media as a tool for lead generation.
It is important to keep in mind that gathering contact information is only the first step in an effective sales process. Perhaps
the most valuable customer intelligence comes from beyond the
contact data and is provided in the other relevant information
that the contacts choose to provide. Popular press articles suggest that the best sales professionals are gathering recent news
and relevant information about prospects and companies by

312 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Table 1
Potential Role of Social Media in the Sales Process
Step in the Sales Process/
Behaviors

Role of Social Media

Understanding the Customer

1/2/4

Knowledge gathering

Creating/joining/participating in field-specific LinkedIn groups.

Prospecting

Monitoring comments to understand how message is perceived, or what

other information is wanted (Johnson & Johnson).

Lead generation

Company product blogs with active comment monitoring and question

feedback. Allowing open membership to generate future client list.

Determining communication styles

Establishing a Twitter presence.

Identifying risks/buying situation

Monitoring comments to understand attitudes toward purchasing and buying

preferences.

Approaching the Customer

Posting news stories on Facebook.

Establishing credibility

Facebook promotions inviting participation in new product testing (ChickfilA), or sharing stories about community involvement and fun activities
that build brand.

Gaining attention

LinkedIn surveys and polls to generate industry discussion about relevant

topics.

Rapport building

Tweeting about conferences/results/innovation.

Needs Discovery

Tweeting to solicit customer/competitor feedback.

Questioning

Creating an app to solicit customer product and service ideas (My Starbucks
Idea).

Listening

Generating blog posts designed specifically to ignite conversation or debate.

Understanding motives

Asking Facebook fans to vote in polls or comment on proposed changes to

products, services, or logos.

Presentation

Chatter to collaborate with customers on proposals and campaigns.

Demonstrating value propositions

Sharing success stories via Facebook.

Prescribing a solution

YouTube channel to provide information to customers.

Using visual aids/demonstrations

Tweeting about price specials, coupons, loyalty rewards, or contests.

Close

Facebook or Twitter to drive clients to sales channels. Chatter to work oneon-one to resolve deal inhibitors. Blogs or LinkedIn to address issues raised
by competitors or unhappy clients.

Asking for the sale

Tweets to VIP clientele to sell special concert or sports event seating.

Overcoming objections

Sharing success stories via LinkedIn or Facebook posts.

Negotiation

Blogs to address issues raised about products or services. Facebook posts to

ask for donations.

Service and Follow-Up

Social Media
Categories*

Following customers on Twitter. Mining their fans and followers for

prospects.

Communication

Tweets to announce sales goals, product success, new products. Facebook

promotions and rewards for referring friends or asking them to like/follow
your posts.

Gaining referrals

LinkedIn and Facebook to ask for referrals.

Determining future sales opportunities

Tweeting to communicate success stories.

1/2/4

1/2/3/4

1/2/3/4

* Categories stem from the typology developed by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010): 1=Collaborative projects: Collaborative projects enable the joint and
simultaneous creation of content by many end users. 2=Blogs: Blogs are special types of Web sites that usually display date-stamped entries in reverse
chronological order. 3=Content communities: The main objective of content communities is the sharing of media content between users. 4= Social
networking sites: Social networking sites are applications that enable users to connect by creating personal information profiles, inviting friends and
colleagues to have access to those profiles, and sending e-mails and instant messages between each other. 5=Virtual game worlds: Virtual worlds are platforms that replicate a three-dimensional environment in which users can appear in the form of personalized avatars and interact with each other as they
would in real life. 6=Virtual social worlds: The second group of virtual worlds, often referred to as virtual social worlds, allows inhabitants to choose
their behavior more freely and essentially live a virtual life similar to their real life.

Summer 2012 313

looking at social media for the sales/competitive intelligence

needed to drive the conversation (Greenberg 2009).
This step of the sales process harkens back directly to the
link between social media and listening. Organizations now
have the ability to listen to customers by simply monitoring
the issues, questions, concerns, and even experiences shared
by existing customers that are discussed in the various social
media forums. Companies may choose to play an active role
in the conversation when they may be able to add value, or
they may passively gather real-time user feedback to share
with the appropriate parts of their organizations to better
tailor products and marketing campaigns to meet the current and future needs of their customers. Understanding the
customer leads directly into crafting the next step of the sales
processthe approach.
Approach
The initial approach to the customer provides an opportunity
for salespeople to build rapport, gain the prospects undivided
attention, introduce themselves while establishing credibility, and qualify the prospect, among other things. To best
demonstrate the ways in which social media can influence a
salespersons approach, consider these two specific examples.
To help sales teams integrate social media information into
their CRM process and software, Clara Shih of Salesforce.com
built an application called Faceconnector. If prospects or
potential business partners accept these online relationships it
becomes easier to find shared interests and keep relationships
progressing. For example, if a salesperson attends a business
networking event and makes an introduction to someone that
could become a potential business partner, the salesperson
can send an invitation on LinkedIn or Facebook. Now the
salesperson will have access to information about where that
person went to school, shared contacts, and possibly even his
or her birthday, which will be transferred into the companys
CRM software. It can make initiating a meeting or conversation that much more a familiar and positive experience.
In a similar vein, one of the managers interviewed regarding
the impact of social media on sales immediately referred to
his companys social media site Tech After Five. As stated
on its Web site, Tech After Five is a series of free to attend,
sponsor supported, professional networking events for tech
professionals and entrepreneurs and the people who can help
them reach their goals. He informed us that the most recent
meeting had over 300 participants (all local) and there were
immediate rapport-building opportunities about the group
and credibility was gained simply by being a member of the
organization.
Just as there are almost infinite 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 advantage is that the contact can be as passive or as active as the customer or business deems appropriate. Social
media allows a firm to build trust in a nonintrusive way, by
meeting the little needs that a customer might express in a
timely manner, without the perception of a hard sell. Sharing
links, responding to comments, or fostering debate through
online polls allows the customer to optin to the discussion
as necessary, but allows the company to build its reputation
for responsiveness and caring; essentially to bolster its reputation and brand.
Needs Discovery
Once the salesperson has successfully started the sales interaction, he or she needs to uncover the specific needs and wants
of the prospect through effective questioning, listen carefully
to question responses to identify latent needs, and understand
the prospects motivation. On the surface, it may seem that because needs discovery is such a dynamic and engaging process,
social media may not be useful. Realistically, effective social
media may actually help to reduce the amount of questioning necessary to understand the specific needs of a customer.
While many sales professionals realize that price, quality, and
service are always primary concerns across customers, there
are more than likely other important concerns as well. It is
possible that social media that enables customers or prospects
to post concerns or questions to a salesperson or marketing
group will allow a response to be posted, thereby alleviating
similar concerns of future customers.
This portion of the sales funnel, when coupled with social
media, allows for collective learning. In some cases, customers
will discover not only their real needs, but the answers to questions they did not even know they might have, as interaction
with other customers and sales create a more enlightened buyer
and a better overall relationship. It is not unlike a car buyer
who is accompanied by a trusted mechanic or friend to help
evaluate options before making the decision to purchase a new
brand or type of vehicle. Sometimes a buyer does not even
know what he or she does not know until told. Social media
expedites and enhances the process in ways that were only
possible with numerous phone calls and inquiries years ago.
Presentation
After needs and wants have been uncovered, the salesperson
comes up with a solution for the prospect, but rarely on his or
her own. Success here depends on the sellers ability to identify
where the components of the solution reside in his or her own
organizationas well as in his or her skill at mobilizing and
coordinating these resources. The explosion of social media
and user-generated content, particularly over the past three
years, has really changed the presentation step of the sales

314 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

process. Prospects can ask questions, within or beyond their

social networks, to gather product or service information. But,
more importantly, anyone can answer these queries: not just
the traditional experts, or salesperson, but rather anyone
inside or outside an organization, including past and current
customers. This means that salespeople and marketers must
take a proactive approach regarding the creation and monitoring of social media sites where prospects and customers can
and will share information. When prospects begin to gather
information and post questions outside of the salespersons
immediate reach, it would seem that social media has the
potential to lengthen marketing cycles but shorten sales cycles
by enabling both sides to begin the process knowing more
about each other, which ultimately allows for higher-value
conversations.
In the presentation stage, the salesperson should also
demonstrate the specific value propositions using visual
aids and demonstrations while confirming the prospects
understanding. By using social media, both salespeople and
customers can now take an active role in determining the
appropriate solution and developing new sales drivers and
value propositions, sometimes referred to as customer cocreation of value. Consumer product strategy professionals
increasingly recognize the value of social co-creation engagements in involving the customer directly in the product and
information development process (Vargo and Lusch 2004).
Marketing strategists and salespeople are beginning to witness
how existing social media assets offer an opportunity to begin
listening to and embracing their customers for this purpose
(Williams, Gownder, and Wiramihardja 2010).
Social media, then, offers another, perhaps in some cases,
the best, channel for educating the consumer on products
or services. Through collaboration on sites such as Chatter, a
firm and its client can work together to arrive at the ultimate
presentation of value, rather than simply delivering a one-sided
proposal to a customer weeks or months after the initial interaction. As social media enhances engagement and collaboration,
the presentation process becomes much richer and its contents
become the shared work of both sides of the transaction.
Close
The final portion of the sales call entails asking for the sale, or
the close. Upon asking the prospect for the sale, the salesperson
may need to overcome any remaining objections, determine
terms of the sale, and negotiate any remaining details. It seems
apparent that when all the steps in the sales process are effectively completed, there is a greater likelihood to convert a
prospect to a customer and close the sale. Therefore, if social
media can improve a salespersons ability to engage in each
particular step, it follows that social media will facilitate the
close. Two specific ways that social media can help with clos-

ing the sale are through overcoming or preventing objections

and in providing testimonials.
Closing the deal requires the salesperson to mobilize contacts from prior sales to act as references. Using social media
platforms is a sound method by which to gather these testimonials and post them for public consumption. Even more
valuable is the fact that they come directly from the customer
and are not second-hand information provided by the salesperson. Also, by creating a public forum for questions and
answers, it is quite possible to prevent or anticipate common
objections that may arise during a sales call.
Indeed, social media has the ability to simplify or expedite
the close by enriching and adding value to earlier stages of the
sales funnel. Asking for the sale can be less complicated when
the customer is informed and collaborates on the product,
service, or value proposition.
Follow-Up
The sales follow-up and customer service components of the
sales interaction are often the most overlooked pieces of a
successful sales process, and a place where social media can
be incredibly usefulspecifically the two-way communication offered by social media applications. With respect to
followup, the salesperson needs to emphasize communication, gain referrals for future sales, and uncover other sales
opportunitiesincluding both cross-selling and up-selling.
Salespeople and marketers can create online forms so that
current customers can initiate service requests and prompt
correspondence. Organizations can also use customer-facing
social networking forums or groups such as those developed
in Facebook to keep customers informed of events and innovations while helping to minimize emails and encourage
teamwork and collaboration. Firms can also develop interorganizational social media applications to communicate internally
with other members of the sales organization to determine the
best solutions for service requests and to determine how to
leverage current relationships. Social media may also be used
to ask for referrals, communicate success stories (via Twitter
or LinkedIn), track customer activity, data mine followers for
prospects, and interact or share information with customers
to remain proactive on customer service needs.
Implications and Conclusions
The goal of this paper was to present a broad overview of
social media and its role in the sales process. Because this
topic is relatively new, there are countless avenues to proceed
with future research. Our approach was to present what we
believe to be the more important and influential areas of social
media. With this discussion, we believe there are some critical
take-aways.

Summer 2012 315

Companies would be wise to listen to their customers, and

even competitors, and to begin exploring what a social media
presence can and will mean to their industry. It is about engagement. It is about building the brand. And it is about embracing a new, more agile way of doing business. It does not have
to be disruptive to company culture; it can be implemented
and made to be fun or exciting as this new channel evolves.
It will most certainly be transformative in the years to come,
but the important thing is that the social media story has yet
to be written. The future of social media in marketing and
sales depends on both the customer and the firm, and where
it will take both will evolve with time and additional advances
in technology.
One area of research not directly presented in this discussion would perhaps include the typologies of social media, or
the differences in their applications in business-to-business
(B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) environments. As
there are obviously differences between types of social media
and the roles that they play in different selling environments,
it was beyond the scope of this paper to uncover those issues.
As presented by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), there are several
specific categories of social media applications, all of which may
have different or unique functionalities that may influence the
sales process in differing manners. Coupling these categories
with the unique needs in B2B and B2C sales situations provides
ample opportunity for future investigation and research.
There are also numerous areas for additional research that
were uncovered in writing this paper, including the role of
technology, crisis management, security/privacy concerns,
corporate culture and silo issues, and pricing, just to name
a few. As the body of academic work in this field slowly
replaces the practitioner pieces in the way a field manual
culls the best practices learned on a battlefield, social media
will become a substantial source for future research that has
the potential to shape, craft, and transform not only sales
and marketing strategy, but corporate strategy for years to
come. We hope that this research opens the door for future,
insightful articles on the role of social media in the world of
sales and marketing.
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