The
purpose of this practitioner article is to provide a sales framework for
business-to-business (B2B) professionals using social media. Most professionals
and buyers will surf the web daily so consumers are more likely to purchase
online than they were a few years ago. The authors imply that it will be
necessary for sales representatives to get involved due to rising consumer usage,
otherwise they will be left behind.
The authors suggest that the organization
of social media use is important for sales representatives and that the strategy
used should complement the existing sales cycle. An emphasis is placed on managing
relationships throughout the sales cycle process; this ranges from identifying
prospects to making final sales. The key parts of the sales cycle in regards to
social media are prospecting, qualifying leads, and managing relationships. Social
media is particularly important for prospecting in B2B selling because the
original tactic (making cold calls) is becoming obsolete as more businesses
block these types of calls. Using social networks for prospecting helps improve
communication since salespeople have less pressure and can identify leads
through other mediums. As more consumers express their likes/dislikes through
the internet, their preferences become more apparent, giving sales
professionals insight into whether or not they will be a good lead.
The article also mentions that sales
representatives can use social media to help determine qualifying leads using
IBM's BANT acronym: "Reps must determine that the customer has the
necessary budget, that their contact
has the authority to buy, that
there's a genuine need for the
product or service, and that their timeline
for delivery aligns with the customer's expectations." (Giamanco, 2012, p.
92) One suggestion the authors make is that salespeople can use data
intelligence tools to help determine if a prospect fits these qualifications.
The main finding in this article is
social media is best used at the front-end or beginning stages of the sales
cycle. This is due to the amount of information available via the internet and
social networks. Nevertheless, another finding is that social media should be
used at the end stages of the sales cycle to maintain relationships with
existing clients.
The authors support their findings
by providing an example using the company, PARKA. In this example, PARKA
salespeople sent out invitations through the LinkedIn network and 17 out of 20
were accepted within a 36-hour time span (Giamanco, 2012). This example proved how social media
can be used for prospecting and why it is so effective in the early stages of
selling.
There a few implications this
article has for practicing managers. First of all, practicing managers should
make sure they start incorporating social media into B2B selling before
competitors beat them to the punch. Secondly, practicing managers should make
certain the implementation of social media is aligned with the sales cycle and sales
methods already in use by their businesses.
At present, successful business organizations believe in building long term relationship with their customers. Social media provides this opportunity not only at the least cost but also has an ability to reach globally at a faster speed. But, I think it is an important marketing decision for all organizations to decide how to communicate with, or reach its target market and target customers. The use of social media as an effective marketing tool implies organization’s attitude towards honesty, trust, transparency, long term relationship, social sharing, relevance, value creation and commitment. The use of social media by an organization is beneficial at all the levels of sales cycle if used effectively and efficiently by providing right information at the right time.
ReplyDeleteI like that you mentioned how social media implications can be used as a tool to perceive the organizational attitude of a firm. Qualities such as trust and value creation can be important organizational standards that help build a firm's brand image or customer relationship management (CRM). One of the main reasons I selected this article was because of my interest in using social media to build a firm's reputation, but I was uncertain how to apply a business model to the available resources for such activity. This article answered some of my questions because it presented a methodology for sales personnel, without leaving out the importance of a budget.
DeleteRight, Kimberly. The concept of using social media by the organizations to reach its consumers is rapidly increasing, but it is an upcoming idea especially, in the context of its usage and interpretation by different people. I think, it is difficult at this time to predict the exact implications regarding the usage of social media by the businesses because various related factors needs to be considered and answered.
DeleteI have also read numbers of article during searching for the blog article which suggests the importance of social media. More and more businesses are incorporating social media in their business model for the firm’s reputation. However businesses seem to ignore the important part which is to incorporate the social media tool with their business model to achieve the result. They have the tool but the implementation is wrong or ignored.
ReplyDeleteI agree that incorporating social media into an organization's business model will most likely become a major topic in the near future. Several social media changes are taking place. For example, I saw on the news today that social media stock prices are declining significantly. Could this impact an organization's usage as well? Another current event related to social media usage was in my previous blog, "Social Media in London", which explains the increasing existence of social media integration at sporting events. Therefore, it is clear that trial and error results and academic research are needed to help managers solve their social media problems in the future.
DeleteGlobalization is in full force and the use of social media allows firms to reach all areas of the globe. Firms would be wise to incorporate social media into the everyday business activities. As well as helping advertise for a given product, social media can help develop a firms brand, its image, its reputation and its overall sales. Firms need to be using social media has part of their strategy to reach other parts of the globe; if they don't, they risk the chance of losing out on sales to other firms who are using the technology.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point. Social media is actually a tool that reaches customers easily internationally. In addition, with the speed of transmittion, we are able to communicate faster, which increases globalization. Thus, social media is a necessity for organizations that want to expand globally. It might also benefit organizations because it is very cost-effective and reaches a large audience. However, measuring the revenue obtained from such efforts might be difficult. Organizations might have to give customers surveys to determine how much emphasis to buy came from social media advertising.
DeleteThis is an interesting discussion .I do believe we are in the very exciting nascent stage of B2B marketing via social media.I was recently reading an article which was making a reference to a new era of "sales intelligence" , also supported by McKinsey's study recently exploring “large pools of data that can be captured, communicated, aggregated, stored, and analyzed and how its now part of every sector and function of the global economy.” . This truly goes to support the fact that social media is not an option for companies anymore , but a strategic necessity.
ReplyDeleteI like to see that the determination of social media as a necessity comes from research on sales intelligence. This provides more support for incorporating a social media budget into a sales, marketing, or advertising plan. I have not been able to find a specific model or algorithm used to calculate how much cash to allocate towards social media expenditures and the research your describing sounds like it would provide more insight into this area.
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