How to Effectively Institutionalize Social Selling in Business-to-Business Companies

Abstract

A new sales approach called social selling is gaining momentum in Business-to-Business (B2B) practice. Instead of one-to-one interactions (e.g., physical visits), nowadays, salespeople reach out to their (potential) B2B customers in one-to-many social media interactions. Salespeople regularly employ their private social media accounts (e.g., LinkedIn) to gather information about and to interact with their (potential) buyers. So far, research offers only a limited, one-sided and static view of this new sales phenomenon. Relying on a qualitative study with 40 managers from sales, social media, and the C-suite, the current paper adopts a cross-functional and procedural view to more holistically investigate the concept of social selling and its institutionalization in B2B companies. Our data distills a five-stage process and provides insights on core topics, activities, company prerequisites, and potential pitfalls for each stage of the institutionalization process. These findings may help managers to more effectively institutionalize social selling in B2B companies