engleski

AN ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AMONG SALESPEOPLE IN B2B AND B2C MARKETS

Salespeople operating in today’s competitive landscape, reaching global audiences and more informed consumers, recognize the opportunity social media holds for the sales process. This research explores how salespeople operating on both B2B and B2C markets use social media in the sales process and their attitudes towards it. The research also identifies differences in the social media usage by salespeople demographics, including age, gender, education level, and organization size. Data is collected using an online questionnaire submitted by salespeople employed in various companies, and Chi-square tests were performed to compare differences. Research results confirmed salespeople are aligned with consumers’ preferred channels as instant messaging was the dominant social media category. The research also confirmed that social media is used in all stages of the sales 1075 INTERDISCIPLINARY MANAGEMENT RESEARCH XVII process, with it dominant in the presentation stage. The only significant difference in B2B and B2C salespeople was found for the prospecting and initial contact stages. In terms of demographics, the research confirmed that salespeople up to 50 years use social media, with women being more active on this medium. The main limitation lies in the sample – its size and structure. Thus, future studies should expand the geographic scope and target a larger sample and address how social media usage and demographics differ among customer segments being served by salespeople. This research contributes to the sales and marketing literature, and its findings are crucial for practitioners, especially sales directors and consultants, when defining sales strategy, training, or hiring plans.

social media, b2b sales, b2c sales, professional sales process, social selling

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