Effect of Social Selling on Salespersons’ Performance: Evidence from B2B Salespersons in an Emerging Country Context

Abstract

The rise in the use of social media for businesses and sales has made it a valuable tool for customer acquisition, retention, and relationship management. However, the diversity it is used and extent to which its function improves performance remains underexplored in the literature. This study examines the effect of social selling on salespersons’ performance. Specifically, the study examines the effects of social media insights, connections, and engagement on sales performance. Data was collected from B2B salespeople in Anambra using a purposive and snowballing technique to collect data both online and offline. A structured questionnaire consisting of 5-items Likert scales questions adapted from the literature was used for data collection. The scales were validated using senior academics from a federal university in Southeast, Nigeria while Cronbach alpha was used to test reliability of the. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested based on dimensions of social selling using multiple regression analysis via SPSS version 22. The result showed that social selling insight and social selling engagement have a positive and significant effect on sales performance. While the effect of social selling connections was not significant. It was therefore recommended that firms should train salespeople on how to use various social media platforms and understand the nuances of social media use. It is also important that salespeople are equipped and encouraged to ‘listen’ to social conversations for mentions about their brands, industry, or competitors. Sales organization should also monitor conversations for opportunities to engage – that is, by identifying relevant conversation or trending topics.

Keywords

• nigeria
• social media connections
• social media engagement
• social media insights
• social selling
• sales performance