International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776

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International Business Review

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev

The integrated use of social media, digital, and traditional communication

tools in the B2B sales process of international SMEs
Sara Fraccastoro a, Mika Gabrielsson a, *, Ellen Bolman Pullins b
a
University of Eastern Finland, Microkatu 1, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland
b
College of Business and Innovation, University of Toledo, W. Bancroft St. 2801, P.O. Box 43606, Toledo, OH, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Social media and digital tools are gradually changing the way firms market themselves. Understanding how these
B2B sales process communication tools are used by sales functions within business-to-business (B2B) markets could clarify the
Social media dynamics underpinning the sales process in an increasingly technology-mediated world. This paper explores how
Digital communication tools
social media, digital, and traditional sales communication tools are leveraged during the three main phases of the
Traditional face-to-face selling
International SMEs
B2B sales process within international SMEs.
The article’s grounded-theory approach illustrates that social media can be particularly helpful in engaging
international prospects. Digital communication tools seem to be most prevalent in the persuasion phase, whereas
more traditional communication tools still prevail in customer relationship management. However, there seem to
be some important potential boundary conditions, including relationship culture, location proximity, technology
innovation/resources, and strategic importance of the customer that affect the way international SMEs use
different communication tools during a sales process. We develop a framework for understanding the B2B sales
process flow with sales communication tools included for international SMEs.

1. Introduction Pommeranz, Weisser, & Voigt, 2018). Nevertheless, while increasingly

The continuous development of digital tools has brought a paradigm
shift in the way businesses communicate and sell. The use of social
media tools, search engine marketing, and web analytics have redefined
business-to-business (B2B) selling, especially in international trans­
actions. Having direct online access to large volumes of data and the
accurate knowledge of customers’ preferences means salespeople can
now specifically target the most profitable international business op­
portunities and more easily manage customer relationships. A recent
survey showed that firms adopting digital media reduced their costs to
serve by 40%–60% and that their five-year revenue growth was five
times higher than that of their peers (McKinsey & Company, 2017).
Geographical barriers are reduced dramatically, as well, allowing firms
to more easily conduct international business.
Recent literature shows how, among the variety of digital tools
available, social media is becoming central for the marketing and sales
functions in different business contexts (Lamberton & Stephen, 2016).
Salespeople increasingly use social media in their work (Itani, Agnihotri,
& Dingus, 2017), particularly in key account management (Lacoste,
2016) or to aid customer segmentation within industrial buying (Müller,
using social media to engage with prospects and to create value, firms
still deploy digital and traditional sales communication tools, and
therefore the selection of their communication modes is fragmented.
Recent studies have attempted to address this issue by investigating the
integration of different marketing communication tools, by considering
the effects of social media and traditional marketing on different
customer metrics (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman, & Kannan,
2016), with regard to their time-varying effectiveness (Kumar, Choi, &
Greene, 2017), and by shedding light on their potential impact on brand
building and new customer acquisition (de Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang,
2017).
However, despite research addressing media fragmentation and the
use of social media in marketing and sales, earlier studies have mainly
focused on business-to-consumer (B2C) markets.
Understanding the integration of social media and other communi­
cation tools for the sales function of firms operating in B2B markets
represents a significant gap in the literature that deserves academic
attention. Wiesel, Pauwels, and Arts (2011) considered multichannel
management in B2B small and medium-sized companies (SME), showing
cross-channel effects such as that of online funnel metrics on off-line

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sara.fraccastoro@uef.fi (S. Fraccastoro), mika.gabrielsson@uef.fi (M. Gabrielsson), ellen.pullins@utoledo.edu (E.B. Pullins).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101776
Received 25 January 2020; Received in revised form 16 November 2020; Accepted 25 November 2020
Available online 7 December 2020
0969-5931/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
S. Fraccastoro et al.
Table 1
Relevant empirical international marketing and sales studies analyzing the combination of different sales communication tools in the sales process.
Most relevant empirical Context
research studies
Kumar et al., 2016 B2C sales of a single large company in the United States.
Kumar et al., 2017 B2C sales of a single large company.
de Vries et al., 2017 Customer acquisition of a single telecom firm operating in one
European country (B2C level).
Luo and Bu, 2016 Firm-level across 27 emerging economies enterprises
Klitmøller & Lauring, A single multinational’s global virtual teams.
2013
Rapp et al., 2013 Employees, retail channel partners and consumers of a globally
operating brand.
This study Integrated use of social media, digital, and traditional sales
communication tools in the B2B sales process of international SMEs.
purchases. The study also presents evidence that customer contacts
initiated online have a high impact on firm’s profit. We believe these
findings may pertain also to the context of social media communication,
where the viral nature of user interaction may be integrated with other
communication tools and thus assist firms in selling to other companies.
Earlier research shows that the use of social media and digital sales
communication tools benefits the sales function of B2B companies, by
boosting their performance (Rapp, Beitelspacher, Grewal, & Hughes,
2013).This is also true for SMEs, in which social media use affects both a
firm’s communication and its business performance (Wang, Pauleen, &
Zhang, 2016). Despite these positive outcomes, recent research shows
that the effectiveness of social media tools on customer loyalty is
context-dependent (Bill et al., 2020). These important results testify to
the centrality of social media for the B2B sales function, however we
lack exact knowledge on how SMEs integrate them with other commu­
nication tools during the different B2B sales process phases (Salo, 2017),
and what results this integration yields. Understanding how firms best
manage multichannel communication for business sales during each
phase of the sales process represents a pressing need both from a theo­
retical and a practical standpoint. In fact, in addition to affecting the
selling process, the advent of technologically-mediated communication
between firms has also opened easier access to the global market place
(Alarcón-del-Amo, Rialp-Criado, & Rialp-Criado, 2018; Gao, Tate,
Zhang, Chen, & Liang, 2018; Okazaki & Taylor, 2013). With techno­
logical development comes new opportunities for SMEs to compete in
markets that they might not have been able to reach before; therefore,
the structure and implementation of sales communication tools during
international sales is subject to change, and it is worthy of investigation.
Additionally, current findings have not been confirmed in international
contexts either (Hudson, Huang, Roth, & Madden, 2016; Johnston,
Khalil, Nhat Hanh Le, & Cheng, 2018). We still know little of how social
media and other sales communication tools impact the B2B sales process
phases of firms operating internationally. Hence, the main objective of
this study is to examine how different sales communication tools,
including social media, digital and traditional communication tools, are
used jointly during the B2B sales process phases of international SMEs,
and what are the boundary conditions of such use. The article is the first
to clarify how and why the suitability of various sales communication
tools, including social media, differs within and across the main phases
of a B2B sales process.
Because this research is intended to understand how communication
tool and sales process work and given the lack of theory development on
this topic, a qualitative approach is appropriate (Strauss & Corbin,
1998). By conducting exploratory research, based on a grounded-theory
approach, in a B2B international context, we discuss the conditions and
circumstances that may trigger differences in firms’ integration of social,
digital and traditional sales communication tools in different stages of
the sales process. Our analysis results in the development of a framework
for future research on the topic.
We contribute to the international marketing and sales literature by:
(1) Being the first to provide exact knowledge on the ways
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International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
Relation to B2B International Integration of different sales
sales context? Business Context communication tools?
No No Yes
No No Yes
No No Yes
No Yes No
No Yes No
Yes No No
Yes Yes Yes
internationally-operating SMEs integrate social media, digital, and
traditional sales communication tools during each phase of a B2B sales
process. (2) Clarifying how international SMEs benefit from the inte­
gration of social media and other sales communication tools within and
across the B2B sales process phases. (3) Presenting boundary conditions
for integration and providing considerations on whether the process
should be contextualized based on specific characteristics in different
countries. (4) Developing a model of the integrated use of social media,
digital, and traditional sales communication tools in international SMEs.
(5) Proposing a collapsed sales process based on that being reported by
the practitioners. Table 1 outlines the most relevant international mar­
keting and sales studies examining the topic. A review of the literature
illustrates the research gap. This study aims to address this gap in the use
of sales communication tools during the B2B sales process of interna­
tional SMEs with a qualitative exploration of sales communication tool
integration and the impact of this integration on the B2B sales process.
The paper is structured as follows: First, we review previous research
dealing with the B2B sales process and the use of social media and digital
communication tools within the sales function, as well as the traditional
sales process. Second, we discuss the grounded-theory approach meth­
odology and the steps of the research process are outlined in detail.
Third, we present our qualitative analysis and advance theory dealing
with the use of social media, digital and traditional sales communication
tools within the B2B sales process of international SMEs. Subsequently,
we discuss the findings and introduce the emerging model for the inte­
gration of sales communication tools and their impact on the sales
process, along with proposed boundary conditions for international
SMEs. Finally, we outline research and managerial implications and
suggest avenues for future research.
1.1. Understanding the use of social media and digital communication
tools in the sales process: theoretical perspectives and literature review
With the advent of rapid changes in technology and the development
of the sales function, salespeople started to use a wide range of sales
communication tools during the sales process. Among the available
tools, social media has attracted increasing managerial and academic
attention (Itani et al., 2017; Salo, 2017; Wang et al., 2016).
In this paper, we classify sales communication tools in three cate­
gories, based on their level of digitalization. Scrutinizing the variety of
sales communication tools from not digitalized to social media, we
distinguish and categorize the tools as: (I) “traditional” sales communi­
cation tools, based on sales communication involving face-to-face
interaction, phone calling, and postal services; (II) “digital” sales
communication tools, involving emails, websites, search engine opti­
mization, online meeting and chatting platforms (e.g. Skype, WhatsApp,
and Google Hangouts), and (III) “social media” sales communication
tools, consistent with the definition and categories of social media
provided by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) looking at tools involving user
generated and co-created content, such as social networking sites (e.g.,
LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.), online blogs (e.g. Quora
S. Fraccastoro et al.
and Capterra), and content communities (e.g. YouTube).
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p. 61) defined social media as “a group
of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and tech­
nological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and ex­
change of user generated content.” What differentiates social media
from other digital technologies is mainly its interactive and participa­
tory nature that allows users to share, co-create, and amend content
(Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). In this paper, we
use this definition and intend the use of social media as that happening
among many users (e.g. firm-to-consumers, consumers-to-firms,
consumers-to-consumers, firms-to-firms) on platforms such as social
networking sites, online blogs, and content communities (see Kaplan &
Haenlein, 2010).
Given the technological ecosystem on which social media lay their
foundations (Appel, Grewal, Hadi, & Stephen, 2020), these tools enable
the social interactivity of diverse and geographically dispersed users (e.
g. individuals, firms, institutions, etc). Communicating over social
media often yields to having viral messages that marketers and sales­
people leverage to affirm the company’s quality and distinctiveness over
other firms (Appel et al., 2020; Fischer & Reuber, 2014; Hennig-Thurau,
Wiertz, & Feldhaus, 2015). Particularly, Lamberton and Stephen (2016)
explain that consumers’ online activity and user generated content over
social media have been used by marketers to reach online word of mouth
(WOM), which Babić Rosario, Sotgiu, De Valck, and Bijmolt (2016) find
to be positively associated with sales. Given this, it can be argued that
social media can be helpful to the sales function (cf. Marshall, Moncrief,
Rudd, & Lee, 2012). In the B2B context, Rapp et al. (2013), in line with
Rodriguez, Peterson, and Krishnan (2012), found social media to be
relevant for sales, owing to its ability to boost companies’ performance.
This is consistent with Wang et al. (2016) who found that social media
use for SMEs operating in B2B can help improve communication and
business performance. In fact, social media can assist sales people in
their job functions (Itani et al., 2017). For example, Lacoste (2016)
showed how the use of social media supported the customer
relationship-management activity of key account managers. This is
particularly relevant in relation to the nature of B2B selling, which is
mainly relationship oriented. However, Michaelidou, Siamagka, and
Christodoulides (2011) found that the uncertainty surrounding its usage
means B2B firms are slower to adopt social media than B2C companies.
This can be explained by the typically large deals involved and greater
asset specificity of the products, which call for highly involved sales
people (see Palmatier, Scheer, Evans, & Arnold, 2008). As a result, when
selling to business customers, salespeople tend to select a diverse range
of sales communication tools. Pinpointing and classifying the main
categories of sales communication tools helps address their variety and
study their use.
By tracking the daily job of salespeople, already in 1999, Marshall
and colleagues showed how digital technologies affect the range of
selling activities whose implementation is needed to achieve a successful
sales performance (Moncrief & Marshall, 2005). The authors stressed
how digital communication tools such as emails, Internet, voicemails,
fax, Web pages, newsletters, and audio–video conference tools (among
many) are juxtaposed to existing sales communication tools involving
person-to-person interaction that they refer to as nontechnology
(Marshall et al., 1999). As argued by Moncrief and Marshall (2005) new
technologies are transformative factors that can act as catalysts to the
transformation of the traditional seven steps of selling (a.k.a. pro­
specting, preapproach, presentation, overcoming objections, close, and
follow-up) elaborated by Dubinsky (1980/1981) into a new and evolved
sales process. However, despite recent literature urging for further
research analysing how new digital technologies and social media
impact the selling process (Andzulis, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2012; Salo,
2017), knowledge on the topic stays scant, therefore the need to revise
and progress the sales process phases by taking into consideration
technological evolution is urgent (Dixon & Tanner, 2012) with the
further need to take in consideration the impact that selling in an
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International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
international context may have on the process itself.
Therefore, acknowledging that the entire sales process is potentially
affected by the introduction of social media, we aim at shedding light on
how these communication tools are integrated with existing sales
communication methods, and what are the boundary conditions of such
integration.
2. Methodology
Given the fundamental changes brought by social media and digital
sales communication tools to the sales function and its traditional tools,
we believe a grounded-theory approach is appropriate to reveal how
such sales communication tools are implemented and how the usage can
impact the sales process in international SMEs (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).
This study utilizes in-depth interviews with multiple international
SMEs to investigate the integrative use of social media, digital, and
traditional sales communication tools in the sales process. We chose to
work through a grounded theory approach whereas qualitative studies
have been found to be particularly useful in researching new topic areas
within the domain of international marketing (Sinkovics, Penz, &
Ghauri, 2005). In this study, we began our interviews by piloting with
two international SMEs located in Finland. We wanted to understand
how social media, digital and traditional tools are used in the B2B sales
process. We chose these firms because SMEs provided easier and deeper
access and because we felt that their international character would
provide more generalizability than a domestic sample. The initial pilot
collection of qualitative data clarified our research questions and
allowed the main themes of the research to emerge.
2.1. Sample selection
Following the pilot interviews, we identified, from a convenience
sample, six European international B2B firms to target for questioning.
After a first round of data collection, we solicited an additional four
firms to expand the context factors. After conducting all the interviews,
we felt we reached data saturation. We iteratively linked empirical ev­
idence to previous literature in the field and were thus able to identify
the three main phases of a sales process and analyze the use of different
sales communication tools following additional interviews. In total, we
interviewed 15 people (and in total we had 16 h of transcribed in­
terviews) from across the 10 firms (not including the pilot firms). Table 2
presents an overview of the sources of information.
The empirical findings provided a deep understanding and elicited
valuable insights in this under-researched area. The current study aims
to develop theory rather than test it, and accordingly we used theoretical
sampling to select the companies (see Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). We
decided that the study would benefit if the firms met the following
criteria: (1) they were SMEs (following the European Commission
(2003) definition of having between 10 and 250 employees), (2) they
had international operations, (3) they had to operate in the B2B sector,
as studies in the field are lacking, (4) they demonstrated a conjoint usage
of social media, digital, and traditional sales communication tools dur­
ing their sales process, and (5) they were firms in the service industry. To
ensure maximum consistency and a clearer understanding of the phe­
nomenon, we purposefully excluded manufacturing SMEs, in which
sales communication through the Internet tends to be less common due
to product characteristics, production processes, and customer prefer­
ences (Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson, 2011). Choosing multiple firms to
study for the research illustrated the complex relationships between
theoretical constructs and empirical evidence (Eisenhardt & Graebner,
2007) and ultimately made it possible to generalize the results back to
theory rather than to the population (Yin, 1989).
Since the current research seeks to analyze patterns in the adoption
and use of sales communication tools in SMEs operating in the service
industry rather than to compare such patterns, it seems prudent to
follow a “polar type” approach for the company selection (Eisenhardt &
S. Fraccastoro et al. International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776

Table 2
Background of the firms and further sources of information.
Company Interviewed person Time period covered Secondary sources of information for data triangulation
in interviews
1st interview (i)
2nd interview (ii)

BankServe Head of Marketing and Communication (i) 2011-2016 Facebook and Instagram profiles, company website/blog and press articles.
Manager (ii) 2016-2017
SaveFood Head of Sales/Country manager in Finland (i) 2015-2016 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles, company website.
(ii) 2016-2017
AdvertiseMe Head of Sales; Marketing Manager and (i) 2007-2016 Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, Company website.
Chief Business Development Officer (ii) 2016-2018
VideoAd Head of Communication; Data Scientist; (i) 2010-2017 Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, company website.
Human Resource specialist (ii) 2017-2018
ContentMKT Content Director and Marketing Manager; (i) 2012-2016 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles, company website/blog
CEO (ii) 2016-2017
SM-Analytics Co-Founder and CEO (i) 2011-2017 Facebook, company website
(ii) 2017-2018
DeltaInnovations Founder and CEO (i) 2008-2017 Facebook, Twitter Profiles, company website.
(ii) 2017-2018
DigiPlatform Business director and co-owner (i) 2011-2017 Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles, company website, online press articles from the
(ii) 2017-2018 Chamber of Commerce and other online sources, demo of a product sent from an
interviewee.
AdBrand President; Head of Sales (i) 1988-2020 Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, company website.
(ii) 2018-2020
JanSoftware CEO; Director of Sales (i) 2003-2020 Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, company website.
(ii) 2019-2020

Graebner, 2007). Overall following the CAGE model of distance (Ghe­
mawat, 2001), we selected ten SMEs from countries being different in
many factors, such as cultural, administrative, geographical, and eco­
nomic, and that yet had demonstrated a propensity for technological
adoption. Driven by the principles of appropriateness and access to
information-rich companies (Fletcher, Zhao, Plakoyiannaki, & Buck,
2018) of sampling in qualitative research, we selected two firms in each
of the following countries: Brazil, Finland, Italy, Poland and the United
States. As for the countries to investigate, we started by having six SMEs
coming from Europe and selected firms from countries having different
size in terms of population, and internal market, and presenting differ­
ences in terms of economic development and national culture (Hofstede,
2003). We were using a convenience sample focussing on locations
where we could get the deepest access while at the same time meeting
our criteria for firm selection. Following our initial pilot data collection
with Finnish firms, we determined that it would be useful to see if these
patterns held in other cultures and thus selected Italy, as a case that
varies significantly from Finland, but where we had access to appro­
priate firms. Since some differences appeared regarding to the imple­
mentation of different sales communication tools in Finnish and Italian
firms, we added two firms from Poland, and subsequently from Brazil
and the United States. This step aimed at increasing the robustness of the
sample, whereby we wanted to investigate if further differences
appeared with respect to the sales process in firms coming from coun­
tries presenting further differences with the already selected ones. The
choice of including firms from the United States was mainly motivated
by the fact that the share of international business activities in this
Country is one of the largest worldwide, and for comparative reasons,
since much of the existing literature in this area has used US-based
samples. The detailed selection of firms and the grounded theory pro­
cess is explained in detail in Table 3.
To avoid bias, while collecting the empirical data, we sought to
derive evidence from different sources and allow triangulation of the
results to ensure validity (Eisenhardt, 1989). Accordingly, we conducted
two rounds of in-depth interviews with knowledgeable informants. This
not only limited bias (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007), but also provided
multiple insights on the same phenomenon (Yin, 2009). Nevertheless,
the small size of the firms did mean that harvesting diverse perspectives
was not always possible, so we decided two rounds of in-depth in­
terviews would be enough to clarify the researched phenomenon.
The first step of the process involved gathering primary data through
in-depth interviews conducted with sales directors and marketing
managers. The interviews were semi-structured and began with general
questions about the company, employees, and founders. Subsequently,
the researcher introduced the questions around the more complex topics
and allowed the interviewee to talk in an open-ended way. When clar­
ification was required, the interviewees were asked to rephrase their
answers. Furthermore, to cover all the relevant topics during the in­
terviews, the researcher used an interview framework outlining macro-
topical areas; the content of the framework was the same for all the
interviews. A second round of interviews was conducted with the CEOs
or the most knowledgeable employee available for our target of analysis
to allow the research to be longitudinal (Gebhardt, Carpenter, & Sherry,
2006). To ensure reliability, each interview was audio-recorded with the
permission of the interviewees, transcribed verbatim and stored in a
database shared by the authors.
2.2. Analysis
The analysis of the data followed a grounded-theory development
approach as used in Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Strauss and Corbin
(1998). By collecting information from marketing managers and sales
directors, we were able to shed light on the unexplored phenomenon of
the use of various sales communication tools across the main phases of
the sales process. The application of a grounded-theory approach
allowed us to connect our results to the previous literature and to
generate deeper insights related to the analyzed phenomenon. Based on
the three emerging and predominant international sales process phases
of international SMEs that we later elucidate (identifying new business
opportunities, persuasion, and relationship management), we orga­
nized, and linked the emerging themes of integration of social media,
digital, and traditional sales communication tools to them.
The collected data enabled to populate a theoretical framework
outlining the integrated use of sales communication tools in the B2B
sales process of international SMEs. Finally, we ran a further round of
interviews with the CEOs of the firms (when possible) embodying the
person with more years of experience in the firms, to gather longitudinal
perspectives on the analyzed phenomenon and to validate the emerging
understanding. Table 3 reports a detailed summary of the research
phases and research analysis based on our adopted grounded-theory
approach.

4
S. Fraccastoro et al.
Table 3
Data analysis through a grounded-theory approach.
Process Step
1. Pilot interviews with the CEOs of two
companies to explore the use of social
media and digital tools in their B2B sales.
The pilot companies are not included in the
final sample.
2. Selection of six International SMEs. Two
from Finland, two from Italy and two from
Poland. Interviews with marketing
managers and sales directors.
2.1. Analysis of the international sales process
phase: identification of new business
opportunities
2.2. Analysis of the international sales process
phase: persuasion
2.3. Analysis of the international sales process
phase: relationship management
3. Triangulation of the data through gathering
secondary information
4. Introduction of two further firms from
Brazil. Continuation of data collection.
5. Follow-up interviews with CEOs on
longitudinal perspectives regarding the
implementation of sales communication
tools for B2B sales purposes.
6. Introduction of two further firms from The
United States. Continuation of data
collection.
Objective/Main Research Question
How do firms operating in B2B markets use
digital tools in their sales process? How do
these tools affect the sales process?
How does the use of social media, digital, and
traditional sales communication tools vary
across each phase of the B2B sales process?
Understanding the integrated use of sales
communication tools to identify prospects.
Understanding the integrated use of sales
communication tools to convert prospects into
customers.
Understanding the integrated use of sales
communication tools to manage relationships
with acquired customers
Corroborating gathered results through
external sources of information such as
archival information, press releases and social
media content.
Are there any differences between the
implementation of sales tools among firms
from Brazil and those previously analyzed?
How had the B2B sales process developed over
time? Has the company implemented new
tools or techniques? Does the framework
developed by the authors correspond to the
business practice?
Are there any differences between the
implementation of sales tools among firms
from a large market such as The United States
and those previously analyzed?
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International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
Findings Relevant literature
The B2B sales process of international SMEs Tuli et al., 2007; Andzulis
can be greatly improved by the use of social et al., 2012; Rapp et al., 2013;
media and digital sales communication tools. Kumar et al., 2016; Kumar
Social media tools seem to have the greatest et al., 2017.
resonance. However, usage varies across sales
process phases and is used jointly with
traditional sales communication tools. The
traditional seven steps of selling become
blended as a result, and the sales process of
international SMEs operating in the service
industry is focused on three main phases.
International SMEs are interesting because
they face tremendous financial liabilities and
pressure on cost of sales.
Confirmed the modified sales process. An Dubinsky, 1980/1981;
analysis of the use of digital tools and Moncrief & Marshall, 2005;
traditional sales techniques should be carried Ghemawat, 2001; Guenzi &
out for each of the B2B sales process phases, Geiger, 2011.
namely: identification of new business
opportunities, persuasion, and relationship
management. Evidence was converging on
which tools were used most in which phase
and in relation to the national or international
character of the sales.
Using social media tools increases opportunity Sigfusson & Chetty, 2013;
identification in national and international Fischer & Reuber, 2014;
markets, the precise discovery of prospects’ Hennig-Thurau et al., 2015;
needs, and also enhances network Guesalaga, 2016.
relationships with potential partners.
Traditional sales techniques are used
sporadically. Social media seems to be
preferred for the constant search for business
opportunities.
Sales-people involvement increases during the Tuli et al., 2007; Palmatier
persuasion phase of the sales process. The use et al., 2008; Homburg et al.,
of digital tools prevails over the adoption of 2011; Rogers, 2011.
social media and traditional sales methods.
Digital tools are used to contact distant
customers and when engaging in non-strategic
sales.
Traditional sales communication tools seem to McDonald et al., 1997;
be preferred in relationship maintenance with Homburg et al., 2012; Lacoste,
strategic customers. Transactional customers’ 2016.
relationships are handled through digital sales
communication tools. Use of social media to
share success stories leads to increased firm
visibility and creation of future business
opportunities (observed primarily with Polish
Companies.)
The trustworthiness of results is ensured. Eisenhardt, 1989.
Secondary data reinforce findings from field
interviews A distinct model seems to be
emerging, although Polish firms diverge in
relationship management somewhat. To
corroborate the findings, more data from a
different context is sought to analyze validity
and boundary conditions.
The firms from Brazil rely more heavily on Ghemawat, 2001.
traditional sales communication tools,
especially in the identification of new business
opportunities. The general emergent model is
otherwise confirmed.
Reported increased use of social media in the Gebhardt et al., 2006.
B2B sales process of all the analyzed
companies. The developed model is
confirmed.
The firms from The United States rely more Ghemawat, 2001.
heavily on digital sales communication tools,
often supported by traditional sales methods.
Social media tools are mostly used for
promotional activities. The general emergent
model is otherwise confirmed.
S. Fraccastoro et al. International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776

Table 4
Characteristics of the firms subject to the study.
Firms Business Sector Within Employees Headquarters/Number of foreign markets served Social media currently used
the Service Industry

Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter,

BankServe Banking 45 Helsinki. Digital brand/3 (entering 2 more now).
company blog.
Finland
Application to save
SaveFood 30 Helsinki, Stockholm/7 Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter
expired food
Advertising & Italy (2), Paris, London, Istanbul, Dubai, India (2),
AdvertiseMe Over 80 Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
communication Santiago de Chile, Manila. /Over 80
Italy
Italy (3), London, Madrid, New Delhi, Seoul, Singapore/
VideoAd Promotional videos Over 80 Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
80
Promotional videos & Warsaw, Dubai. /Over 10: 30 % from Dubai, 30 % from Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter,
ContentMKT 10
communication EU and 30 % from Poland. YouTube, website blog
Poland Analytics provider
Warsaw/Uncountable. Most foreign customers come Facebook, GooglePlus, Instagram, LinkedIn,
SM-Analytics over social media 26
from the UK and Indonesia. Twitter, Quora and website blog
platforms
Delta Hardware and São Paulo/Mostly from Brazil and US; the number of
11 Facebook and Twitter, but minimally used.
Innovations software design clients changes depending on a year.
São Paulo. This branch is formally controlled by a US-
Brazil
Platforms and digital More than based entity. No office is however established in the US. The company has a Facebook, Twitter, and a
DigiPlatform
games provider 60 /4: 95 % of the sales comes from US; single deals with LinkedIn profile, but they are minimally used.
Canadian and Spanish companies.
Charlotte, Columbus, Detroit, Toledo/80 % of sales
Advertising & Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and
AdBrand 46 comes from US; foreign customers mainly from Europe
communication website, online blogs.
and specifically from Germany.
United
The company mainly uses YouTube and created
States Ohio/Uncountable as the software works with
an own podcast. It also has a Facebook,
JanSoftware Software provider 50 downloads. Foreign customers mainly from Europe and
Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter profile, but
Australia. Sales also in south America and Africa.
they are minimally used.

3. Results
For the purposes of this study, we selected ten companies. For rea­
sons of confidentiality, the companies were assigned fictitious names
representing the main activity of the firm. Table 4 presents a detailed
summary of the key information regarding the companies under
investigation.
Using the grounded-theory method, when conducting the interviews
with the companies, we based our initial questions on the seven steps of
selling elaborated by Dubinsky (1980)/(1981). However, when talking
with the firms’ representatives, we noticed that these phases were not
clearly distinguishable, but were blended and adapted to the needs of
agility and effectiveness that these service SMEs face in their daily op­
erations. As a result, the sales process seemed to merge and focus around
three main phases, that in this study we refer to as: identification of new
business opportunities, persuasion, and relationship management. The
identification of new business opportunities involves prospecting, estab­
lishing initial contacts with customers—often referred to as approaching
in the extant sales literature (Dubinsky, 1980/1981)—and needs dis­
covery. The second phase is persuasion and includes steps such as sales
presentations, negotiations, and closing the deal. The process eventually
ends with a third phase, relationship management, which involves steps
such as follow-up and relationship building. This conceptualization also
seems to be supported by a textbook identifying three main sales phases
in international selling (Guenzi & Geiger, 2011).
3.1. Communication tool selection in the B2B sales process
The following sections analyze how the ten companies deployed
social media, digital, and traditional sales communication tools in their
sales process.
Table 5 includes a systematic description derived from the empirical
evidence of the selection of sales communication tools by each of the
analyzed firms during the three main phases of the sales process: iden­
tification of new business opportunities, persuasion, and relationship
management. The table is useful to grasp how the B2B sales process is
carried in different firms, and it highlights the sales communication
tools predominantly used. Such information is relevant for building the
framework of the integrated use of sales communication tools in the B2B
sales process of international SMEs.
3.2. Identification of new business opportunities
3.2.1. Similar evidence from firms from Italy, Finland, and Poland
Our analysis showed that, when trying to identify new business op­
portunities, all the firms we interviewed from Finland, Italy, and Poland
relied on social media tools. The marketing manager of BankServe
commented on this point as follows:
Social media is our main channel for sales. We do not really have a
separate sales unit, so marketing basically takes care of the early
parts of building awareness, getting attention, getting people to sign
up, and then it moves on to our support and engagement team.
This approach seems to facilitate customer engagement when
seeking national and international prospects and shows how the firm
integrates social media, used when identifying prospects, with digital
tools, used in the next phase of the sales process. What is particularly
noticeable in all these cases is that social media platforms, such as
Facebook, Twitter and, to a lesser degree, Instagram, are used to create
brand awareness, reduce uncertainty about the company and build trust
in international markets. The marketing manager of ContentMKT com­
mented on this issue as follows:
If, for example, we go to someone and we try to sell something to
him, this person will go and check what ContentMKT is. Who are
these people? He will go to our website, he will go to our Facebook
page to see and validate that we actually are a trustworthy company
[…] that we actually exist.
The presence of companies on social media platforms triggers re­
quests about the product/service, its price and features from interna­
tional prospects and therefore increases sales opportunities. This is in
line with previous research, which has found communication via social
media to be likely to reduce the uncertainty of prospects about the firm
and distinguish it from its competitors (Fischer & Reuber, 2014). Our
analysis also showed that the usage of social media such as LinkedIn
becomes pronounced in the companies’ continuous search for prospects

6
S. Fraccastoro et al.
Table 5
Communication tools selection in the three main phases of the international sales process of the firms interviewed.
1. Identification of new business opportunities
BankServe III: Prevalence of social media.
(Finland)
Usage of different social media (Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter) as engagement
and communication tools and as a major method
to acquire new customers. The company shares
content on social media and on its own blog
relevant for prospects dealing with business
finances. Once the prospects visit the social media
pages of the company, the firm commences re-
targeting activities through banners and pop-up
ads, aiming at addressing the leads on the
company’s website. Prospects interested in the
service send direct requests via Facebook and the
company’s website. The company has no face-to-
face contact with prospects.
SaveFood (Finland) III: Prevalence of social media.
Restaurants interested in using the service send
their requests via social media or through a
dedicated section on the company’s website called
“application.” On the national level, the company
conducts traditional market research on potential
leads and meets them face-to-face. When personal
meetings are not possible, the firm sends emails or
calls prospective customers.
The company rarely participates in fairs.
AdvertiseMe (Italy) III: Prevalence of social media.
The company mainly uses LinkedIn to find
international prospects. The tool provides contact
information of the key persons in the prospective
firm and a list of personal connections between the
employees of the two companies. In case of mutual
connections, sales people attempt to directly
approach the prospect. Whenever this is not
possible, the first contact is carried out via
LinkedIn. The tool is also used for needs discovery,
to grasp what the prospect is doing and how
AdvertiseMe could respond to their needs. Where
it has a sales office (see Table 4 for details) the
firm mainly conducts pre-sales activities offline.
Prospects interested in the company’s services
send direct requests via social media (Facebook)
or via email.
VideoAd (Italy) III: Prevalence of social media.
Salespeople have traditionally conducted this
phase via traditional communication tools. Since
July 2016, the company introduced Internet-
based software which analyses the
communication needs of potential customers. The
software collects and analyses big data generated
from social media platforms. LinkedIn is used as a
direct lead generation tool, but only as a minor
source. Prospects interested in the service send
direct requests via social media and the company’s
website.
The company attends national and international
fairs. However, the number of leads generated at
these events is not significant.
ContentMKT III: Prevalence of social media.
(Poland)
The company searches for new prospects via
LinkedIn. This helps the company to gain contact
information for the key persons to contact in the
prospective company. The company also shares
relevant content on social media and on the
company’s blog for prospects and customers. This
encourages prospects to send requests via the
company’s Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and
through a dedicated section on the company’s
website called “Get in touch with us.”
2. Persuasion
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
Once the prospects visit the company’s website,
they are encouraged to sign up and receive more
information about the service. At this point, the
sales team sends a series of emails providing
relevant support articles and information
concerning the service. The prospects can
independently close the deal and pay online.
The firm does not meet the prospects, unless they
ask for a meeting.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
Sales presentations are conducted online, such as
on Google Hangouts. The company uses the
Internet to assist those prospects who express
interest in the company’s services via its website.
Sales presentation and negotiation are conducted
face-to-face, where the company has sales offices.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
The company replies on requests coming via
social media and the company website. Face-to-
face sales presentations are conducted where the
company has sales locations. If there is a
likelihood of closing more than a single deal and
creating a long-lasting relationship with the
customers, the company prefers face-to-face
meetings also in countries where there are no
sales branches. In the remaining cases, sales
presentations are done via Skype.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
Sales meetings with prospects are carried out
face-to-face in the countries where the firm has
sales locations, otherwise sales people travel to
meet the prospects or use Skype or Google
Hangouts to hold an online meeting. The choice
also depends on the prospect’s perceived
potential. During the sales presentation, the same
software used to identify potential customers is
deployed to present the content of the video
strategy to the prospect. In addition, the company
owns a dual-sided marketplace platform, where
video creators and brands meet to offer and buy
video strategies. In this case, the presentation is
completely online, and it does not require
intervention of the salespeople.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
Having acquired contact information via
LinkedIn, salespeople send a “general or
personalized proposal” via normal email. Price
adjustments and other details are discussed via
phone.
7
International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
3. Relationship Management
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
When using web-services, the firm sends pop-up
notifications and automated emails to check if the
clients need assistance. The company uses
webinars to train customers on the use of the
product. A small support team mainly replies to
questions from clients via phone calls and emails.
The company uses an internal database to segment
data coming from customers.
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
The company uses a CRM tool to organize post-
sales activities with customers. Moreover, internal
software collects and monitors data on the
customer’s activities and provides feedback to
SaveFood. The company meets face-to-face
mainly with key accounts. This is done less
frequently with transactional customers (every
three months).
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
The company uses Skype and normal email
correspondence in the relationship with
customers. However, phone calls and face-to-face
meetings are preferred with key accounts. With
the top clients, the company tries to build a very
personal relationship and to increase the level of
customer service. The company does not own a
key account management team, but relationships
with customers are split between the employees
geographically.
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
A specialized team analyses reports from a CRM
tool and contacts customers. Phone calls and
emails are used to contact transactional
customers, while face-to-face meetings are
preferred for key account customers. VideoAd
evaluates which customers are key accounts
depending on the size of the deals and perceived
future operations. However, the company is trying
to reduce costs by reducing the numbers of
meetings with clients.
III: Prevalence of social media.
The needs of existing transactional customers are
managed via a CRM tool. Face-to-face meetings
with key accounts are held every two months with
a dedicated account manager. Moreover, the
company shares accounts of successful work done
for customers on social media and on the
company’s website.
(continued on next page)
S. Fraccastoro et al. International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776

Table 5 (continued )
1. Identification of new business opportunities 2. Persuasion 3. Relationship Management

SM-Analytics III: Prevalence of social media.
(Poland)
The firm shares content marketing on its own
social media pages (Facebook, Twitter), on the
company’s blog and on public blogs (Quora). The
content of the posts is of great use to the prospects,
who are attracted to the company’s website and
get a free trial of the software. Moreover, the
company posts paid ads on Google Displayer,
which attract international customers. Traditional
sales activities such as prospecting and meeting
potential customers were initiated in 2016, but
they were unsuccessful. The company participated
in some international fairs. However, these were
considered too costly and risky, given the high
participation fees and travel expenses. They
seldom provided good business opportunities.
DeltaInnovations I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
(Brazil) tools.
The firm prefers to identify new business
opportunities through a face-to-face approach,
especially when attending fairs and events. When
the company receives enquiries via email, the CEO
travels to meet the prospects.
DigiPlatform I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
(Brazil) tools.
The identification of new business opportunities
happens only face-to-face. The firm attends a
number of international fairs and events on
gaming annually. On these occasions, the CEO
employs his established networks to meet new
prospects and to introduce his company. Referrals
from previous customers attending the same
events play a further important role.
AdBrand (United II: Prevalence of digital tools.
States)
The firm relies on relationships with existing
customers and other business partners to generate
new business opportunities. An ABM tool is used
as integrative mean to generate further leads.
Potential customers showing larger buying
potential are met face-to-face.
JanSoftware II: Prevalence of digital tools.
(United States)
The firm promotes itself through search engine
optimization, Google Advertisements, YouTube
Videos and a Podcast. When online users click on
the advertised links, a CRM tool notifies the firm’s
personnel, who approach them. The firm attends
trade shows at the national level and sometimes
uses a third party to generate leads for their
behalf. Potential customers showing larger buying
potential are met face-to-face.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
Once prospects visit the company’s website, they
are approached via live chat or email by
salespeople working in the firm.
Prospects are invited to try a two-week fully
functional free trial. During the free trial period,
salespeople provide assistance to the prospects on
the features of the product and try to convert
them into customers, by offering upgraded
versions of the software.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
The terms of the contract are generally discussed
face-to-face during fairs and events. In other
cases, the CEO prepares a tailor-made
presentation and travels to meet potential
customers and to negotiate the terms of the
agreement. When this is not possible, the
communication happens via phone or Skype,
especially with more distant prospects.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
Future projects with prospects are discussed
during fairs and events. In the majority of the
cases, the terms of deals are closed via Skype or
phone. When possible, the CEO or some of the
employees travel to meet prospects and negotiate
the terms of the deal.
II:Prevalence of digital tools
The communication to closing deals happens by
emails and phone calls. For prospects showing
greater business potential face-to-face meetings
are preferred.
II: Prevalence of digital tools.
The firm leverages the contact information of the
online users provided by the CRM tool to
approach the potential customers via email, text
messages, or phone calls. The firm proposes a web
demonstation, after which it issues an official
proposal that is discussed over online meetings,
emails, or phone calls.
III: Prevalence of social media.
Once it has acquired customers, the firm organizes
all relationship-management activities through a
CRM software program. Clients are updated about
the product and new features via email. The firm
meets transactional customers only if they require
a meeting. Meetings with key accounts are held
once a year. Flight trips to meet international key
accounts are limited to rare and exceptional cases.
When deals with important customers are
concluded, the company shares relevant
information on social media and its own website,
with the slogan “they trusted us.”
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
The company uses a CRM tool to manage
relationships with transactional customers. The
CEO has a direct relationship with key accounts,
to whom he offers product upgrades.
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
The firm does not use any CRM software. Every
customer has a specific project manager or
technical leader who has followed the client since
the first sales phases. The CEO directly manages
relationships with key account customers.
Communication happens either via phone or
Skype.
I: Prevalence of traditional sales communication
tools.
The company uses phone calls, online conference
tools and normal email correspondence in the
relationship with customers. However, face-to-
face meetings are preferred with key accounts.
The key account managers are free to chose the
way to communicate with the clients.
II:Prevalence of digital tools.
The firm mainly uses a CRM tool to managing
existing relationships with clients. A customer
support team and an account mangement team
personally serve customers that need technical
assistance and key account customers.

(AdvertiseMe, ContentMKT, VideoAd). By providing specific contact
information, which can be used to approach other firms, LinkedIn seems
to be particularly useful as a lead generation tool and networking means
(see also Sigfusson & Chetty, 2013). It is used to discover prospects’
needs and to obtain specific knowledge about a company. The sales
managers of AdvertiseMe commented on the use of LinkedIn as follows:
When you search for companies, it will come up with the name, of
course, with the link in Google, and there are a few lines of text,
which is sometimes the best summary of what the company actually
does […]. So, LinkedIn can be useful for getting down the details.
Additionally, it is good for finding companies that are related to
these other companies and the same goes for contacts. So, who has
what job role, where are they based, who are they linked to, how am I
linked to them.
The information gathered from the deployment of social media, can
be leveraged to formulate specific sales solutions for the prospects’
needs. This can later be exploited during the persuasion phase of the
sales process. Our analysis showed that the results were consistent with
our case companies from Italy, Finland, and Poland, which actively used
social media and digital tools to promote themselves and to generate
leads. This corroborates previous literature, which finds that frequent
use of social media and a presence on numerous platforms are likely to
trigger microblogging WOM, which encourages early product adoption
and improves a company’s profitability (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2015).
The firms also used traditional sales tools to generate leads. Besides
the least-adopted traditional method of door-to-door prospecting of
businesses (used mainly by SaveFood in their national sales), all the
companies had taken part in international fairs. This traditional sales
method appeared to generate fewer leads than searching for prospects

8
S. Fraccastoro et al.
via social media. Most of the interviewees expressed concerns over the
high cost of participation. The CEO of SM-Analytics commented on this
aspect as follows:
Internationally, we participated in a couple of fairs […]. It was very
costly. It always resulted in some feedback, and sometimes it resulted
in some clients, but only after some time. So, it did not pay off and it
is time consuming and quite risky, because we need to invest quite a
lot to participate there. In terms of fees, travel, expenses and so on.
Maybe we will do it once or twice, especially if we get a very good
offer, but I do not attach much to it.
Acquiring customers through this method seems to be beneficial for
the firms, but is linked to the fair’s timeframe and therefore limited by it.
Our findings show that social media is generally preferred in the
continuous search for prospects, while participation in fairs and tradi­
tional sales prospecting activities are limited to isolated events.
3.2.2. Contradictory evidence from American and Brazilian firms
The insights gathered from the interviews with the American and the
Brazilian companies showed their preference for face-to-face interaction
and digital tools when seeking prospects. Social media was not seen as a
feasible method for identifying new business opportunities. The business
director of DigiPlatform, commented on this aspect as follows:
We do not use [social media], because we feel that our investments
would bring more revenue in terms of using a face-to-face approach.
We do not see social media as a strategy that could bring qualified
leads to us.
The CEO of DeltaInnovations was also skeptical about utilizing social
media to identify customers and he commented on the company’s
identification of new business opportunies as follows:
Our experience is that we have to be close to the customer, in order to
give him the reliability […] our customers must know that we have
the answers to their questions and in general we do this face-to-face.
We do not prospect them by using digital [media]. Also, foreign
companies find us via some international events that we have been
part of.
The companies we interviewed from Brazil apparently prefer a per­
sonal approach to prospecting. Relationship building with prospect
companies mostly happens at international fairs and events, where the
firm exploits its CEO’s personal networks or leverages referrals from
previous customers attending the same event.
Also, the firms from the United States that we interviewed were
doubtful about the use of social media tools to identify new business
opportunities, rather they used these tools for promotional activities.
The head of sales of AdBrand commented on the promotional use of
social media as follows: “We do use social media to amplify our content,
to distribute our content. And by virtue that we do have the opportunity
to generate leads from people that find our content. But that’s not its
primary focus.” The director of sales of JanSoftware commented on the
identification of new business opportunities as follows:
We don’t put as much effort into the social media aspect of it, as we
do search engine optimization. So, we want people to see the prod­
ucts and not necessarily be bombarded with spam on social media,
because that’s often how it’s viewed.
Instead, these firms prefer to rely on digital tools such as customer
relationship management (CRM) tools and those enabling account based
marketing (ABM) to identify new business opportunities. Moreover,
when possible, they try to build personal relationships with the potential
customers, and to bundle these activities with those carried online. The
head of sales of AdBrand commented on this aspect as follows:
9
International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
There are thousands of companies that do what we do. Because of
that, we rely on relationships to lead us to other relationships.
Obviously, we look for our current clients to as referral sources. We
also have developed a handful of cooperative partnerships with other
organizations or associations that lead us to opportunities. […] Also,
we implement an ABM process, so we have a group of targeted ac­
counts that match up well with what we do. Most of those, we don’t
have any existing relationship with, or any connectivity with. We
have an integrated approach to try to penetrate their organization.
That can involve a series of everything from email, to outbound
phone calls, to direct mail to digital advertising to social media
interaction, that we do targeted around that group of prospects.
From this quote, it is evident that, with the exception of social media,
the firms integrate various activities that range from those carried out in
online endeavors to building personal relationships through a face-to-
face approach to reach potentially interested prospects. The choice not
to leverage social media when identifying new business opportunities,
though, seems to affect the ability to reach international prospects,
which is evident from the growth of those companies relying on tradi­
tional sales tools in international markets. Such firms tend to be rela­
tively small (e.g. the Brazilian ones) and to serve customers in fewer
countries than their more digitally-oriented counterparts. Both the
American and the Brazilian firms mostly sell to the United States. Hence,
it seems that firms make strategic decisions on whether to apply specific
sales communication tools to identify new business opportunities. Using
social media offers an opportunity to continuously engage with more
geographically-dispersed prospects while traditional sales communica­
tion tools are preferred when establishing closer cooperation with
prospects and during isolated events. Firms from different countries tend
to implement different models, however, they fit their strategic needs. In
sum, social media and digital communication are effective tools to
identify new prospects. However, there may be context limitations.
From our sample, it appeared that various communication tools may not
be as effective, or may be slower to be adopted, in countries where
personal relationships are critically important in communication and
business.
3.3. Persuasion
As firms embarked on the persuasion phase, including steps such as
presentation and negotiation, our analysis showed that all the firms that
relied on social media when identifying prospects, tended to shift to­
ward other digital sales communication tools, such as email and online
conference meetings tools. Even the companies from Brazil who relied
on face-to-face interaction for identifying new business opportunities
used digital sales communication tools at this stage. Hence, the results
were similar for all investigated firms independent of their origin and
testify an integration of different sales communication tools, not only
happening within the same process phase, but also across them. The
information gathered in the preliminary phase of the B2B sales process
either via social media, digital, or traditional sales communication tools,
was leveraged by all the companies to shape tailored offers for their
prospects by using digital sales communication tools. The data scientist
of one of the interviewed companies (VideoAd) commented on this
aspect as follows:
We prepare an online presentation. When presenting, we will explain
to the prospect how we found his needs and exactly what his needs
are. We will then evaluate the most suitable alternative with him to
cover his needs and propose a video strategy [product solution], and
then we will directly negotiate the terms.
It can be argued that anticipating the prospects’ needs by interacting
online and carefully planning a customized proposal allows firms to save
precious time that is appreciated also by their counterparts. Therefore, a
customized offer increases the likelihood of closing the deal and is
S. Fraccastoro et al.
particularly important in B2B relationships given the highly collabora­
tive nature of such interaction (Tuli, Kohli, & Bharadwaj, 2007) and in
which the seller commonly tries to adapt the offer to the customer’s
needs (Terho, Eggert, Haas, & Ulaga, 2015).
Our analysis also showed that in the persuasion phase of the B2B
sales process, the firms preferred to establish a personal relationship,
which goes beyond the filtered interaction initiated in social media and
supplements the digital communication when possible. The head of sales
of one of the companies (AdvertiseMe) commented on this aspect as
follows:
The key thing, really, is to find out who the right person to speak to is
at the company you have identified that you want to talk to, and to
get their telephone number or their email address. If you know
somebody who knows this person, then it is better than LinkedIn. If
you want to be as personal as possible, the best way to do that is
through personal relationships.
In the case of the American firms who manage large portfolios of
prospects, the use of CRM and ABM tools facilitated the employees in
having personal interaction with the prospects by providing records of
previous conversations. This was found to be useful when negotiating
the details of a deal and building personal relationships. The director of
sales of JanSoftware commented on this aspect as follows:
We have a CRM that helps us documenting our conversation with a
prospect…Not only are you documenting the things that they’re
interested in, in terms of business, but also, things from a personal
standpoint. When you have a few thousand potential prospects, it’s
almost humanly impossible to remember the fine-eyed details about
the things that they’re looking for. With our voice-over-internet
phone system, we can record those conversations. So, we have the
ability to listen back and hear some of their main points ... that the
next time we can refer to. We can be genuine in our approach and
kind of almost becoming a trusted advisor to that person, versus just
a sales person.
The reduction of social media use and the resulting increase in the
adoption of digital sales communication tools and personal contact,
confirms theoretical findings calling for the involvement of salespeople
in B2B selling (see Homburg, Müller, & Klarmann, 2011; Palmatier
et al., 2008).
The perceived potential of the prospect and its sales location will
determine whether the presentation phase will happen through a face-
to-face meeting or via digital sales communication tools. Our analysis
showed that in countries where the company has a sales location, face-
to-face meetings are usually preferred to meetings conducted via the
Internet. Indeed, most of the analyzed firms (ContentMKT, VideoAd,
AdvertiseMe and SaveFood) have sales locations in multiple countries.
The data scientist of one of the interviewed companies (VideoAd)
remarked on this aspect as follows: “So far, it has been a rather tradi­
tional way of selling and usually our salespeople travel. We have
branches, where we carry out purely commercial activities.” However,
meeting personally is not always possible because of geographically
dispersed locations and very often busy schedules. In these cases,
Internet-based applications allowing virtual meetings with prospects,
such as Skype and Google Hangouts, or merely email exchanges simplify
the presentation and negotiation phases of the sales process. In our data
analysis, this was especially common in countries where the company
did not have any physical presence, or if it was too costly to travel to.
The head of sales of AdvertiseMe commented on the usefulness of such
tools as follows: “Skype is a really good tool which wasn’t available ten
years ago. If you happen to have conference calls and things like that, it
is so much easier these days.”
More digitalized tools also seem to be used in this phase of the sales
process. For example, besides using normal presentation tools, one of the
case firms (VideoAd) deployed a dual-sided marketplace platform,
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where video creators and brands meet to respectively offer and buy
video strategies [the product]. In this case, the presentation happens
completely online, and the customer can cherry-pick the best available
alternative. Moreover, in two other firms (SM-Analytics and BankServe)
the presentation and negotiation phases happen on the companies’
websites. This is possible given the highly digitalized nature of the ser­
vice they provide. The prospects, indeed, can simply visit the company’s
website, sign up, access the product, and pay for it via the Internet.
Through this, the salespeople offer their help to the interested prospects
via chat-boxes and customized emails. This allows the company to
operate at low cost and quickly serve many prospects.
To summarize, we found that when trying to convert prospects into
customers, the use of email, CRM tools, online meeting platforms and, to
a lesser extent, traditional sales communication interaction increases;
social media platforms are solely used to reply to sales requests coming
from prospects. The selection of the media will be primarily motivated
by the sales location of the firm, and, to a lesser degree, by the perceived
potential of the prospect. Specifically, the firms studied revealed that in
the countries where they owned a sales branch, face-to-face meetings are
usually preferred, as it happens in the domestic sales of the American
firms. In cases other than this, digital sales communication tools
replaced personal meetings and boosted sales in foreign countries where
the firm was not physically present, or which were too costly to travel.
3.4. Relationship management
Once the deal is closed, the firms generally move toward the last
phase of the sales process: relationship management. Successful ex-post
sales activities have traditionally been identified in salesperson behav­
iors aimed at monitoring, stabilizing, and developing the relationship
with profitable customers (Moncrief & Marshall, 2005). The relationship
management phase is particularly important both for assessing customer
satisfaction, which helps test the quality of the service, and to gain re­
ferrals for future sales. Previous literature demonstrates that the rela­
tionship management phase of the sales process is likely to help retain
two typologies of customer: transactional customers (Homburg, Schäfer,
& Schneider, 2012) and strategic accounts (often referred to as key ac­
counts in B2B markets, see McDonald, Millman, & Rogers, 1997). The
analysis of the data at our hand clarified a tendency of the investigated
firms in integrating various sales communication tools to best manage
post-sales relationships.
3.4.1. Similar evidence from firms from Italy, Finland, Brazil, and the
United States
The analysis reported on here identifies the use of a CRM tool by the
case companies during the ordinary operational activities of monitoring
and controlling customer use of and satisfaction with the firm’s service.
A CRM tool provides information on the customers and may be sup­
ported by internal databases and additional software providing statistics
and analyzing internal data (see data from BankServe, SaveFood,
AdvertiseMe, and JanSoftware).
However, it was evident that when managing relationships with
customers, the potential for a long-lasting and strategic partnership
played a major role in determining which tools to use upon completion
of a business transaction. As the data scientist from VideoAd mentioned:
We have some internal criteria to differentiate customers, according
to the likelihood of them making a purchase and from a revenue
perspective […]. It is more likely that we will meet face-to-face with
key account customers, while with the transactional ones we will
communicate more by phone or email.
Using email and direct interaction via a CRM system or internal
databases with transactional customers seems to be a trend confirmed in
all the companies. The only exception was one of the Brazilian firms
(DigiPlatform) where the business director commented on the
S. Fraccastoro et al.
relationship management of clients as follows:
We do not have a system, like a CRM. I think that it is more like a
tailor-made relationship and customer care with these customers. So,
we try to find the best person who would fit with the client.
In post-sales relationships with strategic customers, we found the
studied firms preferred face-to-face meetings. The marketing manager of
ContentMKT commented on this point:
The relationship with the key accounts happens face-to-face, no
matter whether they are in Dubai, Germany, or Poland. We have
face-to-face meetings once every two months. A key account for us is
a client where we see bigger potential than 1, 2, or 3 projects over the
period of a year. We now have something like three key accounts in
ContentMKT and the special treatment is that they receive a dedi­
cated account manager, so they do not have to jump from one project
manager to the other.
The choice of not only meeting face-to-face but providing strategic
customers with good service was also highlighted by the CEO of Del­
taInnovations, who testified: “When I meet key accounts, I offer tech­
nologies for the evolution of their products. I do not do that with every
account.” This strategic behavior is explained by the need for a quan­
tifiable improvement of the service with key accounts (Davies & Ryals,
2014).
The analysis revealed that the American firms used traditional sales
communication tools not only to manage post-sales relationships with
strategic accounts, as the head of sales of AdBrand reported: “If it is a key
account, we are going to do whatever we can to be face-to-face with
them occasionally, but we also meet with them every other week on
online meetings”. We found the other American firm to use a personal
approach with those customers that demonstrate a higher need for
technological advice. For them and also for key account customers, the
firm uses traditional sales tools by employing a customer support team
and a key account team. The director of sales of JanSoftware explained
the approach as follows:
Assume in the most professional and kind way possible, that in­
dividuals are not tech savvy. And that’s where we come in. It is by
embracing that mindset with every customer. We’re here to guide
you every step of the way. We’re here to make sure that you feel
comfortable navigating our software. And if you don’t, give us a call!
3.4.2. Contradictory evidence from firms from Poland
The company analysis moreover revealed that the firms from Poland
used social media to manage post-sales relationships more actively than
the other firms. Polish companies, for instance, published news about
previous projects with existing customers and successful business cases
on social media and on the companies’ websites. This inconsistency in
using social media in the customer relationship management stage may
be attributable to Poland’s innovation in technology use (e.g. Poland-­
Digital-Technologies, 2020 https://www.export.gov/article?id=Pol
and-Digital-Technologies). This type of activity was put in place to
strengthen the relationship with the clients, as the CEO of ContentMKT
explains:
There are some, I would say maybe 20 % of cases, where our clients
are happy to prepare the case study with us. Because this is a
document that you can print, and it gives some kind pride and glory.
So, our clients could report it to their managers and show how suc­
cessful they were.
The current analysis of the relationship-management phase of the
sales process indicates that the firms combined traditional (e.g. face-to-
face meetings) and digital sales communication tools. The size of the
deals closed and the potential of a future business relationship with the
same clients dictated the selection of the means of interaction and the
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International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
resources invested by the company. Specifically, we found that the face-
to-face interaction largely preferred with strategic customers, gradually
disappeared in the management of relationships with transactional
customers. When dealing with less strategic clients, the firms preferred
more economical sales communication tools such as email. Firms from
Poland moreover tended to use social media to manage after-sales re­
lationships. This not only favored the firms in enhancing post-sales
communication with existing customers, and in retaining them, but it
also increased the firms’ visibility on social media and triggered the
possibility of mining new business opportunities, thanks to the user-
generated comments on their social media posts. In sum, it appears
that the use of more traditional sales communication tools is preferred
but can be supplemented (even replaced) whit digital sales communi­
cation tools. However, there are boundary conditions on traditional
sales communication tools use for relationship management, possibly
based on how progressive the technology environment is.
4. Discussion and proposition development
Recent research has analyzed the use of social media marketing with
traditional and digital advertising on consumer spending, cross-buying
behavior, and brand performance by analyzing their synergistic effects
(Kumar et al., 2016, 2017). Understanding also how companies oper­
ating in B2B markets use these tools in relation to their sales functions,
may help such firms to clarify the mechanisms underpinning successful
sales and enterprise growth.
The grounded-theory approach of this study identified three main
phases of a sales process for international SMEs operating in the service
industry, namely: identification of new business opportunities, persua­
sion, and relationship management. However, in other industries or
larger companies, this abbreviated selling process should be tested
against the seven steps proposed by Dubinsky, 1980/1981. The
conceptualized selling process moves from engaging prospects, through
transforming them into paying customers and building transactional or
strategic business relationships with the clientele.
Based on the grounded-theory method and utilizing our empirical
findings, we develop a framework of the integrated use of sales
communication tools during the B2B sales process of international SMEs,
which represent a first step toward a future and deeper understanding of
this under-researched phenomenon (Fig. 1).
Our empirical analysis showed the existence of two different levels of
integrated use of sales communication tools during a B2B sales process:
(i) those happening within each phase of the sales process, and (ii) those
happening across the sales process phases. We found that the analyzed
firms tried to benefit from both levels of use, but to different extents.
With the constantly growing adoption of social media and digital
sales communication tools by B2C companies, B2B companies are
starting to exploit these tools for their business purposes (see Rapp et al.,
2013; Lawrence, Crecelius, Scheer, & Patil, 2019), however they seem to
be somewhat less advanced in implementation than their B2C counter­
parts (Michaelidou et al., 2011; Bill et al., 2020). We found that the
continuous identification of new business opportunities is supported by
the implementation of social media tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The interviews revealed that strategic
use of social media tools can reduce the costs involved in identifying new
business opportunities and extend the group of national and interna­
tional prospects reached. Particularly, we noted that during this phase of
the sales process, some of the firms were using social media only for
promotion purposes (e.g. by sponsoring their firm over these channels)
to build awareness with and or interest by potential buyers, while others
were actually using them as purposefully-selected sales tools to reach
potential leads (e.g. by prospecting over LinkedIn). However, it has to be
noted that in both these cases, all the social media activities undertaken
by the firms were done by using the social media accounts of the com­
panies rather than those of the salespeople. Also, none of the firms had
the possibility of directly selling through social media. This helped avoid
S. Fraccastoro et al.
Fig. 1. Integrated Use of Sales Communication Tools in the B2B Sales Process.
channel conflict stemming from salespeople’s own channels, as
described by Lawrence et al. (2019), and that was not observed in our
data, deriving from interviews with B2B firms. Rather, it was evident
that integrating social media (both promotional and prospecting activ­
ities) with other sales methods was considered to be a very helpful
strategy to diversify the efforts of the firms in identifying new business
opportunities.
The implementation of social media tools meant the firms studied
were able to unobtrusively gather accurate information on prospects and
their specific needs (Andzulis et al., 2012); moreover, they could obtain
particular information to leverage to shape precise and needs-centered
sales presentations. By interacting via social media, these firms
enhanced their networking opportunities with prospective business
partners (see Sigfusson & Chetty, 2013) and triggered microblogging
WOM about the company’s quality and distinctiveness (Fischer &
Reuber, 2014; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2015). Social media were strate­
gically used in combination with digital and traditional sales commu­
nication tools (e.g., emails, cold-calling and face-to-face interaction at
trade fairs). Particularly, the latter method was connected to isolated
events or some of the national sales and was thus deployed less
frequently to exploit new business opportunities. It therefore appears
that firms seek greater prospect engagement by integrating social media,
digital, and traditional sales communication tools within the first phase
of a B2B sales process.
However, our analysis did reveal that the Brazilian firms were not
utilizing the sales communication tools the same way in this stage.
Perhaps due to the relationship-oriented nature of the culture (e.g.
Hofstede, 2003), or other exogenous variables, there is a boundary
condition on social media use during the identification of new business
opportunities, which should be investigated further.
When trying to convert the engaged prospects into paying customers,
we noticed that the scope of operations shrinks and becomes narrower,
and persuasion activities are undertaken through the direct intervention
of salespeople (Homburg et al., 2011; Palmatier et al., 2008) either
through digital or traditional communication tools. Nevertheless, and
despite the collaborative relationship of B2B sales (Tuli et al., 2007)
these companies rely heavily on digital tools such as email and online
meeting platforms to manage geographically distant partners and sales
opportunities that they do not consider strategic (Rogers, 2011). The
smaller scope of the model (see Fig. 1) suggests a sales funnel, where not
12
International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776
all the business opportunities actualize into sales. To increase sales,
these firms sought to combine traditional sales communication tools
with digital ones during the persuasion phase of the B2B sales process.
Salespeople became personally involved in pursuing very promising
opportunities and those in territories where the firm had a sales unit.
Interestingly, there were two important factors in determining
whether the salespeople communicated through digital communication
tools or more traditional tools: geographical location of the prospective
customers and their strategic importance. We show these factors as
potential boundary conditions in our framework. Therefore, we can
claim that integrating sales communication tools when trying to convert
prospects into paying customers allows the firm to manage negotiation
activities with potential clients who may have differing strategic
importance or geographical location.
Regarding relationship management activities, overall, firms
preferred to rely on face-to-face and personal interaction, especially
when dealing with strategic customers (McDonald et al., 1997) and with
those encountering technological bottlenecks. Moreover, we found that
traditional sales communication tools were integrated with digital ones
within this phase of the sales process to manage those post-sales re­
lationships considered transactional rather than strategic. Thus, we can
claim that integrating different sales communication tools for managing
post-sales activities helps B2B firm to manage transactional and strategic
relationships with their clientele and to respond to strategic needs such
as that of technological assistance.
The point depicted at the end of the sales process (Fig. 1) emphasizes
how the primary use of traditional sales communication tools during the
relationship-management phase translates into a reduced likelihood of
these firms both of retaining a broad set of existing customers and
generating a stream of new business opportunities, as it happens for
firms furtherly integrating social media tools to manage relationships
with existing partners (e.g. firms from Poland).
Like the other two stages, there is a potential boundary condition on
the use of predominantly traditional sales communications integrated
with digital tools. In two firms from Poland, the use of social media in
this final stage was prevalent. While two companies are not enough to
make a firm predication that this is a national or cultural phenomenon,
Poland may stand as a proxy for being forward thinking with technol­
ogies (e.g., Poland-Digital-Technologies, 2020 https://www.export.
gov/article?id=Poland-Digital-Technologies). As such, innovation and
S. Fraccastoro et al. International Business Review 30 (2021) 101776

efficacy with technologies could represent a boundary condition on Moncrief & Marshall, 2005) within the international business discourse,
findings regarding the integration of sales communication tools during and thus enriches an area of research where no previous studies consider
the final stage of a B2B sales process. Given the aforementioned findings, the use of social media during the sales process phases of firms coming
we suggest the following proposition: from multiple countries and targeting international markets (Hudson
et al., 2016; Johnston et al., 2018). Furthermore, the study contributes
Proposition 1. An integrated use of sales communication tools within the
to integrated marketing and multichannel marketing literature (Hom­
B2B sales process phases helps firms developing their scope of business in
burg et al., 2020), as well as to social media literature because it is the
terms of geographical distance and typology of customer relationship.
first to reveal the methods used by international SMEs to integrate social
Moreover, we noticed that the integration of different sales media with digital and traditional sales communication tools within and
communication tools across the various sales process phases helped the across the B2B sales process phases. The study further clarifies how firms
firms to be more dynamic and to move swiftly toward the completion of benefit from the use of various sales communication tools during the
a sales process. Also, it assisted them in implementing sales processes sales process, and by revealing the boundary conditions of their adop­
that would fit the specific needs of customers and prospects alike, and tion. The study provides considerations on whether the sales process
the firms’ own organizational and business culture. It can be argued that should be contextualized based on specific characteristics in different
firms use trade-offs of different sales communication tools for reasons countries and opens avenues for future research on the topic. We
related to costs savings, to strategies regarding customer acquisition, develop a framework for sales communication tool use and integration
and maintenance, or for motivations related to the geographical location within and across sales process phases for international SMEs. We pro­
of the clients (c.f. Schmid & Kotulla, 2011). For instance, in some of the pose an abbreviated sales process reflecting implementation in practice.
cases, we found the firms preferring to manage post-sales relationships The present study’s grounded-theory approach revealed that in order
with strategic customers through personal meetings, even if the sales to respond to increasing demands for agility and cost reduction, inter­
had happened through digital sales communication tools. Given the national SMEs operating in the service industry tend to follow three
aforementioned findings, we suggest the following proposition: main sales process phases: identification of new business opportunities,
persuasion, and relationship management. Our data revealed that for
Proposition 2. An integrated use of sales communication tools across the
these firms, social media is usually preferred for generating new busi­
B2B sales process phases helps firms to swiftly progress through the sales
ness opportunities, digital sales communication tools are particularly
process phases and adapt to foreign customers’ specific needs.
useful for developing their scope of business by enabling the reaching
and closing of deals with more geographically distant international
5. Conclusions and implications
customers and that traditional sales communication tools are most
employed to manage strategic customer relationships and the relation­
Literature on integrated marketing communication, marketing
ships with those clients in need of technological assistance. Further­
budget research (Naik & Peters, 2009; Naik & Raman, 2003), and
more, digital sales communication tools were found helpful in
multichannel marketing (De Haan, Wiesel, & Pauwels, 2016; Wiesel
maintaining all kind of international customers, their usefulness is
et al., 2011) has started to closely look at the integrated use of online and
especially high for transactional customers that often are overlooked
offline marketing to understand the effects generated by the adoption of
when focusing on strategic ones. Differences in the adoption of sales
various marketing and sales tools conjointly.
communication tools appeared not only within the single phases of the
In addition to traditional offline and online tools, recent studies have
B2B sales process, but also across them (see Fig. 1). It seemed that the
included social media and stressed their appropriateness to embody
international firms sought combinations of sales communication tools to
central tools for the firms’ marketing and sales functions. Models
suit their strategic needs and that would affect their likelihood of being
depicting the application and integration of social media with tradi­
successful across the different sales process phases.
tional, and digital marketing tools, and focusing on their synergistic
Moreover, our analysis revealed four possible boundary conditions,
effects for companies operating in B2C domains (Kumar et al., 2016;
including relationship culture, geographical location proximity, tech­
Kumar et al., 2017), and explaining consumer’s paths to making a
nology innovation/resources, and strategic importance of the customer
purchase (Srinivasan, Rutz, & Pauwels, 2016) therefore have spurred.
that affect the way international SMEs adapt to the foreign market
These efforts respond to clear calls for further research to understand the
context (c.f. Schmid & Kotulla, 2011) by using different communication
effects of multichannel marketing (Kumar et al., 2016; Lin, Venkatara­
tools during a sales process.
man, & Jap, 2013). Nevertheless, this field of research has largely
ignored companies operating in the international B2B domain. There­
5.1. Limitations and avenues for future research
fore, research has yet to advance theoretical understanding explaining
how social media and other sales communication tools generate sales on
A contribution of this study lies in demonstrating that the use of
international markets. This lack of research is surprising, given the
various sales communication tools differs among firms being different in
escalating adoption of these tools and their potential usefulness at both
cultural, administrative, geographical, and economic aspects (Ghema­
the managerial and the business level (Drummond, McGrath, & O’Toole,
wat, 2001). Thus, further research should consider relationship culture,
2018; Itani et al., 2017; Rapp et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2016; Bill et al.,
technology innovation/resources, location/dispersion of customers, and
2020). The need for research in multichannel communication is more­
strategic importance, as possible boundary conditions for our model.
over stressed by the general recommendations set for the period
Additional economic, cultural, and firm-level factors should also be
2020–2022 by the Marketing Science Institute’s Research (MSI, 2020).
considered. Although beyond the scope of our study, it would be inter­
More particularly, the Institute for the Study in Business Markets (ISBM,
esting to understand more about whether there is some institutional
2020) calls for a more nuanced understanding of multichannel
environment element (e.g. Meyer, Estrin, Bhaumik, & Peng, 2009) or
communication in the B2B context, given the fact that “B2B customers
cultural background (see Hofstede, 2003) shared by these countries and
increasingly search for information and seek solutions online for their
others that spur similar findings.
firms in a fashion similar to the way they shop for themselves” and also
We strongly encourage future studies stemming from firm-level is­
recent research (Homburg, Vomberg, & Muehlhaeuser, 2020) highlights
sues and connected to the aforementioned macro-topical areas, as well
the need for an improved and deeper understanding of B2B multi­
as testing of our model in other contexts (geographical, industrial, firm
channel sales.
size, etc.) and in firms originating from other countries that have a
The current research contributes to international marketing litera­
strong international market presence (e.g. China, Germany, and Japan).
ture as we bring sales process literature (Dubinsky, 1980/1981;
We acknowledge that the current study being based on qualitative data

13
S. Fraccastoro et al.
collected from ten international SMEs introduces some limitations. The
analysis allowed us to understand how and why social media, digital,
and traditional sales communication tools are used during a B2B sales
process. It enabled us to generalize our results (Yin, 1989), and to
develop a theoretical framework; however, the research would benefit
from statistical generalization through a quantitative approach.
Lastly, given the recent increase in the use of social media and digital
communication channels also in B2B markets driven by the current
pandemic -Covid-19- (McKinsey, 2020), we encourage future research in
especially looking at the sudden shift from in-person communication to
digital interaction, spurring from the disruptive changes introduced by
the pandemic and involving B2B communication.
5.2. Managerial implications
Social media and digitalized tools are critical to today’s sales process.
Their adoption is underpinned by mechanisms targeting cost reduction
and potential growth in national and international markets. These are
factors that have become crucial for the success of SMEs, which are often
resource-constrained. The B2B sales process, in particular, seems to be
deeply affected by the introduction of social media and digital
communication tools, causing radical changes to how salespeople sell.
Firms need to strategically consider the best combination of sales
channels for their unique businesses.
The usage of social media is particularly useful in improving pro­
specting on a national and international level, by helping the companies
increasingly find and reach new prospects, by saving costs, and by
lowering the risks associated with the continuous identification of new
business opportunities conducted through more traditional tools. Social
media tools are best used when integrated with digital and traditional
sales communication methods. Such integration enables firms to achieve
a larger spectrum of prospects reached. Firms should, therefore, use a
diversified spectrum of sales tools for approaching business customers.
The selection of sales communication tools should consider the context
variables prior to implementation.
As the sales process progresses, digital communication tools, such as
online conference tools seem well-suited to SMEs and help transform
prospects into paying customers, especially when these are interna­
tionally dispersed or located in countries where the firm does not own
physical branches. Despite the usefulness of digital sales communication
tools, face-to-face meetings are still preferred given the high interactive
nature of B2B buying, which calls for the involvement of salespeople.
We found that in the post-sales activity phase, digital communication
tools helped maintain relationships with transactional customers,
whereas face-to-face interaction enhanced the retention of strategic
customers. Finally, the use of social media to publicize successes and
relationships with important players strengthened both the relationship
with the customers and enhanced the company’s visibility by attracting
future business opportunities. Therefore, we also encourage interna­
tional SMEs to integrate different sales communication tools to manage
relationships with existing customers. The suitable tool will be dictated
by the nature of relationship with the customer, being strategic or
transactional.
Overall, we encourage dynamism in sales tools selection, not only
within each phase of a B2B sales process, but also across them.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the generous funding provided by Academy of
Finland, grant nbr 307483.
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