Social media and related technology: drivers of change in managing the contemporary sales force

William C. Moncrief, Greg W. Marshall*, John M. Rudd

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The selling environment has undergone tremendous transformation over the past 2 decades. Perhaps the greatest change has centered on changes and advancements in technology. The latest dramatic change has been the rapidly increasing use of social media and other related technologies in the business-to-business realm. The sales world began the use of technology through the use of Web 1.0, which was primarily webpage oriented; now we see the world of social media as the paradigm of how firms should implement technology. Although there has been some recent emphasis on how marketing might implement social media into their strategies and how the individual salesperson might implement social media into his or her daily selling routine, no substantive discussion on how social media is affecting the role of the sales manager has appeared in the literature. This article systematically examines how social media is impacting the sales management function and, in fact, may be dramatically revolutionizing the position. To help the marketing and sales organization better understand the changing sales world, we present eight lessons that every sales manager needs to embrace.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)45-55
Number of pages11
JournalBusiness Horizons
Volume58
Issue number1
Early online date29 Oct 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2015

Bibliographical note

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Business horizons. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Moncrief, WC, Marshall, GW & Rudd, JM, 'Social media and related technology: drivers of change in managing the contemporary sales force' Business horizons, vol. 58, no. 1 (2015) DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.09.009

Keywords

  • gamification
  • sales management
  • sales technology
  • selling
  • social media

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