How to use social factors in B2B marketing?
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 7:06 am
After all, are social marketing factors relevant to corporate sales?
Key takeaways from this article:
It is crucial to know the style of buyers, their social media profile, their preferences and personal habits, even for complex sales .
Even if unconsciously, salespeople already adapt their sales approaches considering the cultural factors of their customers. An example of this is the difference in approach between a customer from São Paulo and a customer from Rio Grande do Sul.
Techniques such as rapport and NLP are typical examples of the use of psychological factors in sales.
Social, personal and psychological factors directly influence our behavior. Learn how to identify the behavioral profile of each salesperson and each customer in your company in: Webinar | Leadership and sales based on behavioral profile
When we talk about social factors in marketing, we are specifically referring to a specific type of the various factors that influence a customer's purchasing decisions.
These factors are divided into four types: cultural factors; social factors; personal factors and psychological factors.
Don’t have time to read the content? Would you like to be able to follow it while you drive, walk or do some other activity? Then don’t waste time and listen to this article in full. Just click play! We appreciate your feedback in the comments.
In this post, we will focus our attention on how to use social marketing factors to influence buyer behavior and leverage consultative sales , typical of B2B organizations.
What are social factors in marketing?
Social factors are a series of aspects of an individual's life that contribute to the construction of their identity, behavior and desires. These aspects involve family, professional, economic and regional issues, for example. Therefore, there are three factors that derive from social factors: cultural factors; personal factors and psychological factors.
What are cultural factors in marketing?
What experienced salesperson doesn't change their approach when dealing with a buyer from Rio Grande do Sul, a state with an extremely parochial cultural tradition; a buyer from Minas Gerais, who is always on the fence; or a buyer from São Paulo, who is in a hurry and objective?
Stereotypes and prejudices aside, cultural factors in marketing must be taken into account.
See more about this in this post: How to overcome the challenge of making a sales market plan in different regions
What are personal and psychological factors in marketing?
Personal and psychological factors include deeper conditions, and therefore vary greatly from person list of turkey cell phone numbers to person, making it almost impossible to draw a broad segmentation taking these aspects into account.
They involve experiences and preferences so particular that they often relate to past experiences that are rarely brought to light.
We have already talked several times here on the blog about the importance of knowing the style of buyers, their profile on social networks, their preferences and personal habits.
Furthermore, techniques such as rapport and NLP are typical examples of the use of psychological factors in sales.
If you want to delve deeper into these topics, you can also consult these articles, with analysis of factors that influence consumer behavior:
Sales Techniques and Psychology: 4 Types of Customers and How to Deal with Them
NLP in Sales: Achieving Powerful Sales Results
Sales rapport techniques that bring excellent results
Now that you are convinced that these three factors are part of the daily lives of experienced salespeople, let's get into the most interesting part of this text: the social marketing factors used in complex sales, in B2B marketing .
Is it possible to use social marketing factors in B2B sales?
Yes! Sociocultural factors in marketing are extremely relevant!
And we'll show you this below, including practical examples of the factors that influence consumer behavior and how to use them in B2B sales strategies.
But you may be wondering: Why focus on social values in marketing? What about the other three factors mentioned? What about psychological factors in marketing? What about social factors in marketing? Or even personal factors in marketing?
There are two reasons for this:
First: most sales professionals associate social factors with the behavior of the end consumer of products and services, and not with B2B sales. But this is not quite the case, as we will show.
Second: The truth is that most consultative salespeople already use, even if intuitively, the other three marketing factors to influence their sales.
Do you know the 6 types of customers? Check it out and understand what to expect from each one:
How to Use Social Marketing Factors in Complex Sales
According to Philip Kotler , social factors in marketing are divided into three types:
Reference groups
Roles and Status
Family
Let's understand how to use each of them in B2B sales strategies.
Reference groups
“A person’s reference groups are those that exert some direct […] or indirect influence on that person’s attitudes or behavior”
Kotler, 2000
Just by reading this sentence you must have already realized the great potential of this social marketing factor to be used in consultative sales.
To do this, you should pay attention to some interesting points:
How people are influenced by reference groups they are already part of:
These groups expose them to new behaviors
Influence attitudes and self-image
They put pressure on the person to act in accordance with certain group habits
How people are influenced by reference groups to which they do not belong:
They want to get closer to their aspirational groups , the ones they would like to be a part of.
They want distance from disaffiliating groups , those who have values they reject.
To understand how to use this in b2b sales and marketing, an example can help.
Imagine that you have already done all the consultative sales work, you know what the customer's pain points and needs are and you are sure that your solution will be the best alternative for them.
But the buyer is reluctant to close the deal.
Use references to the groups he is already a part of and those he aspires to belong to reinforce the benefits of your solution, see:
– Look, Carlos, I’ve already offered this same service package to several other IT managers, including some you know. And do you know what happened to many of those who closed the deal? Today they are IT directors!
Likewise, show that dissociative groups reject your solution:
– And what’s more, you know those people who don’t use good IT practices, who don’t follow compliance or information security standards? Well, those people never do business with me!
Of course, you can only use these types of arguments if they are true. But notice how persuasive it is!
Roles and status
We already touched on this topic a bit in the previous example of social factors in marketing, but there are other ways to use these two social marketing factors in a B2B sale.
How about suggesting to the buyer that they be the focus of a success story from their company, which will be published on the internet, showing all the advantages of using your solution and how the buyer's decision brought excellent results to the company where they work?
Another important point regarding status is that it is undeniable that every professional has that brand of their choice, that dream equipment or service that they would like to implement in their company.
If your brand has a strong image in the market, use this superior status to your advantage in sales.
Family
This is one of the strongest sociocultural factors in marketing. After all, who has never heard of family businesses?
But it is not only in these cases that the influencing role of the family on the decisions of a corporate buyer should be studied.
What the B2B seller must do to use this social marketing factor in their sales is to study the buyer's family profile to get clues about their decision-making style.
Therefore, married buyers with children tend to be more cautious and require greater convincing power from the seller to demonstrate the full value and reliability of their solution.
On the other hand, young and single buyers may be more likely to take risks and embrace innovative solutions.
Key takeaways from this article:
It is crucial to know the style of buyers, their social media profile, their preferences and personal habits, even for complex sales .
Even if unconsciously, salespeople already adapt their sales approaches considering the cultural factors of their customers. An example of this is the difference in approach between a customer from São Paulo and a customer from Rio Grande do Sul.
Techniques such as rapport and NLP are typical examples of the use of psychological factors in sales.
Social, personal and psychological factors directly influence our behavior. Learn how to identify the behavioral profile of each salesperson and each customer in your company in: Webinar | Leadership and sales based on behavioral profile
When we talk about social factors in marketing, we are specifically referring to a specific type of the various factors that influence a customer's purchasing decisions.
These factors are divided into four types: cultural factors; social factors; personal factors and psychological factors.
Don’t have time to read the content? Would you like to be able to follow it while you drive, walk or do some other activity? Then don’t waste time and listen to this article in full. Just click play! We appreciate your feedback in the comments.
In this post, we will focus our attention on how to use social marketing factors to influence buyer behavior and leverage consultative sales , typical of B2B organizations.
What are social factors in marketing?
Social factors are a series of aspects of an individual's life that contribute to the construction of their identity, behavior and desires. These aspects involve family, professional, economic and regional issues, for example. Therefore, there are three factors that derive from social factors: cultural factors; personal factors and psychological factors.
What are cultural factors in marketing?
What experienced salesperson doesn't change their approach when dealing with a buyer from Rio Grande do Sul, a state with an extremely parochial cultural tradition; a buyer from Minas Gerais, who is always on the fence; or a buyer from São Paulo, who is in a hurry and objective?
Stereotypes and prejudices aside, cultural factors in marketing must be taken into account.
See more about this in this post: How to overcome the challenge of making a sales market plan in different regions
What are personal and psychological factors in marketing?
Personal and psychological factors include deeper conditions, and therefore vary greatly from person list of turkey cell phone numbers to person, making it almost impossible to draw a broad segmentation taking these aspects into account.
They involve experiences and preferences so particular that they often relate to past experiences that are rarely brought to light.
We have already talked several times here on the blog about the importance of knowing the style of buyers, their profile on social networks, their preferences and personal habits.
Furthermore, techniques such as rapport and NLP are typical examples of the use of psychological factors in sales.
If you want to delve deeper into these topics, you can also consult these articles, with analysis of factors that influence consumer behavior:
Sales Techniques and Psychology: 4 Types of Customers and How to Deal with Them
NLP in Sales: Achieving Powerful Sales Results
Sales rapport techniques that bring excellent results
Now that you are convinced that these three factors are part of the daily lives of experienced salespeople, let's get into the most interesting part of this text: the social marketing factors used in complex sales, in B2B marketing .
Is it possible to use social marketing factors in B2B sales?
Yes! Sociocultural factors in marketing are extremely relevant!
And we'll show you this below, including practical examples of the factors that influence consumer behavior and how to use them in B2B sales strategies.
But you may be wondering: Why focus on social values in marketing? What about the other three factors mentioned? What about psychological factors in marketing? What about social factors in marketing? Or even personal factors in marketing?
There are two reasons for this:
First: most sales professionals associate social factors with the behavior of the end consumer of products and services, and not with B2B sales. But this is not quite the case, as we will show.
Second: The truth is that most consultative salespeople already use, even if intuitively, the other three marketing factors to influence their sales.
Do you know the 6 types of customers? Check it out and understand what to expect from each one:
How to Use Social Marketing Factors in Complex Sales
According to Philip Kotler , social factors in marketing are divided into three types:
Reference groups
Roles and Status
Family
Let's understand how to use each of them in B2B sales strategies.
Reference groups
“A person’s reference groups are those that exert some direct […] or indirect influence on that person’s attitudes or behavior”
Kotler, 2000
Just by reading this sentence you must have already realized the great potential of this social marketing factor to be used in consultative sales.
To do this, you should pay attention to some interesting points:
How people are influenced by reference groups they are already part of:
These groups expose them to new behaviors
Influence attitudes and self-image
They put pressure on the person to act in accordance with certain group habits
How people are influenced by reference groups to which they do not belong:
They want to get closer to their aspirational groups , the ones they would like to be a part of.
They want distance from disaffiliating groups , those who have values they reject.
To understand how to use this in b2b sales and marketing, an example can help.
Imagine that you have already done all the consultative sales work, you know what the customer's pain points and needs are and you are sure that your solution will be the best alternative for them.
But the buyer is reluctant to close the deal.
Use references to the groups he is already a part of and those he aspires to belong to reinforce the benefits of your solution, see:
– Look, Carlos, I’ve already offered this same service package to several other IT managers, including some you know. And do you know what happened to many of those who closed the deal? Today they are IT directors!
Likewise, show that dissociative groups reject your solution:
– And what’s more, you know those people who don’t use good IT practices, who don’t follow compliance or information security standards? Well, those people never do business with me!
Of course, you can only use these types of arguments if they are true. But notice how persuasive it is!
Roles and status
We already touched on this topic a bit in the previous example of social factors in marketing, but there are other ways to use these two social marketing factors in a B2B sale.
How about suggesting to the buyer that they be the focus of a success story from their company, which will be published on the internet, showing all the advantages of using your solution and how the buyer's decision brought excellent results to the company where they work?
Another important point regarding status is that it is undeniable that every professional has that brand of their choice, that dream equipment or service that they would like to implement in their company.
If your brand has a strong image in the market, use this superior status to your advantage in sales.
Family
This is one of the strongest sociocultural factors in marketing. After all, who has never heard of family businesses?
But it is not only in these cases that the influencing role of the family on the decisions of a corporate buyer should be studied.
What the B2B seller must do to use this social marketing factor in their sales is to study the buyer's family profile to get clues about their decision-making style.
Therefore, married buyers with children tend to be more cautious and require greater convincing power from the seller to demonstrate the full value and reliability of their solution.
On the other hand, young and single buyers may be more likely to take risks and embrace innovative solutions.