This PowerPoint supported the dissertation of my Master's thesis, July 2016, University of Bologna.

1. Innovative B2B sales techniques in the social
media industry: the Sales Navigator by LinkedIn
SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT AND STATISTICS
Second Cycle Degree in Direzione Aziendale – International Management
Relator: Professor Alessandro Lelli
Defendant: Carlo Sicoli – 721053
First Graduation Session: July 2016
Academic Year 2015/2016

2. 1. B2B evolution through Internet
2. LinkedIn Corporation overview
3. Practical case: the Sales Navigator by LinkedIn
4. Personal analysis & proposals
5. Future LinkedIn developments
Agenda

3. 1. B2B Evolution through Internet
Transactional sale
• Acquiring an order in the shortest
time possible
• Mostly regards commodities
• Negotiations based on price
Consultative sale
• The sales representatives act as
customer's consultants
• The initial target is understanding
the customer’s problems
Entrepreneurial sale
• The most complete one
• Seller and customer work as a
single entity sharing a common
goal
Sources:
responsewise.com
forrester.com

4. 2.LinkedIn Corporation Overview
• LinkedIn is the leading platform for
recruiting purposes.
• Targeted for HR managers of companies
Talent solutions
• Give the possibility to customer
companies of promoting contents.
• Targeted for Marketing managers
Marketing solutions
• Sales Navigator is a social selling
solution that gives sales managers the
ability to find, relate and engage leads
Sales solutions
B2B revenues
63%
19%
18%Talent
Marketing
Premium &
Sales
Slideshare (presentations)
Pulse (content publisher)
Lynda ( video-learning)
Relevantacquisitions
€ 0,00
€ 1.000,00
€ 2.000,00
€ 3.000,00
€ 4.000,00
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Revenue Growth (bln)

5. 3. Practical case: the Sales Navigator by LinkedIn
Sales Navigator software
ü It is a software offered by LinkedIn in the B2B. The main target customers are sales managers
ü Three subscription plans : Basic (35 $ per month), Professional (48 $ per month) and Team (73 $ per month)
ü Widely used in USA and Canada. In Italy, only 4.000 professionals have it
ü Social selling concept: new way of approaching the first contact. Using the social network to find & engage leads
Case development & statistical approach
1. Personal use of the Sales Navigator
2. Qualitative interview: 11 interviews with top managers using the Sales Navigator. I built through Excel a matrix
(10x11) with the most interesting info from each interview
3. Hypotheses generation: I obtained some hypotheses. The following step was confirming/rejecting those
hypotheses through the quantitative survey
4. Quantitative survey: I collected 72 quantitative surveys from managers using the Sales Navigator; I compared
the results of the quantitative survey with the previous hypotheses obtained from the qualitative interview

6. 3.1 Inside the Sales Navigator
Source: linkedIn.com

7. 1) In which way Sales Navigator facilitates your job?
Driver: facilitator
2) What the Sales Navigator brought “new” for you?
Driver: innovation
3) Do you think the price you pay is adequate?
Driver: price
4) Do you think Sales Navigator will substitute the traditional cold calling?
Driver: substitution of cold call
5) Which are the strengths of the Sales Navigator?
Driver: strengths
6) What would you improve of the Sales Navigator?
Driver: suggestions
7) Does the Sales Navigator allow you to build a real relationship with
customers/potential customers?
Driver: relationship builder
8) What about the integration of the SN with your CRM? Is it effective?
Driver: CRM integration
9) Do you think the possibility that salespeople keep the data of the Sales
Navigator for their personal purposes, not sharing it in the company CRM
system, could represent a problem? Driver: personal/professional use
10) What about the mobilization of Sales navigator?
Driver: mobilization
3.2 Qualitative interview: companies involved & questions

8. 3.3 Quantitative survey: relevant results

9. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
1 2 3 4 5
4,17% 4,17%
30,56%
43,06%
18,06%
Empowering relationship
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
1 2 3 4 5
15,28% 16,67%
50,00%
9,72% 8,33%
Effectiveness of the
integration with CRM
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
1 2 3 4 5
9,72%
2,78%
61,11%
26,39%
Overall Satisfaction
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
1
2
3
4
5
9,72%
13,89%
33,33%
43,06%
Time
saved
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1 2 3 4 5
9,72%
23,61%
38,89%
27,78%
Empowerment of business
opportunities
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
1 2 3 4 5
5,56%
13,89%
48,61%
31,94%
Empowerment of knowledge on
the target

10. LinkedIn CRM system
4. Personal analysis & proposals
PROs
o LinkedIn is becoming an “all in platform”. There are a lot of
managers that work on LinkedIn. Having everything on the
same platform can facilitate their operations
o LinkedIn could also “rediscover” the concept of CRM.
Indeed, by having it directly on the social network, more
insights and data could be added to each customer base
CONs
o The CRM industry is full of actors and some of them are
market leaders
o LinkedIn would break its partnerships with SalesForce. It
can create problems, is expensive and it can bring
enemies
HOW?
o LinkedIn has already developed different types of software.
The quality of LinkedIn engineers would allow to build CRM
o Acquiring a start-up dedicated to the CRM. In this way, a
good expertise and a young innovation can be gained
o I assume that the costs of developing internally a CRM are
higher than buying a developed CRM
PENETRATION OF THE MARKET
o LinkedIn can penetrate this market by advertising and
marketing the solution within the social network itself
o It could offer a free trial period to use the CRM solution
o Is it really possible that a company is willing to insert its
customer data on the new CRM just to try it?
Perplexities on the Social Selling concept
ü Social Selling is a new practice that still needs a traditional practice behind it à I sustain the “warm calling”
ü Competition: Inside View, Zoominfo, Salesloft,, Leadlander à LinkedIn supports lead generation with the social
ü I do not consider it a Trust builder à Do not defocus the attention from the concept of Trust

11. • Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for 26.2 billion USD
• The target is to implement the best cloud network with the best professional social network
• The Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be integrated with the LinkedIn website
• Microsoft acquired when LinkedIn was probably under evaluated on the stock market
• LinkedIn, in the short term, will remain independent from Microsoft
5. Future LinkedIn developments
Source: techcrunch.com

12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Carlo Sicoli