Drivers of industrial sales performance in the agent-buyer chat channel: The role of social and functional content, message valence, and synchronicity

Abstract

With retailers increasingly taking an omnichannel approach to customer engagement, the online chat has become a strategic communication platform for salesperson-organizational buyer interactions. In this research, we explore chat messages between sales agents and organizational buyers to identify which attributes are more likely to increase sales outcomes (B2B segment). Drawing from social response theory and media synchronicity theory, we develop hypotheses to understand how message content (social versus functional), message valence (positive versus negative), and message progression (synchronicity, or time between responses, and response proportion, or ratio of words typed for salesperson-buyer interactions) influence sales revenue, sales frequency, and sales conversion rates. We test this phenomenon within an auto-manufacturing firm over 714 days, where 19,817 chat conversations yielded 3433 sales. The results show that social content increased sales revenue and sales conversion rates while functional content influenced frequency. Positive message valence influenced all three outcomes while negative valence increased conversion rates. Finally, shorter response times and replies were shown to positively influence organizational buyer purchase behavior. These findings offer implications for sales organizations utilizing live sales agents in their chat platforms and present avenues for future research in this domain.