A strong personal brand in the realm of sales

Abstract

Current research on sales constantly highlights the importance of social media in new B2B selling techniques, yet there is limited research that provides quantitative insights as to how sales professionals could optimize social media to build strong personal brands. The study dives into addressing this gap by investigating the dimensions of personal branding and social media utilization with their impact on sales performance in the B2B market. Building on existing marketing literature, the research further creates understanding that personal brands for professionals can be stronger when focusing on two dimensions which are strategic and differentiation, further exploring how these two dimensions can cause a positive impact on sales outcome through strategic use of social media. By using a quantitative approach, the study has surveyed 201 European B2B sales professionals that possess active LinkedIn profiles. The results of the study validate the hypothesized model, which indicates that a strong personal brand can be built with social media which improves sales performance by increasing clients and retaining them. In practicality the research encourages sales managers and professionals to optimize personal branding through social media platforms, specifically LinkedIn to gain better sales results. The study contributes by further stating that influencer marketing strategies can extend beyond B2C markets towards B2B sales environments.

Date of Award	15 Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Božidar Vlačić (Supervisor) & Selma Kadić–Maglajlić (Co-Supervisor)